Big Ag
-
House Republicans aim pitchfork at food-system reform
U.S. ag policy isn't totally geared to Big Ag -- but it will be if the House gets its way, writes Tom Philpott.
-
GOP's tiny cuts wound small farmers
A $2 million cut to the USDA's budget by the GOP-controlled House makes little difference to the nation's bottom line. But it brings big hurt to small farmers by undercutting efforts to reform the meatpacking industry.
-
Hey, Vilsack: Big Ag won't feed the world or make jobs
USDA secretary Tom Vilsack supports global Big Ag despite job loss, environmental dangers, threat to sustainable global farming.
-
Great places, great food: part one
Is this your idea of a great place? Didn’t think so.Photo: Robert TerrellDavid Roberts has been sketching out a positive, unifying agenda for progressives under the banner of what he calls “great places.” It isn’t enough, David argues, to rail against the snarling philistinism of Sarah Palin or engage endlessly in the “decrepit political arguments […]
-
Groups sue FDA to stop Big Ag antibiotic abuse — and it just might work
A growing weight of research links routine antibiotic use on factory farms to the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria — which are showing up in more and more places worldwide (including, according to recent studies, in your local supermarket). Doctor groups, from the American Medical Association to the American Society of Microbiology, have appealed to the […]
-
Government-backed corn ethanol lurches on, paving a road to nowhere
During the Bush II administration, I used to groan that the closest thing we had to a concerted policy response to climate change was the federal government’s slew of goodies for corn-based ethanol. It was a monumentally depressing situation, because propping up corn-derived fuel is expensive and (despite industry hype) doesn’t actually do much, if […]
-
Big Ag is pissing away our nation’s rich topsoil
Midwest farmland is more scarred and eroded then previous reports suggested.Photo: Environmental Working GroupBad federal policy and intensifying storms are washing away the rich dark soils in the Midwest that made this country an agricultural powerhouse and that remain the essential foundation of a healthy and sustainable food system in the future. That’s the alarming […]
-
Minnesota next up to pass law banning undercover farm videos
If Big Ag has its way, even possessing this undercover image of a factory chicken farm would be illegal.Photo: Humane Society of the United StatesNPR had a report today on the anti-whistleblower laws in Florida and Iowa that would make it illegal to take photos or undercover videos of livestock facilities. (It’s always nice to […]
-
How some Iowa farmers keep the land fertile, while others salt the earth
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a new study out about the sexiest subject ever — soil erosion! Wait, don't go, this is important: Topsoil takes forever to make, so as it washes off of fields, it's literally taking our ability to feed ourselves with it. Previously, scientists had estimated that Iowa fields were losing […]