Big Ag

Just like Gangnam Style, Big Ag ‘Farmer Style’ is unsustainable

This parody unintentionally has a lot in common with Gangnam Style.

Sarah Laskow Uncategorized

Despite the headlines, Big Ag subsidies aren’t going anywhere

Is crop insurance just another way to say "handouts for Big Ag"? Or is it an excuse to send taxpayer dollars to overseas insurance giants? Our sources say it's both.

Twilight Greenaway Agriculture

Live and let dioxin: Big Ag is worried about scaring us off meat and milk

This month, the EPA is expected to finally release limits for safe exposure to dioxins in food. Industry groups -- like the United Egg Producers, National Meat Association, and National Milk Producers Federation -- are stepping up to say: shhh!

Michele Simon Food

Willie Nelson wants you to occupy Big Food

No less an authority than Willie Nelson is writing in the Huffington Post, calling on people to Occupy the Food System. Big Agriculture is just as one-percenty as the banks, says Nelson, with most of the resources concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations — and the government isn't doing anything to help. Our […]

Jess Zimmerman Agriculture

Mic checking Big Food

The Occupy Big Food rally at Zuccotti Park on Saturday.“Whose food? Our food!” This was the rallying cry at the first Occupy Big Food event on Saturday in Zuccotti Park. The rally, which I led with Erika Lade, a graduate student in NYU’s Food Studies program, gathered about 100 people with the goal of connecting […]

Kristin Wartman Food

Thanksgiving turkeys can’t have sex because their breasts are too big

Steven Dubner, of Freakonomics fame, recently told Marketplace that almost 100 percent of Thanksgiving turkeys are the product of artificial insemination. The problem, apparently, is Americans' appetite for gigantic breasts. "The modern turkey has quite large turkey breasts, and it actually physically gets in the way when the male and the female try to create […]

Christopher Mims Agriculture

Killing the competition: Meat industry reform takes a blow

Four companies currently control 90 percent of all beef processing in the U.S. Photo: Compassion in World FarmingOne of the least-discussed but most promising attempts at food system reform was dealt a serious blow the other day. The USDA itself eviscerated its proposed reform to a set of rules which would have given a government […]

Tom Laskawy Agriculture

Consumers losing faith in Big Food

Photo: Christopher Cotrell Four years ago, a coalition of agribusiness companies and industry groups, including Monsanto, the American Farm Bureau, the Midwest Dairy Council, and the National Pork Producers Council, got together to start the Center for Food Integrity (CFI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to build consumer trust and confidence in today’s food […]