Grist | Topics | 16 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 16 of 16
Headline	Author	Published	Section
A prince's dream: Far-fetched fairytale or a real future of food? Prince Charles sparked controversy when he expressed doubt in GM crops	Meredith Niles	15 Aug 2008	Gristmill
The British royal family is no stranger to controversy and media attention, but Prince Charles caused a new kind of worldwide media flurry on Tuesday when he sat down for an exclusive interview with the Telegraph (U.K.). This time around, though, it seems unlikely the media story will be covered by the British tabloids since the Prince of Wales didn't discuss his sons, his love life, or even his future reign as king. Instead, the Prince talked about genetically modifi ...
Topics: agriculture, celebrity, food, GMOs, industrial ag, United Kingdom (all these topics)

Even Monsanto rejects synthetic bovine growth hormones! Evidently, the GMO giant has better things to do than to harass dairies over labels	Tom Philpott	09 Aug 2008	Gristmill
After years of battling in court to prevent dairies from labeling their milk rBGH-free, Monsanto is apparently udderly fed up. Facing a growing backlash against its genetically engineered Recombinant bovine growth hormone (hence rBGH) that once conquered the U.S. dairy industry, the Gene Giant is selling rights to produce Posilac, its name for the the product. Posilac had become increasingly marginal to Monsanto's profit growth, which derives mainly from its dominance ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Monsanto: still reading blogs PR firm Edleman launches charm offensive for the GMO giant	Tom Philpott	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Not so long ago, I was an utterly obscure farmer-blogger dashing off indictments of industrial agriculture for some 30 loyal readers (many of them house-mates and relatives). And then, evidently by the miracle of the Google search, a functionary from Monsanto's legal office discovered my blog and fired off a cease-and-desist letter. I published it, added a tart response, and alerted a few editors to the exchange. Within days, my site meter showed thousands of reade ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Monsanto U. Public-university researchers get cash for studying GMOs -- and the shaft for studying organic ag	Guest author	20 Feb 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Nancy Scola, a Brooklyn-based writer. Her essay, which first appeared on Alternet, is a lucid, detailed look at what has become of public-university agriculture research in an age of budget austerity. ----- I've startled a bug scientist. 'Yeah, now I'm nervous,' said Mike Hoffmann, a Cornell University entomologist and crop specialist who spends his days with cucumber beetles and small wasps. But he's also in charge of keeping the ...
Topics: agriculture, education, food, GMOs, industrial ag, organic food, scientific research (all these topics)

Attack of the superweeds While global GMO acreage surges, herbicide-resistent weeds thrive	Tom Philpott	14 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Global acreage of genetically modified crops jumped 12 percent in 2007 -- 'the second highest increase in global biotech crop area in the last five years,' gushes a report from the pro-GMO International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). Farmers planted an additional 30 million acres of GM crops in 2007, an area nearly equal to the land mass of Iowa (a huge swath of which itself is planted in GM crops). Overall, GM crops cover 282.4 mil ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag, toxics (all these topics)

Biofuels: good for agrochemical/GMO biz GMO giant Monsanto wows Wall Street, consolidates its grip on South America	Tom Philpott	13 Feb 2008	Gristmill
While debate rages on Gristmill and elsewhere about whether biofuels are worth a damn ecologically, investors in agribusiness firms are quietly counting their cash.As corn and soy prices approach all-time highs, driven up by government biofuel mandates, farmers are scrambling to plant as much as they can -- and lashing the earth with chemicals to maximize yields. At a Wall Street meeting on Tuesday, genetically modified seed/herbicide giant Monsanto promised investors ...
Topics: agriculture, Argentina, Big Ag, biofuels, Brazil, business, energy, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

GMOs as environmental pollution Schmeiser to play David to Monsanto's Goliath again	Kurt Michael Friese	28 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Most of you will recall the high-profile battle fought by Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser when he was sued for growing their GM seed without tithing to the corporation for the privilege. Schmeiser insisted that Monsanto's patented DNA blew onto his land, but he lost an acrimonious fight in Canada's Supreme Court anyway. Now Percy's back for more. Schmeiser has filed suit against the agribusiness giant in his Bruno, Saskatchewan, small claims court ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, GMOs, industrial ag, litigation (all these topics)

Eco-Farm: Seeds of ignorance Investigative journalist reveals serious safety concerns about GM food	Tom Philpott	25 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Note: For the next few days I'll be reporting from Eco-Farm, the annual conference held by the Ecological Farming Association of California. At Eco-Farm, some 1,400-1,500 organic farmers, Big Organic marketers, and sundry sustainable-ag enthusiasts pack into a rustic, beautiful seaside conference hall an hour-and-a-half south of San Francisco to talk farming amid the dunes. I've been writing about genetically modified food since I first took up food-politics writing ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, health, industrial ag (all these topics)

Seeds of wisdom Seed-savers and greens unite to challenge Monsanto's latest cash cow	Tom Philpott	23 Jan 2008	Gristmill
For years, candy makers and other industrial food manufacturers refused to use genetically modified sugar, fearing a consumer backlash. Photo: iStockphoto As a result, Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beet -- designed to withstand heavy application of Roundup, Monsanto's herbicide -- has been dead in the water. (Sugar beets, grown in the Midwest and Northwest, account for half of U.S. sugar production; cane, grown mainly in Florida, provides the rest.) B ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Franken-broccoli? The GM seed giants lumber into the veggie patch	Tom Philpott	19 Dec 2007	Gristmill
In 2005, Monsanto bought Seminis, the world's largest vegetable-seed company. At the time, Monsanto -- which enjoys a dominant position in the global market for GM soy, corn, and cotton traits -- claimed it had no imminent plans to subject veggies to genetic modification. Now I learn from the excellent new blog SeedStory, by Matthew Dillon of the Organic Seed Alliance, that Monsanto is working on RoundUp Ready lettuce. And the few other transnational giants that domi ...
Topics: food, agriculture, business, industrial ag, GMOs (all these topics)

A Kernel of Wisdom Europe may ban two types of genetically modified corn		26 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 9:58 AM on 26 Nov 2007 Europe may end up sans two types of genetically modified corn, as E.U. environment officials have proposed a ban on the seeds. Officials say the GM corn, made by powerful biotech companies DuPont Pioneer, Dow Agrosciences, and Syngenta, could harm wildlife and disrupt food chains. E.U. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the genetically modified corn could have "unexpected ecos ...
Topics: agriculture, European Union, GMOs, industrial ag, news (all these topics)

Bush names a new USDA chief The former governor of North Dakota loves biofuel and GMOs	Tom Philpott	01 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Speaking yesterday at a gathering of the Grocery Manufacturers Association -- a trade group whose member list reads like a directory of multinational food corporations -- President Bush waxed coy about his new choice for USDA secretary. This afternoon I'm going to name a new Secretary of Agriculture. I'm not going to tell you who it is, because I'm trying to -- [laughter] -- but I think you'll like him. He understands agriculture, of course, and he'll be a good follo ...
Topics: Department of Agriculture, GMOs, agriculture, biofuels, politics, industrial ag (all these topics)

Edible Media: Gene blues Why we may one day bitterly regret GM crops	Tom Philpott	03 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web. I spent the weekend in Atlanta at the first-ever U.S. Social Forum -- an extremely interesting event, but not the place to go for someone needing to catch up on rest. Now I'm laid up with a sore throat, which gave me a chance to do today something I never get to do anymore -- curl up with the print version of the Sunday New York Times. I especially like to dig into the b ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Scientists create new crop of genetically modified crops Pesticide efficacy is decreasing	Maywa Montenegro	31 May 2007	Gristmill
If you've ever colored Easter eggs -- I mean the old-fashioned way, with food-coloring, not with those plastic wraparounds -- then you know that when you mess up, you have two options: rinse them off with some white vinegar and start over, or forge ahead, layer even more color on top, and hope that something presentable emerges. Okay, so that metaphor's a bit of a stretch, but that's what came to mind when I read, earlier this week, that scientists at the Univers ...
Topics: agriculture, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Monsanto tastes defeat Twice in one week!	Tom Philpott	08 May 2007	Gristmill
Monsanto has barreled its way toward dominance over the global seed market with strong-arm tactics and friends in high places. As evidence of the former, the roguish company once threatened to sue me -- then a neophyte blogger with 30 readers -- on the most trivial grounds possible. As for the latter, software monopolist Bill Gates, evidently impressed with the way Monsanto tosses around its market girth, has tapped a former Monsanto exec to help lead his foundation' ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

The WSJ documents GM contamination	Tom Philpott	08 Nov 2005	Gristmill
The Wall Street Journal came out with a terrific page-one article documenting 'genetic pollution' -- the damage caused when genetically modified crops cross-pollinate with conventional crops. The article leads with an organic farmer in Spain whose sells his red field corn at a premium to nearby chicken farmers, who prize the product because it 'it gives their meat and eggs a rosy color.' (I'd be willing to bet that rosy color also translates to higher nutrition conte ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

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