Climate Food and Agriculture

The Counter
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.

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Featured

Grist / Eva Marie Uzcategui / The Washington Post via Getty Images; Joe Raedle / Getty Images; Getty Images
Grist / Eva Marie Uzcategui / The Washington Post via Getty Images; Joe Raedle / Getty Images; Getty Images

The people who feed America are going hungry

Climate change is escalating a national crisis, leaving farmworkers with empty plates and mounting costs.

Ayurella Horn-Muller Staff Writer

Latest Articles

  • 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 […]

    Jess Zimmerman Agriculture

  • 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 […]

    Benjamin Cohen Food

  • 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 […]

    Stephanie Ogburn Agriculture

  • 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 […]

    Jess Zimmerman Agriculture

  • 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 […]

    Donald Carr Agriculture

  • 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:

    Be Food Smart Food

  • 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 […]

    Tom Laskawy Agriculture

  • Faces of death (and flavor) [VIDEO]

    WARNING: Video contains images that some may consider disturbing. Close to 10 billion animals are killed every year in the U.S. (100+ million are pigs). With that statistic in mind, only six pigs died during the making of this video … but it was tough. Killing animals is heavy business. After the deeds were done, […]

    Daniel Klein Agriculture

  • How some Iowa farmers keep the land fertile, while others salt the earth

    The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a new study out about the sexiest subject ever — soil erosion! Wait, don't go, this is important: Topsoil takes forever to make, so as it washes off of fields, it's literally taking our ability to feed ourselves with it. Previously, scientists had estimated that Iowa fields were losing […]

    Christopher Mims Agriculture

  • Hungry kids and the environment hit hard by USDA budget cuts

                 Hungry kids may be getting less cheddar.The House Appropriations Committee has released a detailed list of budget cuts as part of the deal to avoid a government shutdown, and it looks like agriculture and food programs are getting hit pretty hard. The USDA budget will be cut by $2.6 billion, down from the $108 billion […]

    Tom Laskawy Food