All donations DOUBLED
grist-georgia-psc-header-ai

GMOs

  •

    Another Monsanto man in a key USDA post? Obama’s ag policy’s giving me whiplash

    Like a tractor driven by a drunk, the Obama administration keeps zigzagging on food/ag policy–sometimes veering in the direction of progressive change, other times whipping back toward the agrichemical status quo. In the last couple of days, there’s been a sharp turn toward the status quo. As I reported yesterday, Obama plucked Islam “Isi” Siddiqui […]

    Tom Philpott Politics

  • Big Ag places a foot soldier at the U.S. Trade Office–but loses a GMO court battle

    Agribiz: flying high … or coming down? If you run a globe-spanning, U.S.-centered agribusiness firm, you’re probably not sure whether to cry in your Krug or toast with it this week.* The bad news for the GMO/fertilizer/pesticide set: A federal court in San Francisco rebuked the USDA for greenlighting genetically modified sugar beets without rigorous […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • From Whole (junk) Foods to Julia/Julie hype, tasty morsels from around the Web

    When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. —————- • “Everything I’ve written is straw,” Thomas Aquinas is supposed to have lamented from his deathbed. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey seems to have come to a similar conclusion about the supermarket chain he founded decades […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Wendell Berry on the promise of GMOs to ‘feed the world’

    “The inevitable aim of industrial agri-investors is the big universal solution. They want a big product that can be marketed everywhere. And the kind of agriculture we’re talking about that leads to food security and land conservation is locally adapted agriculture. And they can’t do that. Industrial agriculture plants cornfields in Arizona; locally adapted agriculture […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • In which I go toe to toe with H. Clinton’s science czar over GMOs

    Seed blinded me with science. The questions were shamelessly loaded: Why do many environmentalists trust science when it comes to climate change but not when it comes to genetic engineering? Is the fear really about the technology itself or is it a mistrust of big agribusiness? When do you plan to stop beating your wife, […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Would you like some GMOs in your coffee?

    One cube or two? Jill Richardson made a good catch on the GMO crop front the other day. She dug up an article from a Boulder, CO newspaper that detailed the debate over local sugarbeet farmers’ request to plant GM seeds within the city limits. The farmers claim that without GM sugar beets, they’ll be […]

    Tom Laskawy Food

  • Monsanto dropped a cool $2 million on lobbying in Q1 2009

    Jolly gene giantSource: ETC Group Monsanto dominates the global market for GMO seeds like Microsoft dominates the operating-system software market.  You don’t skirt around antitrust enforcement like that without having good friends in Washinton. And to make friends, you’ve got have guys in suits working the Hill and the agencies. La Vida Locavore’s ever-enterprising Jill […]

    Tom Philpott Politics

  • A farmer speaks: no to GMO wheat

    Editor’s note: Several weeks ago, the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) issued a press release proclaiming that 75 percent of its member farmers support the rollout of genetically modified wheat seeds. According to NAWG, wheat farmers are clamoring to follow their corn and soy counterparts toward a biotech-dominated future. Todd Leake, a wheat farmer […]

    Todd Leake Food

  • Monsanto targets public radio to spread false biotech messages

    Editor’s note: This post originally focused on NPR; but we’ve since found that the Monsanto ads run on Marketplace, produced by American Public Media, which isn’t directly affiliated with NPR. We regret the confusion. —————- Monsanto’s ad blitzFor years my alarm has been set to public radio so I can lie in bed for five […]

    Meredith Niles Food