Climate Food and Agriculture

Michelle Nijhuis reviews Against the Grain by Richard Manning

What's for dinner at your house? Unless you're a strict Atkins adherent, chances are you've got at least one of the world's four top crops on your plate. Corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes account for about two-thirds of the world's nourishment; from French fries to brown rice, these familiar starches dominate humanity's diet.

Family Farm: The Next Generation

A safe-food crusader answers questions

What environmental organization are you affiliated with? Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Chapter. What does it do? PSR is a nonprofit educational organization committed to the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the achievement of a healthy and sustainable environment, and the reduction of violence and its causes. PSR has programs on […]

Rotterdam It

Convention on Dangerous Chemicals Goes Into Effect The Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty meant to protect developing nations from dangerous chemicals already banned or restricted in wealthy nations, went into effect yesterday, after garnering support from 50 signatory countries, as needed to give it the force of international law. Many toxic chemicals, particularly pesticides for […]

Get the word on seafood that’s safe to consume

The dish on fish. It’s been a winter of bad news for seafood lovers. A joint draft fish advisory from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. EPA added tuna — America’s second-most popular seafood after shrimp — to its list of mercury-containing fish that should be restricted in the diets of pregnant […]

GM: Unsafe for Any Seed

Much of U.S. Food Supply Contaminated With Genetically Engineered DNA Most ordinary crop seeds in the U.S. are contaminated with strands of genetically modified DNA, and unless federal regulations and farm practices are tightened considerably, the entire U.S. food supply will soon contain GM elements, says a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned […]

Cloud Nein

World’s Cloud Forests Threatened The world’s cloud forests, which strip moisture from clouds and supply millions of poor people in developing nations with fresh water, are in danger of being wiped out by climate change, claims a report released Monday by the U.N. and the World Conservation Union at the Convention on Biological Diversity in […]

Fish Stickers

Starting this fall, seafood sold in the U.S. will be labeled with information about where it was caught, the country where it was processed, and whether it was wild or farmed, thanks to a provision in a spending bill recently passed by Congress. Seafood will be the first food group subject to “country of origin” […]

Fetal Detraction

Air Quality One-Two Punch Hurts Fetuses The combined effects of air pollution and secondhand smoke can hurt fetal development, says a new study conducted in New York City by the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health. While previous studies have addressed the effects of both factors in isolation, this study marks the first attempt to […]

Bad Seed

Despite European Objections, GM Agriculture Marches On Worldwide use of genetically modified crops grew by 15 percent last year, according to a report by the industry-backed International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. In 1996, the year GM crops were made commercially available, 4.3 million acres were used for biotech cultivated crops. By 2003, […]