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Climate Food and Agriculture

Amelia K. Bates / Grist
Special Series

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.

Latest Articles

  • How to solve world hunger by bringing farming indoors

    What if the only way to save crops from climate change was taking the climate out of the equation entirely? Researchers in the Netherlands think that artificially lit, carefully irrigated "sunless farming" may have the power to reverse world hunger. With the right crops and the right equipment, researchers think that a space as small […]

  • Nearly half of supermarket meat is tainted, says disgusting new study

    Now would be a good time to go vegetarian, or demitarian, or just find a reputable butcher. A new study from the Translational Genomics Research Institute has found that 47 percent of tested samples of supermarket meat and poultry were infected with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which causes a range of health problems including skin infections […]

  • The food movement’s multiple-personality disorder: Let’s move beyond foodies and localists

    It’s time for people who care about food to quit navel-gazing.Photo: Jared WongThe food movement has a case of multiple-personality disorder. One of its personalities is the foodie, who approaches the movement as a vehicle to increase sensual-aesthetic pleasure. Another of its personalities is the localizer, who views the movement through the lens of the […]

  • Feed your plants this photosynthetic gourmet meal

    Artist Jonathon Keats has cooked up a light meal for plants. The full five-star affair will be showing at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, but here’s the fast-food version, suitable for your houseplants or your urban garden: [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1011847&w=425&h=350&fv=videoId%3D867300856001%26playerID%3D1813626064%26playerKey%3DAQ%7E%7E%2CAAAAAF1BIQQ%7E%2Cg5cZB_aGkYZXG-DCZXT7a-c4jcGaSdDQ%26domain%3Dembed%26dynamicStreaming%3Dtrue] “My recipes are all based on the scientific study of plant physiology, applied to the […]

  • What bean-counting ‘contrarians’ miss about the local-food movement

    Start counting, pal.Photo: Travis K. WittRoughly 10 years ago, the long history of alternative agriculture entered a new phase. Sometime between the founding of Slow Food in 1986 and the publication of The Omnivore’s Dilemma in 2006, what might be called the “local food movement” took shape. Despite the fixation on locality, the movement’s goals […]

  • Ranchers struggle against giant meatpackers and economic troubles

    All cattle, no hats.Photo: Rob CrowA sea of cream-colored cowboy hats, the kind ranchers wear on their days off, fills a sterile conference room at the Fort Collins Marriott. Banners from groups like the Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund and the Western Organization of Resource Councils add bright slashes of color, and warn that JBS, the […]

  • Modernist urban farm makes veggies sexy

    Not what you think of when you hear "cube farm," is it? This awesome urban farm is the vegetable equivalent of lobster tanks in a seafood place. It's set up outside a restaurant in Tokyo's Roppongi district, and the veggies grown here are served inside. Another view below the fold: This one solves the mystery […]

  • 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 […]

  • Choose the right sweetener with this handy, snarky flowchart

    From aspartame to ZSweet, the number of sweeteners available today is staggering. This flowchart gives you the Sweet’N Lowdown on which kind to use:

  • 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 […]