Victual Reality

The dirt on industrial agriculture, ethanol, and where your food really comes from -- by Tom Philpott

'The Soil is Bleeding'

New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health 20
Posted 23 Feb 2010 9:47 AM by Tom Philpott
For decades, soil scientists have assumed that synthetic nitrogen fertilizer keeps soils healthy by helping them store carbon. That effect would also be enormously helpful in stabilizing the climate. But according to a team of researchers from the University of Illinois, the opposite is true. Read More
Where your food really comes from

Our other addiction: the tricky geopolitics of nitrogen fertilizer 33
Posted 11 Feb 2010 12:35 PM by Tom Philpott
When confronted with the question of where our food comes from, Michael Pollan and others have taught us to look in uncomfortable places like vast corn fields and industrial-scale cattle feedlots. Tom Philpott goes a step beyond, looking at where the stuff that fertilizes our cornfields comes from. Read More
The corn jihadi

With climate legislation flat on its back, Collin Peterson goes in for the kill 7
Posted 3 Feb 2010 8:27 AM by Tom Philpott
House ag committee chair Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) spent much of last summer gutting the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. Now that climate legislation is effectively dead, Peterson is taking aim at the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Read More

More Victual Reality

A grow-your-own jobs program

[UPDATED] While the big cats cower, time to build robust food economies 22
Posted 26 Jan 2010 7:13 AM By Tom Philpott
While the economy withers, Obama's caving in to the GOP and pursuing the path of Herbert Hoover. For Tom Philpott, that means it's time to redouble community-scale efforts build vibrant, jobs-creating food economies. Read More
Fall of the 'crunchy cons'

Why are libertarian right wingers defending a dysfunctional, state-engineered food system? 54
Posted 20 Jan 2010 9:53 AM By Tom Philpott
Eight years ago, conservatives seemed on the verge of embracing the sustainable-food movement. Today, the right-wing media machine cranks out ringing defenses of Big Food and Big Ag. What's up with that?, wonders Tom Philpott. Read More
Meat Wagon

After another massive recall, will the beef industry grope for techno fixes? 5
Posted 19 Jan 2010 2:45 PM By Tom Philpott
The Obama administration still hasn't chosen a director of the USDA's FSIS -- the office charged with overseeing the safety of the nation's meat supply. Meanwhile, the new year is off to a rollicking start on the E. coli-tainted-beef front. Read More
Unlocking the Gates

Bill Gates reveals support for GMO ag 44
Posted 21 Oct 2009 1:50 PM By Tom Philpott
The Gates Foundation is reshaping African agriculture. So far, it has refrained from declaring patent-protected biotechnology a panacea for African farmers. But if a recent speech by Bill Gates is any indication, that view may be changing. Read More
Half-baked

What Gourmet’s critics missed 5
Posted 13 Oct 2009 9:57 PM By Tom Philpott
Gourmet magazine was a pioneer among its glossy peers in making space for a new and fast-growing appetite among American readers: the desire for critical perspectives on the food system. Read More
GMO job--or new food paradigm?

Another Monsanto man in a key USDA post? Obama’s ag policy’s giving me whiplash 20
Posted 24 Sep 2009 12:28 PM By Tom Philpott
With new ag appointments, the Obama administration's food/ag policy keeps zigzagging between progressive change and the agrichemical status quo. Read More
King Corn speaks

An ‘agri-intellectual’ talks back 49
Posted 14 Aug 2009 1:24 PM By Tom Philpott
A lot of folks have asked what I think of the essay "The Omnivore's Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals," by Missouri corn-soy farmer Blake Hurst... Read More
Salad spinner

With House food-safety bill a done deal, questions remain [UPDATED] 19
Posted 29 Jul 2009 8:01 PM By Tom Philpott
The House will likely pass a wide-ranging food-safety bill Thursday. Tom Philpott doesn't question the need for reform--but wonders what it means for small and mid-sized farms. Read More
Chipotle grilled

Burrito chain’s Food, Inc. sponsorship generates off-screen drama over farm-worker issues 22
Posted 23 Jul 2009 6:29 AM By Tom Philpott
Chipotle Mexican Grill is sponsoring Food, Inc. screenings nationwide. But the film's director and producer--Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser--have publicly called out the burrito giant over farm-worker issues. What gives? Tom Philpott digs in. Read More
Swing low, revolving door

Monsanto’s man Taylor returns to FDA in food-czar role 14
Posted 8 Jul 2009 10:04 AM By Tom Philpott
The Obama Admininstration has named former Monsanto chief lobbyist Michael Taylor to a powerful role within the FDA. Some in the sustainable-food world applauded the move. Not Tom Philpott. Read More
Leverage on a bun

What the financial collapse can teach us about the food system 18
Posted 25 May 2009 5:00 PM By Tom Philpott
During the housing boom, signs of a coming disaster were not hard to see -- if you looked. Indeed, many financial execs did foresee the current meltdown, even as they continued pocketing cash from the bubble. All of this got Tom Philpott thinking of another highly leveraged system: industrial food. Read More
Follow the herd

Another symptom of swine flu: instant amnesia 23
Posted 11 May 2009 6:59 AM By Tom Philpott
Now that the swine flu that broke out last month is proving not so virulent, it has largely been shuffled off of the front page. But the conditions that likely caused it -- a global web of vast, lightly regulated factory animal farms -- remains in place. And we might not be as lucky next time. Read More
Earth Day reflections on food as an environmental issue 2
Posted 16 Apr 2009 11:01 PM By Tom Philpott
Toward a less efficient and more robust food system 7
Posted 3 Apr 2009 12:02 AM By Tom Philpott
Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup? 7
Posted 20 Feb 2009 2:25 PM By Tom Philpott
Reflections on community gardens and the legacy of MLK 3
Posted 23 Jan 2009 9:18 AM By Tom Philpott
Think locally, act infrastructurally 15
Posted 9 Jan 2009 3:15 PM By Tom Philpott
Will the Obama administration be the first to seriously regulate genetically modified food? 2
Posted 12 Dec 2008 12:48 PM By Tom Philpott
Impressions from Terra Madre in Turin, Italy 2
Posted 31 Oct 2008 11:05 AM By Tom Philpott
The story behind the corn industry’s cloying ad blitz 12
Posted 17 Oct 2008 2:53 PM By Tom Philpott
Weighing Obama’s and McCain’s stances on food and farm policyMcCain: Food Maverick? 5
Posted 3 Oct 2008 11:51 AM By Tom Philpott
Slow Food Nation was magnificent in many ways, but overshot its mandate 17
Posted 5 Sep 2008 3:50 PM By Tom Philpott