Climate Food and Agriculture
All Stories
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What if the Midwest stopped trying to feed the world and started focusing on itself?
Is the sun setting on Midwest farming, or can it be saved by the dawn of a new model?In Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a sailor contemplates the paradox of thirst amid a literal sea of water. “Water, water everywhere,” he famously laments, “nor any drop to drink.” Rural Midwesterners can likely identify with […]
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Umbra on Halloween
Dear Umbra, What do you recommend handing out to the trick-or-treaters this Halloween? I would like to avoid the wasteful packaging and additives found in store-bought goodies. I’d bake my own treats, but I doubt parents would let their kids eat anything that’s not individually sealed. How can I have an environmentally friendly Halloween? Robin […]
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Fast food goes organic and natural
The succulent wares of Whole Foods’ enormous flagship store in Austin are always tempting, but especially so during a harried lunch hour. Everything in the vast prepared-food section looks irresistible. The salad bar features a mountain of fresh, organic toppings. Pricing is mostly by weight, so one can escape with a cup of splendid, coconutty […]
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The shining promise of ethanol doesn’t add up for farmers
No one can begrudge corn farmers their share of euphoria over the recent ethanol boom. Until very recently, their plight could be summed up by a bit of gallows humor I once heard from a dairy farmer: “I lose money on every gallon, so I try to make up for it on volume.” Hopes are […]
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Maisie Ganzler of an eco-friendly catering company answers Grist’s questions
Maisie Ganzler. What work do you do? I’m director of communications and strategic initiatives for Bon Appétit Management Company. How does it relate to the environment? Bon Appétit is an onsite restaurant company committed to socially responsible practices. Our café and catering services feed about 200,000 people every day in corporations, colleges and universities, and […]
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Decades after Silent Spring, pesticides remain a menace — especially to farmworkers
In 1962, Rachel Carson published her landmark Silent Spring, which documented the ravages of agricultural pesticides, particularly DDT, on wildlife. The book inspired wide outrage and helped spark the modern environmental movement. It eventually led to a (now-controversial) ban on DDT. But since then, use of other pesticides has boomed. Sign of the times? Photos: […]
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Filet of the Land
New studies give conflicting advice about the benefits and risks of eating fish Two studies released yesterday are likely to confuse you even further about the benefits and risks of eating fish. A report from the Harvard School of Public Health claims that fish consumption can reduce the risk of coronary death by 36 percent, […]
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Take Me to Your Weeder
Solar-powered robot could pick weeds and reduce herbicide use Here’s an innovative idea for limiting herbicide use: A solar-powered robot with 20/20 vision and depth perception that uses GPS navigation to search out and destroy weeds. As it moves along at three miles per hour, the two-foot-tall, five-foot-long robot, designed by engineers at the University […]
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The Killing Fields
Study links breast cancer to farm work October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Think that has nothing to do with the environment? Guess again. A new study of women in Windsor, Ontario, found that those who have worked on a farm are 2.8 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those who haven’t. The […]
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Senators threaten to impose industrial-strength rules on small vegetable farms
Salad greens thrive in the fall; they love brisk, cool nights and mild, sunny afternoons. Meet your greens. Photo: iStockphoto Here in western North Carolina, members of my farm’s CSA (community-supported agriculture) program are enjoying salad mixes that include spicy arugula, mizuna, and purple Osaka leaves, along with bitter endive, earthy shinginku — and yes, […]
