Climate Food and Agriculture

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  • Cuba’s urban-ag revival offers limited lessons

    Cuba’s flourishing urban agriculture comes with a strong dose of government control. This post originally appeared on Civil Eats. Many of us in the U.S. sustainable-food movement idolize Cuba’s experience in building a vibrant urban-farming sector. This idealization is due to the lack of information available on the Cuban system, as caused by the travel […]

    Andy Fisher Food

  • LaDonna Redmond

    Art: Nat Damm LaDonna Redmond President, Institute for Community Resource Development; Founder, Graffiti and Grub Chicago, Ill. A decade ago, LaDonna Redmond found that her infant son had an array of food allergies. After doing research, she concluded the best diet for her family was organic whole foods. Trouble was, in her west Chicago neighborhood, […]

    Grist staff Food

  • Elena Rivellino and Dennis Stein

    Art: Nat Damm Elena Rivellino and Dennis Stein Owners, Sea Rocket Bistro San Diego, Calif. At their Sea Rocket Bistro in San Diego, Elena Rivellino, 36, and Dennis Stein, 34, combine two of our favorite restaurant trends: budget-priced organic/local/gourmet and a devotion to sustainable seafood. They source their food exclusively from Southern California and Baja fisherpeople […]

    Grist staff Food

  • EPA intern offends sensitive meat-industry souls

    Ironically enough, the people who cram animals together and stuff them full of dodgy feed are really, really sensitive. So please don’t say anything critical about meat.An iron-clad rule for government bureaucrats of all ranks: thou shalt not question the American habit of eating more than a half pound of meat per day. The folks […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Jamie Oliver on parents, nuggets, ‘luminous drinks,’ and school lunches

    “Parents can be the most positive, powerful force in a country or they can be disgusting, backstabbing traitors. When little Johnny comes home and says, ‘I didn’t get my nugget today,’ it’s wrong to say ‘Oh, all right, darling,’ and give him some [expletive] horrible Lunchable and a pack of potato chips and a luminous […]

    Tom Laskawy Food

  • Foreign Policy mag spotlights ‘peak phosphorous’

    Where your food comes from: a phosphate mine in Florida run by the fertilizer giant Mosaic. Mosaic is two-thirds owned by Cargill, the globe’s largest agribusiness company, with interests in meat, feed, biofuels, and more. Photo: Susan Dracket, via FlickrAs Grist’s recent special series showed, our reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has serious ecological, geopolitical, […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Coked-out Coca-Colla [sic]

    High-fructose corn syrup in soda? Bad. Cocaine in soda? Depends on whom you ask. We all know Coca-Cola used to contain trace amounts of the narcotic back in the day, but, according to the UK Guardian via Fast Company, Bolivia’s kicking it old school with its coca-leaf containing soda, Coca-Colla (note the second L—I smell […]

    Jen Harper Food

  • Why it matters that the FDA is beating USDA for control of food system

    Small-scale food producers and farmers have been vocal about their concerns that the Senate will pass highly burdensome food-safety legislation. Equally worried, but much less vocal, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It frets over major gains by its arch-rival, the U.S. food and Drug Administration, over local food producers and small farms. USDA is […]

    David Gumpert Food

  • In Japan, a global meeting on local food

    “We wanted to connect ‘safe’ foods and the support of organic farming with the survival of family farmers, with the preservation of the environment, with opposition to militarism and imperialism, with demands for social justice, and with our need to work collectively to create a better future.” — A 20-year teikei (CSA) member at the […]

    Elizabeth Henderson Food

  • Michigan woman faces down meat industry, wins [VIDEO]

    Lynn Henning checks a stream for CAFO contamination. When government regulators toe the industry line, citizens have to fight back. Photo: Tom DusenberryIn “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related video from around the Web. ——— I write a lot about the meat industry’s nearly unbridled power in this country, which it uses to […]

    Tom Philpott Food