Politics | Grist

A news digest of recent water stories

Bring on all the water news—the good, the bad and the ugly 0
Posted 1 week ago It's not so unusual to see water stories topping the news these days. Even when that news is very bad, that's very good news indeed.
The $9 Billion Man

Clean energy opportunities 0
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced $155 million worth of grants to clean energy projects -- specifically targeted to CHP, waste heat recovery, and district energy. There's an even better backstory.
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.
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.
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:
GMO wishes, geo-engineering dreams

Save us, [insert techno-fix here], you’re our only hope! 7
Posted 1 month ago Watching SuperFreakonomics author Steve Levitt sitting next to Jon Stewart as they shook their heads in disbelief that everyone wasn't on the climate change/geo-engineering bandwagon depressed me to no end. Techno-fixes--you gotta love 'em. Or not.
Jonesin' for a Ho-Ho

Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin 18
Posted 1 month ago With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an "addiction model" for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food. As it happens, a group of researchers has just released a new study on the subject. The conclusion: the brain responds to junk food the same way it does to heroin.
Now that smarts

Will FDA take quotation marks off “Smart Choices” [UPDATED] 3
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Maybe trying to make Froot Loops a "Smart Choice" wasn't such a smart choice for the food industry. Looks like the FDA's about to impose labeling rules that are actually sort of smart (as opposed to "smart").
If the grass looks greener, it’s important to understand the nature of the fence 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago One of the things about politics is that solutions always seem easier to implement and more promising before they stand a real chance of being implemented.
notable quotable

Jill Richardson’s apt critique of the redesigned Senate Ag Committee website 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago La Vida Locavore's Jill Richardson notes the irony in the new Senate Ag Committee website.
battle royal

Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food? 40
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago While the First Lady has been exercising what diplomats would call her "soft power" for a while, i.e. planting a garden, making speeches on healthy eating, and so on, indications are that she's quietly developing a set of policy recommendations to reform the food system.
more government, please!

Can Jamie Oliver cooking lessons cure obesity? 10
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago Celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver is trying to tackle obesity by teaching people how to cook. Tom Laskawy admires that pluck, but he thinks it's going to take more than kitchen chops to slim down America.
Cap-and-Trade versus the Alternatives for U.S. Climate Policy 1
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Markey spokesman questions Breakthrough Institute 0
Posted 2 months ago
Local Happens

Illinois points the way to food system reform 9
Posted 2 months ago This development in Illinois managed to pass somewhat under the radar, probably because it took place during the dog days of summer. But it's still a big deal -- Illinois has a new law that starts building the infrastructure for a real regional food system.
Too Good to be True? 0
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
food blues

Food reform. Health reform. How about income reform? 3
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
First came the news that anti-reformer Sen. Blanche Lincoln has taken over the Senate Agriculture Committee. Now, from the US Census Bureau we get even more bad news for those hoping for serious reform of our food system: the Census Bureau announced to day that middle class income is diving.
delete and reboot

Can Obama deliver health and energy security with a half (assed) message? 0
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
On climate, at least we have one positive message: clean energy jobs, jobs, jobs. Normally, however, a winning campaign has four messages.
But is it working?

Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes—and questions 2
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
The sight of car buyers back in showrooms these past two weeks has raised hopes that U.S. consumers are ready, primed by government stimulus, to spend again. But questions remain.
Milk Money

[UPDATED] Sen. Bernie Sanders cries “monopoly” in a collapsing milk market 47
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Has the time come to bust the dairy trusts?