Climate Food and Agriculture

Does this Halloween skepticism make me a curmudgeon?

In a few days doorbells will ring and door-knockers will clack all over America. Our neighbor's children will appear in and out of costume with a bag pulled open or an upturned hand outstretched. Our reputations will be on the line, but what's the right thing to do?

Shopping for treats to give the future of America has turned into a lose-lose proposition, in my humble opinion. Most of the stores are promoting bite-sized candy. These so-called treats come in tamper-evident packages -- from the point of view of the health and welfare of those little tykes, that's the only good thing about them.

Interview with filmmakers behind corn expose

Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing interviews the filmmakers behind King Corn:

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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. […]

$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, […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]