Climate Food and Agriculture
All Stories
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Big ag, little ag, and government support
In “Dispatches from the Fields,” Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America’s agro-industrial landscape. —– In the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to attend a couple of events here in southwestern […]
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The pet-food industry takes a serious look at distillers grains
Should the mush left over after the ethanol process — known as distillers grains — be fed to farm animals? There’s been little real debate around that question, even though a) heavy use of distillers grains as cow feed has been linked to deadly E. Coli 0157H7 outbreaks; and b), the mush has been shown […]
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If you can’t stand the smell, tough luck
Duplin County, N.C. stinks. And no wonder. Its human population is just under 50,000 people, but it is also home to 2.2 million [PDF] of North Carolina’s 10 million hogs [PDF]. Last week, I went on a bus tour of Duplin County as a part of the Politics of Food Conference to see how confined […]
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How commodity grain farmers have sown the seeds of their demise
In “Dispatches From the Fields,” Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America’s agro-industrial landscape. —– A field of dried soybeans ready to be combined. Although “that time of year” in corn and soybean […]
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The Environment Report naively pushes Monsanto-related study praising rBGH
I don’t know much about Environment Report, a non-profit producer of radio reports about, uh, the environment. But I can’t say I’m impressed by its recent piece on recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), the genetically modified "feed enhancer" for dairy cows that Monsanto recently sold to Eli Lilly. In it (transcript here), reporter Shawn Allee […]
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Greenwashing our vegetable modifiers
A few weeks ago, I was having dinner at a renowned restaurant in San Francisco, when I noticed something a bit troubling on the menu. According to the description, the “Heirloom Tomato Salad” was made with a mix of Sweet 100 and Sungold tomatoes — both of which are hybrid varieties. OK, big deal, they […]
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Amazon deforestation soars, Brazil blames its own land-reform agency
The 100 individuals or companies most responsible for Amazon deforestation since 2005 were listed Monday by Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc, and Brazil’s own land-reform agency took the top spot. The Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform was said to be culpable for the deforestation of 850 square miles of Amazon rainforest in the last […]
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Visiting the Victory Garden outside San Francisco City Hall
This is a guest post from my travel partner, Todd Dwyer, head blogger for Dell’s ReGeneration.org, where the piece originally appeared. —– Sarah and I have been having a blast so far learning about what people are doing right now to save the planet. Not only have we been treated to the new ways […]
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Will chocolate replace coffee as the foodie’s bean of obsession?
In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. —– Dear Grist: So what’s the deal with this “bean to bar” thing I hear about with chocolate? People are calling chocolate the […]
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Why factory farming must be stopped
This is sobering: single concentrated animal feedlots that create more waste than a large U.S. city. There is only one word for this: insane. If you’re going to eat meat, don’t support industrial meat operations.
