Climate Food and Agriculture

All Stories

  • A treat for your Valentine: grass-fed steak in red-wine sauce

    In Tom’s Kitchen, Grist’s food editor discusses some of the quick-and-easy things he gets up to in, well, his kitchen. ———- In my kitchen, beef is a precious ingredient. After years of writing the Meat Wagon column, the only beef I’m interested is of the grass-fed variety–preferably from cows raised on a nearby pasture. In […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Data highlights on the global food supply

    World agriculture today faces pressure from many sources. On the production side, the amount of unused arable land worldwide has dwindled. Overworked soils are becoming eroded and degraded, and overpumped aquifers are being depleted. Meanwhile, as the global population grows and increasing biofuel production converts grain into fuel for cars, demand for food continues to […]

    Lester Brown Climate & Energy

  • Our other addiction: the tricky geopolitics of nitrogen fertilizer

    Your food doesn’t come from here, but it starts here: an ammonia factory. We burn through more of it per capita than any other country; and our appetite for it can only be sated with massive imports. No, not oil — I’m talking about nitrogen fertilizer. With only 5 percent of the world population, the […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • An omnivorous chef ponders test-tube meat

    Future rancher of America? Well, ick. That was my first reaction, anyway, to news that the search to produce animal-less sources for meat are moving, if not right along, at least in the direction of progress. The story I read is actually an editorial in Capital Press, an agricultural newspaper published for farmers in the […]

    Eric Burkett Food

  • How our food system is destroying the nation’s most important fishery

    To understand our impact on nature, there is truth in the saying, “everything is connected.” Few situations illustrate this concept as dramatically as the agricultural wastes from the Midwest that contribute so seriously to the aquatic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Human activities and natural phenomena occurring on land masses combine to impact […]

    Krista Hozyash Food

  • On Valentine’s Day, say ‘I love you’ with a doughnut brunch

    Now that’s a hole lot of love. All photos by April McGreger I’m no fan of the hyped-up consumerist, romantic fantasy of Valentine’s Day. But I won’t stand between you, your chocolate, and your special friend. Forget the box of candy from the drugstore; I’m promoting Valentine’s Day as a chance to spread a little […]

    April McGreger Food

  • Michael Pollan video on Democracy Now

    In “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related videos from around the Web. ————- Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviewed Michael Pollan yesterday. You may think you’ve heard all that Pollan’s got to say, as many interviews that he does. But Amy’s a great interviewer–she enforces a “no sound bites” policy–and the converation gets really […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • How Hurricane Katrina turned me into a citrus fanatic and marmalade maker

    Jewels of winter: Kumquats from L’Hoste Organic Citrus Farm in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Photo: April McGreger For a long time, I never really saw citrus fruits. Lemon, limes, oranges, and even grapefruits were just fruits I often had in my fridge–nice, but unremarkable. All of that changed in 2005. That’s when I realized that, like […]

    April McGreger Food

  • Hello, Dal-ly: curried red lentils

     In Tom’s Kitchen, Grist’s food editor discusses some of the quick-and-easy things he gets up to in, well, his kitchen. He thinks the column name sucks–please help him rename it. Email ideas to tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org. Forgive him for the lame iPhone photography. ———- Mise en place: getting it together in Tom’s kitchen. Photo: Tom PhilpottOn page […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Whatever happened to the government’s war on raw milk? Just a shift in tactics

    When the current phase of a nearly century-long government campaign to convince American consumers to abandon raw milk launched in 2006, heavy-handed intimidation tactics were the order of the day. Kentucky farmer Gary Oakes was questioned so intensively by agents from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration while delivering milk […]

    David Gumpert Food