politics

Why it's so hard to reform the food system, explained in one chart

It's very hard to make change in the food system in an environment where wages are flat and couples (read: women) are working more hours.

Going rogue: USDA may have just opened the GMO floodgates

Did the USDA just open the floodgates to unlimited, unregulated planting of new genetically engineered crops? It sure looks that way.

Whew: FDA confirms E. Coli in food is illegal

Food safety advocate Bill Marler has served as one of the most persistent voices covering the deadly German E. coli outbreak and warning that the same thing could happen in the U.S. One of his concerns comes from the fact that the FDA has been cagey about exactly which of the many disease-causing strains of E. coli are considered illegal in food.

Believing in climate change gets you votes

Here's good news if the phrase "President Bachmann" sends you into a twitching, frothing fit: For candidates on both sides of the aisle, the best vote-getting strategy is to take climate change seriously. 

World's first fracking bans come through in France and New Jersey

While we were all distracted by the possibility that New York State will allow fracking for natural gas, two big milestones in the battle to restrict the notoriously environmentally destructive process arrived on successive days:

New Jersey bans fracking

On June 29, New Jersey became the first state in the Union whose legislature passed a ban on fracking.

What we could have bought with the $4 trillion we spent on Iraq and Afghanistan

Americans like us some war, but to the tune of $4 trillion? In adjusted dollars, that's just short of what it cost us to whup the Nazis.

Here's a look at what we could have done with that money, had we spent it on something besides stoking Americans' confusion over whether or not the world's 1.5 billion 'Muslims' are in fact a monolithic group whose every member is a terrorist.

Pawlenty: 'Look at me! I don't believe in science either!'

Hey, remember Tim Pawlenty? I think he's running for state auditor or something.

Pawlenty used to think climate change was a major priority, back when he was governor of Minnesota and supported cap-and-trade. But then Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman showed underbelly by admitting that they believe in science -- a striking liability in this race -- and Pawlenty took that opportunity to swoop in and firmly establish himself as the most anti-climate-science candidate besides Bachmann and Perry and all the other ones! Go get 'em, T-Paw.

U.S. politicians' campaign of terror against climate scientists

U.S. politicians aren't just denying that climate change is happening, they're actively using their position and power to try to intimidate climate scientists into keeping silent on the subject, says Raymond S. Bradley, director of the Climate System Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Rick Perry is running as the anti-climate-science candidate

If you thought a field full of anti-science blowhards was scary, just wait until you get a load of GOP presidential johnny-come-lately Rick Perry, currently governor of Texas.