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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Monsanto-tied scientist abruptly quits key USDA research post
Roger Beachy: back from whence he came. On a slow Friday afternoon, a surprising bit of news came down the pike: Roger Beachy, head of National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the main research arm of the USDA, has officially resigned his post, effective May 20. Who is Beachy? When Obama hired Beachy in […]
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Coca-Cola adds BPA to list of ways it doesn’t care about your health
Did you hear? The science around BPA — a substance that the government of Canada has declared "toxic" and has banned in baby bottles — "just isn't there," according to the CEO of Coca-Cola. If this kind of through-the-looking glass denial of science sounds familiar, it's because it's happened before, with tobacco and climate change […]
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Is Walmart our best hope for food policy reform?
Photo: Code PoetTwo years into the Obama administration, most of the energy around food-policy reform resides in the East Wing, in the form of the first lady’s Let’s Move! campaign. So far, Let’s Move has been about Michelle Obama pursuing what I have called a “soft power” campaign — that is, using her stature to […]
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Donning stilettos, Beyonce says: Let’s Move your booties, kids [VIDEO]
As a fan of R&B divas — I stand second to no one in my admiration for Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse — I found this Beyonce video irresistible. Produced on behalf of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to improve children’s health, the choreography and staging dazzle, Beyonce plays the camera like it’s a fiddle, […]
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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 […]
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Little piggies, crawling in the dirt: Minnesota reps behind ag-gag bill have factory-farm ties
Now that The New York Times editorial page has come out against what are now known as “Ag-gag” laws (thanks, Mark Bittman!), I think we can say this story has truly gone national. These laws, on the books in a few states already and quickly moving through legislatures in Florida, Iowa, and Minnesota, would attempt […]
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Give a cluck: Ask Umbra on secret backyard chickens
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Have you heard of the underground backyard chicken movement, and would you recommend it for people who want chickens, regardless of city ordinances? DenineWestminster (no state specified, maybe to protect innocent chickens) Some chickens have to keep a low profile.Photo: Taber Andrew BainA. Dearest Denine, Don your […]
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Are you enjoying your daily chemical cocktail?
A 1970s-era Monsanto ad.Photo: Christian MontoneChemicals and additives found in the food supply and other consumer products are making headlines regularly as more and more groups raise concern over the safety of these substances. In a statement released this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked for reform to the Toxic Substances Control Act […]
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Alternative agriculture sprouts up in industrial-corn country [VIDEO]
This episode tells the story of several different farmers in and around Lucan, Minn. Located 150 miles southwest of the Twin Cities, you would never think this town with a population of 226 would have so much going on. Going against the agricultural grain, this blip in a sea of corn boasts CSAs, organic cattle […]
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Students fight to save innovative garden-based public school in Detroit
When I visited Detroit last summer, I found it to be a place of extremes. On the one hand, a city buckling under the weight of decades of deindustrialization, white flight, and abandonment — a city so gripped by economic malaise that it contained not even a single full-service supermarket. On the other, it also […]
