Climate Food and Agriculture

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  • Michael Pollan and Maira Kalman on Food Rules [VIDEO]

    The latest, expanded edition of Michael Pollan’s book Food Rules has been brought to life by the illustrations of artist Maira Kalman. Pollan told Sarah Henry in a recent interview: I wanted to work on a more visual version of Food Rules to reach more people and continue the conversation that the first edition started. My wife and […]

    Grist staff Food

  • Incredible shrinking farmland

    Photo: Alicia Guy Joel Huesby comes from a long line of conventional farmers, but in 1994, he had what he calls an epiphany that led him to switch to organic farming. He’s of the mind that we’ll drive ourselves to extinction if we drive our farmlands that way first. “Conventional commodity agriculture, to my way […]

    Claire Thompson Agriculture

  • Most honey isn’t really honey

    Chances are, that stuff sittng in the plastic bear in your pantry doesn't technically qualify as honey. The FDA requires honey to have microscopic particles of pollen, which allow the honey to be traced to its source so regulators can be sure it comes from safe origins. But nearly all of the honey that's sold […]

    Jess Zimmerman Food

  • Small fish, big ocean: Saving Pacific forage fish

    Photo: Eric Ch A few weeks ago, we told you about the contentious debate over the fate of a tiny fish known as menhaden. Meanwhile, a similar concern is quietly surfacing over several other varieties of small “forage fish” that live along the West Coast. And by forage fish we don’t mean you’ll find them […]

    Clare Leschin-Hoar Food

  • California crusader: What not to ingest when you’re expecting

    Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]

    Andrew Leonard Agriculture

  • McRibs are made from the unhappiest pigs

    What does the McRib taste like? Gym mats? Or PIG TEARS? Meat farming is kind of the worst, but it seems the pigs who end up in McRib sandwiches are especially in need of a clever spider to rescue them. The McRib pork (who knew it had actual pork in it?!) is sourced from Smithfield […]

    Jess Zimmerman Agriculture

  • Lobstermen pinch and save [VIDEO]

    We see lobster served in fancy restaurants so often that it’s easy to forget there are places where it is caught and sold for under $3 a pound. We recently spent time in Maine — home of some of the world’s best lobsters — and familiarized ourselves with the process of catching these amazing shellfish. […]

    Daniel Klein Food

  • The peaceful side of Oakland’s port shutdown march

    See related slideshowI arrived at Occupy Oakland Wednesday a few hours before the planned march to the Port for what was supposed to be a teach-in about food justice. But by 3:30 p.m. the speakers had stopped trying to compete with the warring musical factions on either side of Frank Ogawa Plaza — hip hop […]

    Twilight Greenaway Food

  • Some Oakland occupiers have a beef with Whole Foods

    Representatives of the less-peaceful element at Occupy Oakland got wind that Whole Foods was threatening to fire employees who participated in Occupy's general strike, so they vandalized a local store. It turns out those rumors were false, but who could turn down the chance to wreck a Whole Foods? The troublemakers spray-painted the front of […]

    Jess Zimmerman Food

  • Consumers losing faith in Big Food

    Photo: Christopher Cotrell Four years ago, a coalition of agribusiness companies and industry groups, including Monsanto, the American Farm Bureau, the Midwest Dairy Council, and the National Pork Producers Council, got together to start the Center for Food Integrity (CFI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to build consumer trust and confidence in today’s food […]

    Tom Laskawy Agriculture