Climate Food and Agriculture

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  • Japan offers Micky D’s as reward for climate change promises

    Today, in Japan: A Japanese government website crashed Wednesday as people raced to take up an offer of a half-price McDonald’s hamburger in exchange for pledging to fight global warming. … People were asked to check up to 39 boxes on a form they could download from the environment ministry’s website, each listing a way […]

    Grist staff Climate & Energy

  • While the FDA and EPA look away, noxious fumes from fake butter wreck lungs

    Back in May, I drew attention to the remarkable fact that food-industry workers are literally dying from exposure to a key ingredient in microwave popcorn. The food additive diacetyl (responsible for that "buttery note" in nuked popcorn and also in margarine) emits a noxious fume when heated up — one that can literally destroy people’s […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • ‘Extreme localism’ in the New Yorker

    Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism. Whatever else it has accomplished, the local-food movement has certainly conquered the appetites of New York’s influential food-media editors. Following the lead of Gourmet, glossy mags like Food & Wine and Bon Appetit now offer regular paeans to place-based eating. The New York […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Huge organic dairy farm skirted organic rules, agrees to behave

    One of America’s largest organic dairies has agreed to alter its operations to comply with national organic standards after the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to remove its certification for skirting the rules. Aurora Organic Dairy, which sells milk under the label High Meadows and also makes milk for private-label brands including Wild Oats and […]

    Grist staff Food

  • Driving Us to Vegetarianism

    Animal-rights groups say meat-eating worse for climate than driving With which instrument do you cause more greenhouse-gas emissions: your car key or your fork? It’s a question asked in an advertising campaign by the Humane Society, which, along with other big animal-rights groups, is striving to open consumers’ eyes to an oft-overlooked connection: the climatic […]

    Grist staff Food

  • … for real

    It sounds like an unappetizing combination, I know, but it's for real: http://www.shrimp-petrofest.org/

    Roz Cummins Food

  • USDA brings the enforcement hammer down on nation’s largest organic dairy producer

    This, fresh from the Cornucopia Institute, is big news: Tonight at 7:20 p.m. EST, August 29, the USDA issued an emergency news release announcing that they had sent a Letter of Revocation to the Aurora Organic Dairy. In lieu of revoking Aurora’s organic certification, the Agency has instead entered into a consent agreement requiring the […]

    David Roberts Food

  • Grass Backwards

    Carbon dioxide contributing to un-grassing of grassland, says new study Thanks in part to rising levels of carbon dioxide, the world’s grasslands are turning into woody shrublands, says a new study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When researchers artificially doubled CO2 levels over sections of the Colorado plains, they observed a fortyfold increase in […]

    Grist staff Food

  • A short video called ‘The Farm Bill Food Battle’

    Funny and smart.

    JMG Food

  • Umbra on singles and CSAs

    Hi Umbra! I’ve held back from joining a CSA because 1) I live alone and am worried about wasting food, and 2) I’m worried I’ll get so much oddball stuff, especially in the winter, that I won’t know what to do with it. I figure I can overcome No. 1 by seeking out some sufficiently […]

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