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RESULTS		Results 26 – 50 of 54
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Filling Their Sales If organic food is so popular, why are so few farms transitioning their land?	Tom Philpott	22 Mar 2007	Victual Reality
On a recent trip to Austin, I visited the flagship Whole Foods -- a vast space where people gather en masse to render financial sacrifice to that new god, organic food. From the depths of the parking lot, as you make your way up to the store, you're urged again and again by a sign that simply says, "Love where you shop." From the doe-eyed look of the supplicants ...
Topics: business, food and agriculture, organic food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Food and Punishment Colorado's inmates-as-farmworkers plan says plenty about our food culture	Tom Philpott	15 Mar 2007	Victual Reality
Last summer, the Colorado General Assembly passed some of the nation's most rigorous anti-immigrant policy laws. Debate was fierce -- but only because some GOP lawmakers fumed that the Democratic-engineered crackdown wasn't draconian enough. How times have changed. Essentially, the state's political elite -- backed editorially by The Denver Post -- took aim at its low-wage wo ...
Topics: ag policy, Colorado, food and agriculture, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Dishing It Out My address to the Southern Appalachian Youth on Food conference	Tom Philpott	08 Mar 2007	Victual Reality
One crop to rule them all. Photo: USDA Tucked into the rolling hills of North Carolina's Swannanoa Valley, Warren Wilson College is essentially surrounded by a farm. The school's 800 students not only tend the 275-acre farm -- which includes pastured livestock and vegetables -- they also provide the labor to run the campus. They do everything from accounting to plumbing to cooking in the ca ...
Topics: food and agriculture, industrial ag, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Fertile Ground Reviving a much-cited, little-read sustainable-ag masterpiece	Tom Philpott	01 Mar 2007	Victual Reality
The real Arsenal of Democracy is a fertile soil, the fresh produce of which is the birthright of nations. -- Sir Albert Howard, The Soil and Health Sir Albert Howard. Around 1900, a 27-year-old British scientist named Albert Howard, a specialist in plant diseases, arrived in Barbados, then a province of the British Empire. His charge was to find cutting-edge cures for diseases that attacked t ...
Topics: food and agriculture, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Bad Wrap How Archer Daniels Midland cashes in on Mexico's tortilla woes	Tom Philpott	22 Feb 2007	Victual Reality
Much has been made in the U.S. press about Mexico's "tortilla crisis" -- the recent spike in the price of its definitive corn-based flatbread. Media reports tend to focus blame on U.S. ethanol production, which has surged over the past year, causing the global price of corn to double. The situation stoked the food vs. fuel debate, showing that even marginally offsetting gasoline with ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, Mexico, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Recipe for a Revolution How a cookbook renaissance heated up the sustainable-food movement	Tom Philpott	15 Feb 2007	Victual Reality
In the postmodern United States, a cultural critic laments, "The pleasures of the table are rarely appreciated at face value." ��Speak truth to flour. A near-hysterical concern with health has replaced common sense, he continues, leading to all manner of dubious decisions: "Americans blithely drink sodas filled with artificial flavors and sweeteners, yet paste ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, recipes, slow food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Reform School Bush's farm bill 'reform' proposal falls woefully short	Tom Philpott	06 Feb 2007	Victual Reality
Bush's farm bill "reform" proposal falls woefully short By Tom Philpott 06 Feb 2007 Note: This is the third of a three-column series on the 2007 farm bill. The first two columns are here and here. The author promises not to return to the topic for at least a few weeks -- but will likely backslide from this pledge in his Gristmill blog posts. Can Bush point the way for America's farmers? Photo: whitehouse.gov/Eric Draper In this series, I promised to lay out new models for ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, food, local food, politics, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (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)

Paying the Farm Bill Why federal farm support deserves a fresh look	Tom Philpott	23 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Note: Over the course of three weeks, as Congress begins discussion of the 2007 farm bill, Victual Reality will be devoted to analyzing the political economy of farming and teasing out an agenda for a socially and environmentally sustainable farm policy. It's more exciting than it sounds, we swear! [Read the first installment below, the second installment here, and the third here.] Like a barnyard sow ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Meet the Lunch Lady Maverick chef Ann Cooper aims to spark a nationwide school-lunch revolution	Tom Philpott	18 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Even the most intractable pathology can disappear, sometimes relatively quickly. A sign above a water fountain proclaiming "no coloreds" would cause any American to flinch today. Just half a century ago throughout the South, such abominations formed a banal part of the built landscape. Ann Cooper puts a fresh spin on school lunches. Photo: Chronicle/Craig Lee I go ...
Topics: education, food, local food, organic food, slow food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Risky Business Thoughts from a small farm during the midwinter lull	Tom Philpott	10 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Before I became a farmer three growing seasons ago, I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., and reveled in the array of top-flight local produce available from mid-spring to late fall. Long about January, though, a kind of local-food withdrawal would set in. Frosty, with a chance of failure. Photo: iStockphoto By this time of year, the legendary produce aisle of the Park Slope Food Co-op would be given over mainly ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, farmers markets, food, local food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Poor Taste Why The Economist's recent assault on 'ethical food' missed the mark	Tom Philpott	03 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Why The Economist's recent assault on "ethical food" missed the mark By Tom Philpott 03 Jan 2007 Last month, the influential British newsweekly The Economist took the measure of the sustainable-food movement and found it wanting. "There are good reasons to doubt the claims made about three of the most popular varieties of 'ethical food': organic food, fair-trade food, and local food," the journal declared, and proceeded to subject each to withering analysis. Do ...
Topics: agriculture, business, consumerism, farmers markets, food, green living, local food, organic food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Feeding the Beast It's time for a real 'food vs. fuel' debate	Tom Philpott	13 Dec 2006	Victual Reality
It's time for a real "food vs. fuel" debate By Tom Philpott 13 Dec 2006 Grain piled high at an ethanol plant will feed only insatiable driving habits. Photo: iStockphoto Can U.S. farmers keep filling the nation's bellies as they scramble to fuel its cars? Given its evident gravity, the question has drawn remarkably little debate. Like it or not, though, more and more food is being devoted to fueling the nation's 211-million-strong auto fleet. High gasoline prices, ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, economy, energy, ethanol, food, fossil fuels, greenhouse-gas emissions, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Elite Eats Locally grown food shouldn't be just for those with cash to spare	Tom Philpott	29 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
As a critic of the globalized industrial food system, I often face charges of elitism -- in part, likely, because I neglect to acknowledge the system's clear achievements. So here goes. In the mood for good food? Look no further than your backyard. Photo: iStockphoto In human history, few pampered Roman emperors or African kings had as easy access to a broad variety of foods as the present-d ...
Topics: agriculture, farmers markets, food, gardening, local food, slow food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Reclaiming Thanksgiving America's national feast has seen better days, but remains well worth preserving	Tom Philpott	21 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
In every era the attempt must be made anew to wrest tradition away from a conformism that is about to overpower it. -- Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History" Eat, drink, and be mindful. Photo: iStockphoto Does Thanksgiving suck? There's certainly a potent case to be made. In a land where communal eating is honored mostly in the breach, ...
Topics: agriculture, food, holiday, slow food, United States, Victual Reality (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)

Snob Appeal Why everyone should be allowed to love food with unrestrained glee	Tom Philpott	08 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
I spend hours at a time in the kitchen, I approach my morning coffee with a quasi-religious fervor, and the attention I grant beer and wine selection can border on the Talmudic. Am I a food snob? Diverse authorities -- including my mother, a certain Grist writer, and several friends -- have claimed as much. Foodies bite. Photo: iStockphoto And while they mean it with affection, their co ...
Topics: agriculture, food, slow food, United Kingdom, United States, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Bread Basket Case What if the Midwest stopped trying to feed the world and started focusing on itself?	Tom Philpott	01 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
In Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," a sailor contemplates the paradox of thirst amid a literal sea of water. "Water, water everywhere," he famously laments, "nor any drop to drink." Is the sun setting on Midwest farming, or can it be saved by the dawn of a new model? Photo: iStockphoto Rural Midwesterners can likely identify w ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, Midwest, 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)

Chemically Dependent Decades after Silent Spring, pesticides remain a menace -- especially to farmworkers	Tom Philpott	18 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
In 1962, Rachel Carson published her landmark Silent Spring, which documented the ravages of agricultural pesticides, particularly DDT, on wildlife. The book inspired wide outrage and helped spark the modern environmental movement. It eventually led to a (now-controversial) ban on DDT. But since then, use of other pesticides has boomed. Sign of the times? Photos: ...
Topics: agriculture, health, industrial ag, toxics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Roughage Riders Senators threaten to impose industrial-strength rules on small vegetable farms	Tom Philpott	11 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
Salad greens thrive in the fall; they love brisk, cool nights and mild, sunny afternoons. Meet your greens. Photo: iStockphoto Here in western North Carolina, members of my farm's CSA (community-supported agriculture) program are enjoying salad mixes that include spicy arugula, mizuna, and purple Osaka leaves, along with bitter endive, earthy shinginku -- and yes, even spina ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Congress, Department of Agriculture, food, local food, regulation, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Heat and Serve Can industrial agriculture withstand climate change?	Tom Philpott	04 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
If the fossil fuels don't getcha, the genetics will. Photo: iStockphoto In the United States, the clearest signs of climate change so far have been stern words from Al Gore and a few hotter-than-normal summers. In Greenland, by contrast, global warming has sparked a revolution -- at least, when it comes to agriculture. A recent article in the German magazine Der Spiegel explores the dramatic new op ...
Topics: agriculture, climate, climate change adaptation, climate change impacts, fossil fuels, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

The Revolution Will Be Criticized Why the new 'Green Revolution' in Africa may be misguided	Tom Philpott	27 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
Why the new "Green Revolution" in Africa may be misguided By Tom Philpott 27 Sep 2006 In a bid to move "tens of millions of people out of extreme poverty" and "significantly" reduce hunger, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed with the Rockefeller Foundation to launch a new "Green Revolution" in Africa. These high-profile foundations have committed a combined $150 million toward fulfilling their admirable ...
Topics: Africa, agriculture, industrial ag, international politics, 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)

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