Climate Food and Agriculture
Climate + Food and Agriculture
EDITOR’S NOTE
Grist has acquired the archive and brand assets of The Counter, a decorated nonprofit food and agriculture publication that we long admired, but that sadly ceased publishing in May of 2022.
The Counter had hit on a rich vein to report on, and we’re excited to not only ensure the work of the staffers and contractors of that publication is available for posterity, but to build on it. So we’re relaunching The Counter as a food and agriculture vertical within Grist, continuing their smart and provocative reporting on food systems, specifically where it intersects with climate and environmental issues. We’ve also hired two amazing new reporters to make our plan a reality.
Being back on the food and agriculture beat in a big way is critical to Grist’s mission to lead the conversation, highlight climate solutions, and uncover environmental injustices. What we eat and how it’s produced is one of the easiest entry points into the wider climate conversation. And from this point of view, climate change literally transforms into a kitchen table issue.
Featured
The people who feed America are going hungry
Climate change is escalating a national crisis, leaving farmworkers with empty plates and mounting costs.
Latest Articles
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Critical List: Floods herald largest Gulf dead zone on record; the Senate hearts ethanol
Louisiana fishermen can't catch a break. Flooding on the Mississippi River could create the largest dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico on record.
Louisiana, in general, can't catch a break. A plant that blends chemicals used in oilfields exploded on Tuesday.
The Senate decided against ending subsidies for corn-based ethanol in a vote that split, not just along party lines, but also between Big Ag states and everyone else.
Google's newest clean energy investment hands $280 million to a solar company that leases panels to customers. -
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Poison apples bad for consumers, Snow White
Environmental Working Group sifts through USDA data to figure out which Dirty Dozen fruits and veggies deliver the most pesticides. This year's winner: apples
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The ‘Dirty Dozen’: Which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticides?
The Environmental Working Group has released an updated list of the Dirty Dozen, the fruits and vegetables with the worst pesticide levels. Drumroll please: Apples Celery Strawberries Peaches Spinach Nectarines (imported) Grapes (imported) Sweet bell peppers Potatoes Blueberries (domestic) Lettuce Kale/collard greens If you can, it's worth shelling out a little extra for the organic […]
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Buy a half-gallon of sugar water at KFC, give a dollar to diabetes research
I honestly didn't believe this one was for real at first. No way even KFC, purveyors of a sandwich that uses fried meat as a delivery mechanism for fried meat, would seriously market a soda size called the "mega jug." And even if they did, they'd never have the chutzpah to donate "mega jug" dollars […]
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A fight over the future of farming: U.N. ag group vs. Big Ag
Small-ag mindset vs. Big Ag muscle.“The present paradigm of intensive crop production cannot meet the challenges of the new millennium,” says a new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In other words: Big Ag, step aside. It’s not as if the world is being fed particularly well at the moment — […]
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Supporting mom-and-pop stores in food deserts
The Obama administration’s initiative to fight food deserts will help, not harm, mom-and-pop stores.Photo: arbyreedGary Nabhan and Kelly Watters are right that it will take a diversity of new and expanded fresh food stores to truly solve the crisis of inadequate access to healthy food in many low-income areas. Small grocery stores, farmers markets, and […]
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Cheap food: Not what’s for dinner anymore?
Cheap food might go the way of cheap gas.Photo: Eddie SCross-posted from Mother Jones. Remember when gas was a dollar a gallon? The era of the fast-food “dollar menu” may be going the same way. Cheap food has been with us for a while. After World War II, global grain prices fell steadily for decades. […]
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High-fat diet may damage the brain, study finds
There have been many disturbing studies on the effects of a high-fat diet on the brain. I’m thinking in particular of the 2009 study that suggested the American diet can be as addictive to the brain as heroin. But a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society is even more concerning […]
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Critical List: Bean sprouts likely E. coli culprit; Exxon’s in on natural gas
There’s a high probability Europe's deadly E. coli did come from bean sprouts. We always knew they were gross. Nuclear Regulator Commission head Gregory Jaczko manipulated his colleagues into killing the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage compound, according to an inspector general report. Also, no one likes him. Lower winds are helping Arizona best that wildfire, […]
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It’s the McEconomy, stupid
As American as Baked Apple Pie.Photo: Keoni 101Cross-posted from Mother Jones. Up to 30,000 of the 54,000 jobs created in May were the result of a hiring spree by the hamburger chain, analysts at Morgan Stanley told Market Watch on Friday. So hiring at McDonald’s accounted for about half of the nation’s job growth in […]
