Climate Food and Agriculture

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  • A couple of additions to this week’s Victual Reality column

    In this week’s Victual Reality, we ran an interview I did recently with officials from the National Corn Growers Association and the American Farmland Trust. I edited the transcript in a certain amount of haste (it was right during the chaos of our Sow What? series on food and farming) — and I left out […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Dialing local ag up from its very source

    Here's a way to save for the future, one that may prove just as important as cash: a community farm, Red Gate Farm, in my town has started a grassroots seed bank to develop and disseminate local vegetable varieties, and it depends on its members to help grow the seeds out and contribute new ones. It's a great (and replicable) community project, with fingers deep in the area's history and culture. And with a climate on the fritz, indigenous seeds will likely play an increasingly important role in sustaining local agriculture.

    Erik Hoffner Food

  • A conversation with a spokesperson for the National Corn Growers Association and his friend from the

    The productivity of U.S. corn farmers should inspire awe. According to the U.S. Grains Council, the U.S. produces about 44 percent of the globe’s corn crop — that’s more than China, the European Union, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico combined. Iowa alone, which produces a sixth of U.S. corn, produces about as much as the European […]

    Grist staff Food

  • U.K. organic certifier says air-freighted organics must meet “ethical standards”

    Britain’s main organic certifier, the Soil Association, has decided not to deny the organic label to air-freighted food, instead opting to require producers of flown-in fare to meet ethical standards similar to “fair trade” certification. The association decided that denying organic status to all flown-in food would unfairly hurt farmers and workers in poor countries. […]

    Grist staff Food

  • $5 could be yours

    It’s morning in St Louis, and we’re getting ready to talk with some of the movers and shakers in the world of riverfront greenways. While preparing, we ate at a greasy spoon where Jimmy Kimmel was on the teevee talking about his daily cross-country flights for this week’s double-hosting duty. Yikes. On a side note, […]

    Katharine Wroth Cities

  • Soup bleg

    So, it happens that a number of Gristies are having soup-based lunches today. Me, I’m having chili. Which prompted a comment from a colleague: “Well, that’s a kind of soup, right?” Me: “Or is it a kind of stew?” Other colleague: “Or is stew a kind of soup?” So, a few seconds googling some intense […]

    David Roberts Food

  • Methane from Vermont dairy farms to provide electricity for utility customers

    Central Vermont Public Service is laying claim to one of the fastest-growing renewable energy programs in the country: its customers can now choose to receive all, half, or a quarter of their electrical energy through the Cow Power program, which digests cow manure at participating dairy farms, captures the methane, and uses that to power generators. CVPS customers pay a premium of 4 cents per KWh, delivering another revenue stream for farmers, who are paid 95 percent of the market price for all of the energy sold to CVPS.

    Erik Hoffner Climate & Energy

  • As food series ends, the story is just beginning

    During my trip to the Midwest this summer, I saw many unsettling sights: vast monocropped landscapes lashed regularly with chemicals, insidious low-slung buildings that imprison thousands of animals and concentrate their waste. Yet I returned oddly invigorated, buzzing about Iowa’s promise as a sustainable-ag mecca. Amid the cornfields and the CAFOs, I saw thriving homestead […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Fight over disclosure of pesticide ingredients heats up in California

    In California, a battle is raging over a pesticide that critics say is sickening hundreds of residents as it’s being sprayed over large swaths of Monterey County to battle a crop-destroying moth. Residents who became ill after the first application of the pesticide want to know what’s in it that could cause asthma-like symptoms, rashes, […]

    Grist staff Food

  • On accepting invitations from strangers, and a harvest festival

    A few years ago, I heard an actor say on a talk show that he had decided if someone invited him to a party, he was going to attend, whether he knew the person or not. When I repeated that to my friend Pagan Kennedy a few days later, she responded, “That’s great! That should […]

    Roz Cummins Food