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
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Now That’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Pumpkins found to absorb pesticides from soil Pumpkins are not only good for jack-o’-lanterns, pie, and carrying Cinderella home — they are also extremely effective at drawing persistent organic pollutants like the toxic pesticide DDT out of soil, according to a new study by Canadian researchers. They tested rye grass, tall fescue, alfalfa, zucchini, and […]
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Fish ‘n’ Chicks
Study finds excessive mercury in 20 percent of women of childbearing age A new Greenpeace-commissioned study on the correlation between fish consumption and levels of mercury in the body has produced interim results, and they may cause you to think twice about your next order of a tuna-salad sandwich. The study analyzed hair samples sent […]
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We Take Our Coffee Green
Central American coffee industry rebounds by going green A global surplus of coffee five years ago sent the Central American coffee industry into a tailspin, but it is gradually recovering by focusing on high-quality beans — which in many cases means organically grown. In that rarest of things, a genuine win-win situation, the industry is […]
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Dairy Err
Millions in California anti-pollution money went to, uh, pollution Almost $70 million in California state bond money designated to fund industry pollution-reducing measures has gone to fund the expansion of polluting mega-dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s most polluted air basin. In each case, the Pollution Control Financing Authority approved tax-exempt, low-interest loans […]
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Let a Thousand Species Bloom
Organic farming increases biodiversity, research indicates According to the largest review yet done of studies comparing organic to conventional agriculture, organic farming increases biodiversity at every level, from bacteria to birds to mammals. The two groups that conducted the reviews — English Nature, a government group, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds […]
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Umbra on the eco-relevance of health concerns
Dear Umbra, As a practicing vegan for quite some time now, I take pride in my knowledge of nutrition and my ability to enrich my body through a varied diet with all the essentials. For the past five years or so, I have heavily relied on soy products for protein and other nutrients. Recently, however, […]
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Indelicacies
Chinese appetite for exotic foods driving trade in endangered species Many Chinese believe that wild game improves health. Whether or not that’s true, the country’s enormous market for rare and exotic “delicacies” is not improving the health of endangered species. “Just in the last two years, 12 to 13 species have had to be CITES-listed […]
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Schoolhouse Rocks
Public Schools Starting to Offer Organic Lunches Healthy, organic food is increasingly popping up in, of all strange places, school lunches. The Seattle school district recently banned junk food and exclusive soda contracts (despite the big dollars dangled by soda companies) and started urging schools to offer “fresh, local, organic, non-genetically-modified, non-irradiated, unprocessed food, whenever […]
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Cornographic
European Union Gives Go-Ahead to GM Corn In a highly symbolic move, the European Union yesterday approved the first genetically modified seeds for planting and sale across E.U. territory, outraging greens and defying public opinion (70 percent of E.U. citizens oppose GM food). The European Commission approved 17 varieties of GM corn developed by U.S. […]
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A Bunch of Debunk
Debate Over Benefits of Organic Food Heats Up The market for organic food is exploding, and as any star of teen movies can tell you, with success comes backlash. Some of the organic-food industry’s more enthusiastic backers have made lofty claims about the health benefits the foods confer, and now some scientists (and some industry-backed […]
