Climate Food and Agriculture
All Stories
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For swine flu, forget origins and start thinking about practices
How is a massive hog farms like an open box of oily rags stored near a furnace? Photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation ServiceAmid a trickle of news and science about swine flu over the past week, I’ve been rethinking my position on the novel H1N1 virus that has now infected millions of Americans […]
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The most frightening story this Halloween is … pumpkintop removal
I want to draw attention to one of the gravest — but least publicized — environmental crimes of our times. It is one of brutal violence, utter waste, and total disregard for the planet’s resources. Millions of unwitting Americans are complicit in the destruction each year, as evidenced by the burning lights spread across the […]
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This Halloween, have your pumpkin–and eat it, too
Try April’s White Bean and Pumpkin Chili recipe (below).Photo: April McGreger Halloween has pagan roots in the Celtic Samhain, a festival of the harvest and the dead. The Celts saw the end of October as the “end of lightness” or the end of summer, and the “beginning of darkness,” or the long, cruel winter ahead. […]
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Heat makes honey toxic, and other myths of the hive
Dear Lou, I heard a rumor that honey is toxic when placed in hot water. Is that true? Doesn’t the whole world drink honey in hot tea? Also wondering about the harvesting of honey — is it harmful to the bees and their sustainability? Honey Lover from Vermont Dearest Honey Lover from Vermont, I didn’t […]
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Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp
Corn harvest in Iowa. Would you like that in your Big Mac, your gas tank, or both?Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS. What do industrially produced meat and corn-based ethanol have in common? Well, they both thrive on the assumption that it’s good idea to devote vast swaths of land to an incredibly resource-intensive crop–corn–and then […]
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Bill Gates reveals support for GMO ag
As it has come to dominate the agenda for reshaping African agriculture over the years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been very careful not to associate itself too closely with patent-protected biotechnology as a panacea for African farmers. True, the foundation named 25-year Monsanto veteran Rob Horsch to the position of “senior program […]
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Bee here, now: organic apiary in a chemical world
Bee there, do that: organic beekeeper Ross Conrad. Beekeeping is rising in popularity–from urban rooftops to backyard hives, the world is abuzz with interest in homemade honey. And who better to comment on the nature of bees than the former president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, Ross Conrad. He’s led bee-related presentations and taught organic […]
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What Gourmet’s critics missed
Hard times aren’t always the worst times for magazines. In 1941, with the economy still depressed and the nation on the verge of war, a magazine called Gourmet hatched. In the years since, Gourmet sprouted into the nation’s most celebrated and influential glossy food magazine. But this week–in the wake of another Great Crash and […]
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Can you taste the fuels in your food?
Amanda Little on the farm. If you pinned a map of the United States to a dartboard, Kansas would be the bull’s-eye. Smack dab in the center of the country, the Sunflower State is one of America’s most productive agricultural hotbeds — the fifth-biggest producer of crops and livestock in the country. More than 90 […]
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Big Ag’s odd obsession with You-Know-Who
I really really really didn’t want to write another post on Michael Pollan. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a big fan. It’s just that reducing the whole of the food movement to Pollan’s work naturally ignores so much else that’s going on. But don’t blame me for this post. Blame Big Ag. These guys […]
