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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

  • Under the wrong conditions, oil spills are forever

    The massive clean-up efforts for the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound. (Photo courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council) “A senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 […]

  • NYT’s superweeds coverage is welcome but myopic

    iStockphoto It’s a happy day when the New York Times treads some of Grist’s well-worn paths. This time, it’s about how overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide has given rise to “superweeds” and an exhausting chemical treadmill: Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of […]

  • What’s in your food that’s destroying orangutans?

    Photo: Wikimedia Commons.Have you bought soap in the past week? How about lipstick? Cheerios? Soy milk? Today, a new report reveals that the nation’s largest private agribusiness company — Minneapolis-based Cargill — is a major culprit behind rainforest destruction. It turns out that Cargill, who both owns their own palm oil plantations and buys and […]

  • Corn industry brazenly turns Gulf disaster into marketing opportunity

    The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (the dull gray color southeast of the Mississippi Delta) seen by satellite on May 1 Photo: NASAAs if being bombarded with oil from below and chemical dispersants from above weren’t enough, the Gulf of Mexico also has to endure marketing rhetoric from a long-time tormentor: the corn industry. Industrial corn […]

  • Choosing sustainable sushi more important than ever, post-spill

    In “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related videos from around the Web. ————- There are lots of reasons to choose your sushi carefully: most salmon, shrimp, tuna, and eel come hooked to ecological disaster. Now, with the Gulf oil spill threatening the entire marine ecosystem that provides the bulk of U.S. shrimp and […]

  • What are we dumping into the Gulf to ‘fix’ the oil spill?

    A 2006 oil-dispersant-spraying test run by the Air Force Reserve Command’s 910th Airlift Wing, currently deployed to the Gulf to support the oil spill recovery effort. (U.S. Air Force file photo) In addition to the indignity of oil oozing into its depths at a rate of at least 5,000 barrels per day, the Gulf of […]

  • 10 underestimated spring fruits and vegetables to sink your teeth in now

    Fiddleheads: Underrated and deliciousPhoto courtesy Glenn Fleishman via FlickrAhh, spring. After months of eating from your stores of winter vegetables, canned relishes, and frozen fruit, nothing tastes as good as the bounty of a spring garden. From the first ramps of April to the flavor-packed punch of morels, pile these fruits and vegetables on your […]

  • Voters want less government, but more from the FDA

    I’m tired of the government interfering in my life. I want less government. I want smaller government. Oh yeah, and I’d like someone to oversee the use of words like “natural” on processed food labels and limit the amount of sodium in them. That’s the schizophrenic message being sent by the average American, new food-industry […]

  • Gulf of Mexico: from magnificent resource to industrial sacrifice zone

    Fire and a vast oil spill, on top of one of the globe’s most productive fisheries. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard The Gulf of Mexico is a magnificent resource: a kind of natural engine for the production of wild, highly nutritious foodstuff. Here’s how the EPA describes it: Gulf fisheries are some of the most productive […]

  • IHOP stacks up to Double Down competition

    Courtesy of IHOPMan, I sure could use a cheesecake sandwich right about now. But instead of bread on either side of the cheesecake, I want pancakes. And then I want to top it with strawberry compote and whipped topping. And because that probably won’t be enough, let’s tack on eggs, hash browns, and bacon on […]