Beyond Green by Tom Laskawy
Considering sustainability and the consequences of unsustainability in all its forms
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Shocking developments on the farm
Do diesel-based farmers dream of electric tractors? 7
Posted 13 hours, 1 minute ago Tom Laskawy muses on the potential for electric tractors in the coming age of Peak Oil. Read More -
Oh, SNAP!
More NYC farmers markets accept food stamps and sales soar 1
Posted 6 days, 14 hours ago The NYT's Cityroom blog offers some hopeful news on getting more healthy food into low-income neighborhoods. Read More -
just another bill to pay
Treat energy efficiency like a utility 0
Posted 1 week ago Tom Laskawy says we should also make energy efficiency a "utility" like electricity, gas, or water. Read More -
Infrastructurally unsound
Grist Exclusive: Will Whole Foods’ new mobile slaughterhouses squeeze small farmers? 10
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago For years, small-scale poultry farmers have had trouble processing their birds for market. Grist has learned that Whole Foods is looking to solve just that problem. But will the retail giant's effort squeeze the very farmers it's designed to help? Read More -
Tuna Blues
So long and thanks for all the fish 47
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago There was some hope recently that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the organization charged with managing the Atlantic tuna fishery, would listen to its own scientists and ban commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing so that the species might survive. Nope. Read More -
survey says!
Feed the world sustainably by 2050? Yes, we can! 5
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago Adding a bit more data to food system reformers' arguments, a new study led by Germany's prestigious Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research takes on the question of whether we can "feed the world" while preserving the planet come 2050. Read More -
good for bottom lines, bad for waistlines
How the 40 year drop in the minimum wage helped cause obesity 3
Posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago Tom Laskawy has written about the link between wages and obesity before -- with wages dropping since the 60s and healthy food prices always going up, people eat more unhealthy food. But now two economists have drilled down into these issues and claim to have found a specific link between a drop in the minimum wage and obesity. Read More -
Oh Rats
While scientists fight over BPA studies, Congress could just act 1
Posted 3 weeks ago A great part of the scientific debate over BPA becomes "quibbles over individual rat studies" -- and over the rats themselves. The best explanation of the Great Rat Debate comes from an article about the shadowy network of so-called "product defense firms" that are used by industry to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt over any research that questions the safety of commercial products. Read More -
the empire strikes back
Soda lobby gets its game on 4
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago The sugar lobby has kept their work against the soda tax off their paperwork and thus out of public sight. But its invisibility doesn't lessen its ferocity or, so far, its effectiveness. Read More -
ISI isn't so popular
New allies in fight against Obama’s pesticide lobbyist nominee 1
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago I'm sure many of you have seen the various petitions zipping around the Internet encouraging opposition to President Obama's nomination of pesticide lobbyist Islam "Isi" Siddiqui to the Office of the United State's Trade Representative. The argument against him goes something like this: Read More
