Grist | Topics | 7 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 7 of 7
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Wal-Mart Comes to the Farmers Market As the ground shifts under their feet, food giants experiment with new strategies	Tom Philpott	11 Jul 2008	Victual Reality
When you smile, the food world smiles with you ... maybe. Photo: Original by heatkernel For more than a generation, the major corporations that process and sell the vast bulk of our food have had it pretty easy. They've had access to cheap energy to ship food over globe-spanning distances and run giant food-processing plants; reveled in cheap inpu ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, green living, industrial ag, shopping, Victual Reality, Walmart (all these topics)

Forget the Farm Bill For now, local politics is the way to effect ag-policy change	Tom Philpott	02 Aug 2007	Victual Reality
Over the past few years, grassroots support has swelled for new federal farm policies -- ones that promote healthy, sustainably grown food, not the interests of a few agribusiness firms. Udder madness. Photo: iStockphoto The target of much of this organizing has been the 2007 farm bill. If past farm bill debates have been the concern of a small cadre of lobbyists and activists, this one ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Congress, farmers markets, food, industrial ag, Iowa, local food, organic food, politics, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

The Hand That Feeds Don't blame farmers for the farm-subsidy mess	Tom Philpott	21 Jun 2007	Victual Reality
Agricultural and food products are not like other commodities. Their price is that of life, and below a certain threshold, that of death. -- Marcel Mazoyer and Laurence Roudart, A History of World Agriculture from the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis Last month, after Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini dared question the virtue of certain U.S. farmers, many sustainable-agriculture proponents lashed out ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Buyer Be Wary On the peculiar American habit of demonizing food	Tom Philpott	10 May 2007	Victual Reality
Not long ago, a reader wrote in with an interesting response to one of my many articles condemning industrially grown corn. Yes, you can buy it! Photo: iStockphoto "When sweet corn appears at the farmers' market next summer, can I buy it in good conscience?" she wanted to know. "Or is it bad for me and bad for the land?" I can see why she might be confused. Even as U.S. farmers pre ...
Topics: advice, agriculture, food, industrial ag, 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)

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)

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)

Stories About: agriculture AND food AND industrial ag AND Victual Reality