Organic Ag | Grist

Don't eat the hype

Ecological farms: the only real way to feed an Increasingly hungry world 3
Posted 1 day, 19 hours ago There are those who would like us to believe that industrialized farming is the only way to feed the earth's growing population. It's simply not true.
Plate Tectonics

No to Obama’s agrichemical industry man, yes to Bed-Stuy Farm 1
Posted 2 days, 8 hours ago This post marks the launch of "Plate Tectonics," a new feature that highlights ways that citizen action can move the food system in more sustainable directions. First task: jamming the revolving door between the agrichemical industry and the Obama administration.
Not just a river in Egypt

Michael Specter’s new book ‘Denialism’ misses its targets 49
Posted 3 weeks ago A big-time New Yorker writer has come out with a book denouncing scientific "denialism." Tom Philpott can't believe Michael Specter let climate deniers off the hook--and instead goes after proponents of organic agriculture.
Unlocking the Gates

Bill Gates reveals support for GMO ag 44
Posted 1 month ago 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.
Myth congeniality

Pollan shoots down organic myths at Grist event 25
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago Michael Pollan debunked some myths about organic agriculture Tuesday night at a Grist event in San Francisco, in a conversation with Grist food writer Tom Philpott and the audience. In response to a question about whether we can really feed the world without industrialized ag (ah yes, a perennial), Pollan pointed out that we're not feeding the world with it now.
GMO job--or new food paradigm?

Another Monsanto man in a key USDA post? Obama’s ag policy’s giving me whiplash 20
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago With new ag appointments, the Obama administration's food/ag policy keeps zigzagging between progressive change and the agrichemical status quo.
The Contrarian's Dilemma

James McWilliams’ over-hyped and undercooked anti-locavore polemic 15
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
In his new book Just Food, the historian James McWilliams lectures local-food activists on why they should learn to love pesticides and food shipped in from across the globe.
Peak oil

A tasting of five organic olive oils 4
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Homer called it liquid gold, but today it's so ubiquitous that it's lost that precious place in the pantheon. How does exploding olive cultivation wreak havoc on the land, and how do organic olive oils stack up?
It Could Be Verse

Climate-news poem: Cash for cukes edition 0
Posted 3 months ago
Could the White House farm stand be an important tool in the climate fight?
Down and dirty

A debate about soil, organics, and nutrition 24
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Is organic food healthier than conventional? Skeptics can't imagine it. Tom Philpott asks them to consider the soil.
Peterson’s Waxman-Markey amendment: the nitty gritty and what it means 6
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
This morning the House Agriculture Committee released the 49-page Peterson amendment to the Waxman-Markey climate bill.
Our genetically modified State Department

Memo to Hillary’s science czar: organic ag isn’t a ‘myth’ 10
Posted 5 months ago
Can organic ag feed the world? Hillary Clinton's science czar says no way. The science says otherwise.
Organically grown offsets

A climate policy for agriculture that works 7
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Not since Earl Butz's famous "hedgerow to hedgerow" comment of the 1970s have America's farmers been at such a turning point. The current climate legislation offers an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the way America farms.
A fine bromance

Snap, son! Baseballer Ryan Howard gets White House garden tour 1
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Two men and a veggie garden: White House chef/gardener Sam Kass shows off his boss' garden to baseball great Ryan Howard. Earnestness ensues. Isn't it bromantic?
Bra Va

Ask Umbra on eco-undies 14
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
What have you got on under there? Umbra covers the topic of green unmentionables.