Climate Food and Agriculture
All Stories
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Keeping farm animals alive in a freezing Nebraska winter
Don’t let the Arctic look fool you — Thistle Root Farm is a beehive of activity. Photo: Steph LarsenSparkling snow blankets a dormant pasture, and a red barn stands out starkly against a sea of white. Winter is a beautiful season on the prairie. Everything looks quiet and peaceful, but there’s still a lot of […]
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How to milk goats in freezing weather — and make chevre [VIDEO]
On the coldest day of the year (-25 degrees F), I went milking goats with my friend Lisa Ringer from Two Pony Gardens. The milk froze to the side of the pail in an instant, but the rest came inside for cheese making. Milking on that cold morning, I never thought that holding the warm […]
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Ask Umbra Book Club: Did Paleolithic hunter-gatherers eat healthier than we do today?
Corn of plenty? Maybe not so much.Photo: Big Grey MareDearest readers, Welcome to the second day of our conversation of At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. You can catch up on yesterday’s chat here. If you have yet to get a copy of the book, jump in anyway. As a […]
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Bad food makes kids dumber, study says
Look, ma! No nutrients!Photo: Amanda WestmontA new study says 3-year-olds who mostly eat processed foods have lower IQs five years later. (So Pop-Tarts and Sunny-D are why we’re “falling behind” China in math and science?) The study, cited in The Guardian, examined the diets of 14,000 wee Britlets, based on what their parents reported feeding […]
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On eco-architecture and urban farming: Are you kidding me with your f-ing farm skyscraper?
Find a place, do some work, grow some stuff: it ain’t rocket science.Photo: Tracie LeeJust last summer, Broke-Ass was invited to speak on a panel at the New York Horticultural Society with such luminaries of the environmental architectural movement as Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of WORK Architecture Co.; Fritz Haeg, artist, Edible Estates; and […]
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Time to retire the USDA’s dietary guidelines?
Once every five years, the federal government goes to great lengths to update its recommendations for how Americans should eat. In fact, Congress mandates that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) be based on the most current science available. Yet over the years, the DGA process has been wrought with politics, which should come as […]
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Four things you can do to defend organic against the GMO alfalfa threat
Members of the sustainable food movement are furious and, frankly, we have a right to be. Last month’s decision by the USDA to fully deregulate GE alfalfa isn’t just a minor skirmish in a long and exhausting battle. It threatens the existence of organic farming and organic food, and flies in the face of USDA’s […]
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Mark Bittman’s new gig, struggling small farms, and more
When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. The Minimalist no more For 20 years or so, Mark Bittman has been one of the nation’s most important and prodigious food writers. In his extensive list of cookbooks and in his much-loved weekly Minimalist column, Bittman’s […]
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Putting faces to your food [SLIDESHOW]
The following essay and images are excerpted with permission from The Migrant Project: Contemporary California Farm Workers, an iconic photo-documentary series shot by Rick Nahmias in 2002-03 and later published as a monograph. Each morning, as early as 2 a.m., these women travel from Mexicali to the Calexico Port of Entry. They wait to board […]
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Michelle Obama’s global veggie caliphate nears fruition
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Thought for Food – Wyngz & Wal-Mart www.colbertnation.com Socialist food police, Stephen Colbert is on to you. In Tuesday’s show he weighed in on the creeping threat of big government food labeling, traitor fifth column Walmart, and Michelle Obama’s plan to substitute dietary fiber for moral […]