Climate Food and Agriculture
All Stories
-
Large Florida grower steps up for farm workers
Eat a slice of fresh tomato from the supermarket or at a restaurant this winter, and chances are it will have come from a field in south-central Florida, site of 90 percent of U.S. winter tomato production. And this year, there’s a fighting chance that the worker who picked it might have made something close […]
-
Nationwide “eat-ins” show way to a revived National School Lunch Program
Chowing down for better school lunches in Iowa City.Photo: Kurt Michael FrieseAll across the country this past Labor Day, folks gathered for picnics. That’s no surprise, of course. After all, it was a holiday, and the weather was grand across nearly the whole continent. But there was something unique about one group of picnics; 307 […]
-
Growing hope and fighting hunger on the Gaza Strip
Gaza gardeners, with harvest.Photo: Grassroots InternationalThis is the time of year when gardeners start to reap their rewards–fruits and vegetables that make for a healthy feast. But for the people of Gaza, gardens produce a serving of self-sufficiency, too. Urban gardens usually bring to mind savvy urbanites indulging in an organic lifestyle–witness Michelle Obama and […]
-
James McWilliams’ over-hyped and undercooked anti-locavore polemic
Cows on pasture: potential solution, or menace to society? What is just food? One might answer: food produced without causing undue ecological damage, food grown under production systems that allow workers and farmers to earn livable wages, food that’s healthy, accessible, and affordable to everyone who eats. To James E. McWilliams, author of the new […]
-
From Big Ag’s climate problem to Whole Foods’ latest snafu, tasty morsels from around the Web
When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. —————- Get ’em while they’re hot. • I’ve been writing a lot recently about how industrial agriculture is screwing up the climate (see here and here). I keep forgetting to add: a warmed-up climate will almost surely […]
-
California’s ag crisis and our concentrated food system
Not many “green shoots” in the Central Valley. California’s severe drought–which could well be related to climate change–isn’t just menacing Los Angeles. The drought has helped tip the state’s Central Valley, epicenter of U.S. fruit and vegetable production, into a severe crisis, The Wall Street Journal reports. Hammered by dry weather, the weak economy, and […]
-
‘Time’ was right about cheap food–but forgot farmworkers
The widely read recent Time cover story “Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food” is a useful complement to current discussions about our food system. It offers further evidence of the mainstreaming of ideas and practices that were considered radical or irrelevant a mere decade ago. But the author errs by avoiding any […]
-
How I got drafted into James McWilliams’ anti-locavore diatribe
It’s happened a lot lately. Someone will send me the latest political diatribe that quotes my work. “What do you think of this guy?” they will ask. There’s also a recent growth industry in academic essays in support of food movement icon, Michael Pollan. These essays pay tribute to him mostly by attacking my work […]
-
UPDATED: The cruelty of industrial egg-riculture — plus a tasty recipe for your local pastured eggs
Consider the egg. Photo: Kurt Michael Friese UPDATE: The owner of the hatchery in the video mentioned below has spoken out, says there were violations of procedure but makes no apologies. He calls “instantaneous Euthanasia” “Standard industry practice.” Read the story here. Iowa is the number-one producer of eggs in the country, with more than […]
-
NYC warns residents: “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat”
While the evidence continues to mount that taxes alone aren’t enough to significantly reduce junk food consumption, the political prospects for passing a federal soda tax appears to be dim. Well, New York City has decided that if they can’t tax your soda, they’ll go after your appetite instead. …New York City’s public health officials […]
