Grist | Topics | 66 Results

RESULTS		Results 51 – 66 of 66
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Corn ethanol myopia We need to rethink all food based biofuels	biodiversivist	29 Mar 2007	Gristmill
The lion's share of biofuel bashing on Grist deals with corn ethanol, because we Americans primarily use gasoline for our cars and ethanol runs fine in them, with few modifications. However, our pals in Europe drive a lot of diesel cars and the biofuel crisis over there revolves primarily around biodiesel. I think it is time we recognize that their problem is also our problem. A comment from Pcarbo alerted me to Monbiot's latest take on biofuels. He has now gone so fa ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, biofuels, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Punishment for gluttons? Rising costs affect consumers	Clark Williams-Derry	28 Mar 2007	Gristmill
One of the side effects of the rapid increase in ethanol consumption in the U.S. is that corn -- the main feedstock for ethanol -- has gotten much more expensive. Just take a look at the futures markets: the July 2007 corn contract started climbing last fall, which was about the time people started to realize just how quickly demand for corn-based ethanol was growing. Obviously, rising costs trickle down to consumers in all sorts of ways. If corn prices st ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, energy, ethanol, food, green living, health (all these topics)

Don't Make Me Pull This Cargill Over Amazon soy export plant shut down in win for environmentalists		28 Mar 2007	Daily Grist
Don't Make Me Pull This Cargill Over Amazon soy export plant shut down in win for environmentalists Greens did a victory dance this weekend as Brazil forced U.S. agribiz giant Cargill to close a soy export terminal in the country's Amazon region. The facility has long been the focus of a targeted Greenpeace campaign protesting rapid deforestation of the tropical rainforest -- which lost about 6,5 ...
Topics: Amazon, Big Ag, deforestation, food and agriculture, news (all these topics)

The Short-Term Solution That Stuck Where farm subsidies came from, and why they're still here	Tom Philpott	30 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Note: This is the second of a three-column series on the 2007 farm bill. The first article is available here; the third here. Fencerow to fencerow. Photo: iStockphoto Last week, I argued that it makes sense for society to support farming. Everybody needs to eat, and most would prefer to do so without devastating the environment or exploiting labor. Well, no one can accuse ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Tanks for Nothing On the promise of ethanol	Umbra Fisk	06 Dec 2006	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, Lately I've been struggling with the idea of ethanol as a green fuel. It seems to be getting a lot of attention in the government and media, and it is being touted as the answer to this country's petroleum woes (see GM's "Live Green, Go Yellow" campaign). But from what I've read, ethanol production has and will likely continue to have a negative energy balance and its carbon dioxide emissions are comparab ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, Big Ag, ethanol, placemaking (all these topics)

Celebrate, But Organize What the Democrats' win means for the sustainable-food movement	Tom Philpott	15 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
After being sentenced to death on specious grounds in 1915, the pro-union agitator and singer Joe Hill delivered a bracing message to his supporters: "Don't waste time mourning, organize!" The bums may be gone, but don't get too giddy. Photo: iStockphoto Under more celebratory circumstances, Hill's formulation doesn't seem quite right; after helping purge so many scoundre ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, Congress, grassroots activism, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Ethanomics 101 The shining promise of ethanol doesn't add up for farmers	Tom Philpott	25 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
No one can begrudge corn farmers their share of euphoria over the recent ethanol boom. Until very recently, their plight could be summed up by a bit of gallows humor I once heard from a dairy farmer: "I lose money on every gallon, so I try to make up for it on volume." Hopes are rising along with corn prices. That brief sentence sums up the desperation of large-scale farming. When p ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, energy, ethanol, renewable energy, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Spinach Cycle Latest E. coli outbreak should prompt rethink of industrial agriculture	Tom Philpott	21 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
For the ninth time since 1995, California's Salinas Valley -- the "nation's salad bowl" -- has been implicated in an E. coli scare involving salad greens. Avoid E. coli, buy L. coli. Photo: iStockphoto As I write this, no definitive explanation has emerged for the latest outbreak, this one involving pre-washed, bagged spinach. But while the feds haven't yet figured out how ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, California, food, Food and Drug Administration, industrial ag, organic food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Tortilla Spat How Mexico's iconic flatbread went industrial and lost its flavor	Tom Philpott	13 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
In a spectacle similar to the one conjured up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, a Mexican judiciary panel handed the nation's presidency to Felipe Calder�n last week. Even The New York Times, in its circumspect way, acknowledged that the new president-elect's narrow victory over leftist rival Andr�s Manuel L�pez Obrador involved seemingly illegal activity by Calder�n's governmental and bi ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Big Ag, business, food, local food, Mexico, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Sucker Lunch It's time to get serious about reforming school lunches	Tom Philpott	06 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
Playground bullies aren't the only ones shaking down kids for their milk money. Despite lots of recent fuss about the poor quality of school-cafeteria fare -- and mounting evidence of widespread diet-related maladies among kids -- corporate interests are still lining up for their cut of the cash the federal government and families spend on feeding kids at school. Did you want fries with that? Pho ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, education, health, Victual Reality (all these topics)

The Scheme of the Crop On ethanol	Umbra Fisk	31 May 2006	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, I'm a little amazed by all the bandwagon-jumping going on over E85 ethanol. I wonder if a corn-based fuel can be sustainable over the long term, given the general risks of farming and the disappearance of American farms in the last 20 years. And doesn't anybody remember the great potato famine and the danger of relying on one crop? Before the unsuspecting public spends zillions of dollars buying into the idea of an ethanol-b ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, Big Ag, biofuels, food and agriculture (all these topics)

Ag, You're It Agriculture interests push ambitious renewable-energy goal	Amanda Griscom Little	24 Mar 2006	Muckraker
A few more strange bedfellows have recently been coaxed into the sack with the enviros, hawks, and labor advocates pushing for a smarter U.S. energy strategy. The newbies include growers of corn, soy, wheat, trees, and even dairy cows, all of which could play a role in cultivating homegrown energy sources. Farmers have gotten wind of a new idea. Photo: NREL. Earlier this month, some 70 ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, energy, Muckraker, renewable energy (all these topics)

I'm Hatin' It How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare	Tom Philpott	22 Feb 2006	Main Dish
If you're going to talk about poverty, food, and the environment in the United States, you might as well start in the Corn Belt. So good, and so good for you -- until it's turned into soda. Photo: stock.xchng. This fertile area produces most of the country's annual corn harvest of more than 10 billion bushels, far and away the world's largest such haul. Where does it all go? The majority -- a ...
Topics: Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, environmental justice, gardening, grassroots activism, industrial ag, local food, New York, placemaking, Poverty and the Environment, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Turn the Eat Around Forgotten by many, a Brooklyn neighborhood nourishes its own	Tom Philpott	22 Feb 2006	Main Dish
Wander into Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood on a Saturday morning in summer, and you'll see a sight not uncommon in New York City these days: a thriving and diverse farmers' market. Neighborhood denizens cluster around stands offering free-range meat, fresh cheese, cream-on-top milk, and a whole array of fresh fruit and vegetables, many of them grown right down the block. An Added Value ...
Topics: Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, environmental justice, gardening, grassroots activism, industrial ag, local food, New York, placemaking, Poverty and the Environment, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Archer Daniels Midland: The Exxon of corn? ADM is doing for soil what Exxon has done to air.	Tom Philpott	02 Feb 2006	Gristmill
Amid all the hoopla over President Bush's State of the Union address, Archer Daniels Midland's quarterly report (PDF), released Tuesday, got little attention outside of Wall Street -- where it drew cheers, sending ADM's share price to an all-time high. At the company's conference call with analysts, the Wall Street Journal reports, John M. McMillin of Prudential Securities 'likened [Archer Daniels Midland] to Exxon Mobil Corp., which just announced its own record-brea ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

A Big To-Doo-Doo EPA offers air-pollution immunity to factory farms	Amanda Griscom Little	24 Jan 2005	Muckraker
On Friday, in the shadow of the splashy presidential inauguration jamboree, the Bush EPA offered factory farms a tempting tradeoff: more than two years of immunity from the Clean Air Act and certain toxic-discharge standards in exchange for participating in a data-collection program that would monitor air emissions from their facilities. Factory farms may be getting off easy, but not so the c ...
Topics: agriculture, air pollution, Big Ag, industrial ag, Muckraker, politics, US EPA (all these topics)

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