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
-
Bounty hunting: an inside look at a successful farmers market operation [VIDEO]
Last spring, I had the pleasure of following the farm-to-market process with one of the “successful” upstart organic farms in Minnesota. Laura and Adam from Loon Organics let me film and work through their Friday-Saturday operation. I had been idealizing the idea of starting a farm: seeing the beautiful produce stacked up at the market made me […]
-
Real-life Farmville kills the same amount of time, actually does some good
We knew things were going to get weird once we found out there was a real-world Angry Bird. Now a farm in England is turning itself into live-action Farmville. For a £30 ($49) annual fee, members of MyFarm will get to weigh in on every decision made at Wimpole Estate Farm in Cambridgeshire. They'll vote […]
-
Water shortages threaten food future in the Middle East
A water tower in Al-Muzahimiyah, Saudi Arabia.Photo: Andrew A. ShenoudaThis piece originally appeared in The Guardian. Long after the political uprisings in the Middle East have subsided, many underlying challenges that are not now in the news will remain. Prominent among these are rapid population growth, spreading water shortages, and ever growing food insecurity. In […]
-
I’ve seen the future and I can’t afford it: Marketplace’s botched ‘feed the world’ story
Let’s have a real debate about organic vs. conventional agriculture.Photo: Bio BrothersIn a recent report entitled “The Non-Organic Future,” public radio’s Marketplace program considered the challenge to agriculture of feeding a world population estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050. It was, to be frank, a terrible piece of journalism. Short, virtually fact-free, and weakly […]
-
Hot stuff: chile peppers, climate change, and the future of food
Getting hot in here.Photo: Josh KelloggClimate change is the issue of our time. Its ill effects will fall heaviest on the people who have least contributed to it: billions in the global south. But no one will escape the impact of the warming climate, and one place it will manifest most obviously is on our […]
-
Girl Scouts censor Facebook criticism of palm oil in cookies
Critter-killing cookies?Photo: Laura TaylorLooking for a lesson of how not to respond to green consumer demand in the internet age? Check out Girl Scouts USA. The Scouts’ CEO Kathy Cloninger has for several years rebuffed polite requests from individual scouts, major environmental organizations, and others that they make their famous Girl Scout cookies rainforest friendly. […]
-
Low-fat ice cream, celery more or less the same food
Yes, that Mexican-flavored shredded cheese mix, found right next to the Kraft singles, makes awesome quesadillas. But little strands of cheese curds are not meant to remain so sedately separate from each other, even as they are tossed into plastic bags and shipped across the country. So how do big food companies keep shredded cheese […]
-
Critical List: Teens throw a tantrum, Prince Charles puts his dukes up
Teenagers are suing the federal government for failing to protect the atmosphere. One plaintiff explains why. A recovery team went inside the Fukushima No. 1 reactor for the first time since the quake. The United Nation's climate change panel issued a preliminary report that says 12.9 percent of global energy came from renewables. Firewood in […]
-
Bad seeds: A plan to phase out the $5 billion in ‘direct payment’ agricultural subsidies
Let’s phase out wasteful subsidies.Photo: Earl WilkersonCross-posted from the Center for American Progress. Agriculture and the family farm are the foundation of strong and healthy rural communities, and a critical engine of U.S. economic growth. Regrettably, a key aspect of U.S. agricultural policy does not meaningfully contribute to the success of U.S. farmers: Most federal […]
-
Grist food guru Tom Philpott is in the running for a James Beard award
Tom Philpott We at Grist have known for years that Tom Philpott, our senior food and agriculture writer, is a rock star. We’re delighted that the rest of the world is figuring it out too. Tom has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in the “Food-Related Columns and Commentary” category. The James […]
