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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

  • Can Michelle Obama make the math work for better school food?

    Launching her anti-obesity campaign — “Let’s Move” — last week, First Lady Michelle Obama vowed to add 1 million kids to the 31 million already being served daily by federal reimbursable meal programs while cutting back on the foods kids like most — refined grains, potatoes, sugar, salt — and adding things kids like least — vegetables and […]

    Ed Bruske Food

  • USDA releases strict new pasture rules for organic dairy

    In October 2008, the USDA proposed changes to the standards that govern organic dairy farming. Before, organic certification required farmers to give their cows “access to pasture,” which some large dairies chose to interpret, well, rather loosely. How now, organic cow? On Friday, the agency released its final rules on the matter. Pasture standards for […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • A treat for your Valentine: grass-fed steak in red-wine sauce

    In Tom’s Kitchen, Grist’s food editor discusses some of the quick-and-easy things he gets up to in, well, his kitchen. ———- In my kitchen, beef is a precious ingredient. After years of writing the Meat Wagon column, the only beef I’m interested is of the grass-fed variety–preferably from cows raised on a nearby pasture. In […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • Data highlights on the global food supply

    World agriculture today faces pressure from many sources. On the production side, the amount of unused arable land worldwide has dwindled. Overworked soils are becoming eroded and degraded, and overpumped aquifers are being depleted. Meanwhile, as the global population grows and increasing biofuel production converts grain into fuel for cars, demand for food continues to […]

    Lester Brown Climate & Energy

  • Our other addiction: the tricky geopolitics of nitrogen fertilizer

    Your food doesn’t come from here, but it starts here: an ammonia factory. We burn through more of it per capita than any other country; and our appetite for it can only be sated with massive imports. No, not oil — I’m talking about nitrogen fertilizer. With only 5 percent of the world population, the […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • An omnivorous chef ponders test-tube meat

    Future rancher of America? Well, ick. That was my first reaction, anyway, to news that the search to produce animal-less sources for meat are moving, if not right along, at least in the direction of progress. The story I read is actually an editorial in Capital Press, an agricultural newspaper published for farmers in the […]

    Eric Burkett Food

  • How our food system is destroying the nation’s most important fishery

    To understand our impact on nature, there is truth in the saying, “everything is connected.” Few situations illustrate this concept as dramatically as the agricultural wastes from the Midwest that contribute so seriously to the aquatic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Human activities and natural phenomena occurring on land masses combine to impact […]

    Krista Hozyash Food

  • On Valentine’s Day, say ‘I love you’ with a doughnut brunch

    Now that’s a hole lot of love. All photos by April McGreger I’m no fan of the hyped-up consumerist, romantic fantasy of Valentine’s Day. But I won’t stand between you, your chocolate, and your special friend. Forget the box of candy from the drugstore; I’m promoting Valentine’s Day as a chance to spread a little […]

    April McGreger Food

  • Michael Pollan video on Democracy Now

    In “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related videos from around the Web. ————- Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviewed Michael Pollan yesterday. You may think you’ve heard all that Pollan’s got to say, as many interviews that he does. But Amy’s a great interviewer–she enforces a “no sound bites” policy–and the converation gets really […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • How Hurricane Katrina turned me into a citrus fanatic and marmalade maker

    Jewels of winter: Kumquats from L’Hoste Organic Citrus Farm in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Photo: April McGreger For a long time, I never really saw citrus fruits. Lemon, limes, oranges, and even grapefruits were just fruits I often had in my fridge–nice, but unremarkable. All of that changed in 2005. That’s when I realized that, like […]

    April McGreger Food