Grist | Topics | 19 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 19 of 19
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Carrots, sticks, and crumbs The farm bill is over, so what happens next?	Aimee Witteman	17 Jul 2008	Gristmill
In a stuffy room on Capitol Hill last week, I joined a couple dozen activists and farmers to discuss the farm bill. Why would we bother to meet in hot-as-an-oven Washington D.C. to discuss the legislative mess that recently sputtered to an all too drawn-out end? While the ink is barely dry on the new farm legislation, the campaign for the 2012 Farm and Food Bill has already begun. The group of grassroots advocates met in D.C. last week to wipe the sweat from th ...
Topics: agriculture, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Hard to Stomach Federal food-aid package promotes GMOs		19 May 2008	News
Posted at 8:09 AM on 19 May 2008 A $770 million food-aid package proposed by the Bush administration may also aid U.S. agribiz, as the feds have slipped in language promoting the use of genetically modified crops in developing countries. Proponents of bioengineering say that GM crops are hardier in harsh climates and can produce higher yields; opponents say that just ain't the case. The food-aid package must be approved by Congress, and eve ...
Topics: Africa, agriculture, Big Ag, food, GMOs, legislation, news, politics (all these topics)

The Tale That Dogs the Ag Congress finally passes veto-proof farm bill		16 May 2008	News
Posted at 5:54 AM on 16 May 2008 Defying President Bush's veto threat, the Senate joined the House Thursday in voting "yay" on the $289 billion omnibus legislation that covers everything from farm subsidies to food stamps. In both chambers, support for the bill tallied strong enough to override Bush's threatened veto. The legislation has bitterly divided the sustainable-agriculture world. Supporters acknowledge the ...
Topics: agriculture, food, legislation, news, politics, United States (all these topics)

Siding with the Bushies? Why a Bush veto of the farm bill is bad for the food movement (and the world)	Elanor Starmer	12 May 2008	Gristmill
My former boss in D.C. once said that if she ever found herself on the same side of an issue as the Bush administration, it was time to go back and look more closely: There must be a hidden agenda. That was the thought that struck me as I contemplated the administration's farm bill veto threat on Friday. I understand the calls from some in the sustainable-ag community to veto the farm bill (and thank Tom Philpott and the comment crew for outlining them). The argume ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Thinking outside the cereal box Thoughts on the farm bill and the skyrocketing cost of food	Guest author	24 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is a guest post by Alan Hunt, senior policy analyst for food and farm policy at the Northeast-Midwest Institute and coordinator of the Farm and Food Policy Project. ----- The rising cost of food worldwide is more complex than portrayed in recent articles in The New York Times and the Washington Post. Like a magician revealing his secrets, the once-invisible farm and food system is drawing scrutiny from the media, policymakers, and the public as we realize h ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Putting your money where your mouth is How expensive is food, really?	Sharon Astyk	14 Apr 2008	Gristmill
There is no doubt whatsoever that rising food costs are hurting people all over the world. More than half of the world's population spends 50 percent of their income or more on food, and the massive rise in staple prices threatens to increase famine rates drastically. We are already seeing the early signs of this in Haiti and in other poor nations. It is also undoubtedly true that rising food prices are digging into the budgets of average people, including me. An ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, economy, food, legislation, politics, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Crunch time for the farm bill The legislation isn't perfect, but it's far better than extending the 2002 bill	Aimee Witteman	14 Apr 2008	Gristmill
With the new farm bill languishing in the last stages of negotiations, many are bemoaning its lack of sweeping reform, suggesting that we have gained very little from months and years of work. But if the new bill is not to be the visionary document that many hoped and advocated for, what, if anything, do we stand to lose if the new bill is vetoed or negotiations reach an impasse and the 2002 farm bill is extended for two years? There are several small but import ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, legislation, local food, organic food, politics, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Farm bill agonistes After all the fuss, looks like we might get an extension of the 2002 farm bill	Tom Philpott	27 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Photo: iStockphoto Remember the farm bill -- the omnibus federal legislation that generated so much sound and fury last year? Like a downer cow slouching toward its executioner, the farm bill still lives, sort of. The House, Senate, and president are haggling over it, squabbling over the bill's price tag and how it will be funded. If they don't hash something out by March 15, they may just extend the 2002 farm bill. Here's what Tom Harkin, chair of th ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Countdown to the 2008 Farm Bill: Part III Organic production and research	Aimee Witteman	15 Jan 2008	Gristmill
This is the third in a series of five farm bill fact sheets from the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. For more information on the status of all sustainable agriculture provisions in the Senate and House versions of the farm bill, please visit SAC's farm bill legislative tracking center. Despite the fact that organic agriculture is one of the fastest growing sectors of American agriculture, the U.S. is currently experiencing a domestic shortfall of organically pro ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, legislation, organic food, politics (all these topics)

Time for some rehab Agriculture is drunk on corn-based ethanol	Thomas Dobbs	14 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Thomas Dobbs is Professor Emeritus of Economics at South Dakota State University, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Policy Fellow. ----- American agriculture is becoming addicted to corn-based ethanol, and the economic and environmental effects of this addiction call for some intervention! The explosive growth in U.S. ethanol production from corn is having worldwide ramifications. December 6 articles in The Economist ('Cheap no more' ...
Topics: legislation, ag subsidies, ag policy, politics, food, economy, ethanol, biofuels, agriculture (all these topics)

On corn, meat, and the myth of Big Farma Why we shouldn't target farmers for our farm bill frustrations	Guest author	13 Dec 2007	Gristmill
We're very pleased to run this guest essay by Elanor Starmer, an independent activist scholar who lives in California. Elanor recently published an important paper (PDF) on the livestock industry with Tim Wise of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. As the farm bill lurches to its conclusion amid shrill rhetoric about the 'farm bloc,' Elanor redirects our attention to the real beneficiaries of both federal farm policy and conventional at ...
Topics: politics, legislation, industrial ag, ag policy, agriculture, food (all these topics)

Farm bill: Beware the industrial-meat complex Don't let Big Meat slaughter the packer ban	Tom Philpott	12 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared briefly Friday. I pulled it down because of a misunderstanding involving a leaked document. I've deleted references to the document in this post, but hope to be able to post about it soon. In the debate over the Senate ag committee's farm bill version, a key facet has gotten lost in the shuffle: the so-called "packer ban," which would prohibit meat processors from also raising livestock. Michael Pollan didn ...
Topics: animal welfare, legislation, politics, food, agriculture (all these topics)

Farm Bill: The 'delicate balance' the House left intact But key Senators are making noise about rocking the boat	Timothy Male	14 Aug 2007	Gristmill
When Mark Udall (D-Colo.) proposed shaving two-thirds of a cent from just one of the subsidies that go to cotton farmers, Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) said, 'it is absolutely unfair, once we have reached this very delicate balance within the bill, to reach in and single out one commodity.' That amendment -- to cut less than a penny from cotton subsidies and use the savings to protect more than 200,000 acres from sprawl and development -- failed by a vote of 175-251. So w ...
Topics: agriculture, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Myth: Subsidies keep food prices low A guest essay from ED's Scott Faber	David Roberts	12 Jul 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest post from Scott Faber, Farm Bill campaign director for Environmental Defense. (Scott also has a blog.) --- Congress is in serious negotiations over the next version of the Farm Bill. The debate is fertile ground for food policy myths and misconceptions. Perhaps the best (or worst) example is that old chestnut that farm subsidies keep food prices low. Here's why that's just a myth. Most of the corn and soybeans grown in America en ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Ag policy as if people mattered Time to kick it old school on the farm bill.	Tom Philpott	24 Jun 2007	Gristmill
The terms of debate around the 2007 farm bill's controversial commodity title have gotten rather narrow.On the one hand, you've got the House subcommittee on ag commodities, which essentially cut and pasted commodity language from the subsidy-heavy 2002 farm bill into the 2007 version now being drafted.On the other hand, you've got a chorus of critics, ranging from Oxfam to the Cato Institute to the Environmental Working Group, demanding an end to ag subsidies. This gro ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Democracy, food, and the Farm Bill Threatening local control in our food system	Steph Larsen	04 Jun 2007	Gristmill
When the Democrats took control of Congress, a colleague of mine looked at me with a sigh of relief and said, 'Isn't it great that we won't have to be playing defense against bad policy anymore?' If only that first impression were the case. In a democracy, we shouldn't have to be constantly vigilant for bad legislative ideas that could hurt the public good. Our legislators are supposed to be the filter that guards against schemes that would strip rights and take choi ...
Topics: agriculture, Congress, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Different Farm Bill this time around? Pollan weighs in	Jason D Scorse	21 Apr 2007	Gristmill
Michael Pollan thinks so. Let's hope he's right. Call your Senators and Representatives to make sure.
Topics: agriculture, Congress, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

What's at stake in the 2007 Farm Bill On the art and brutal economics of small-scale farming.	Tom Philpott	13 Apr 2006	Gristmill
Since moving to the North Carolina mountains in 2004 to launch a farm project, I've learned some sobering lessons about idyllic rural life. To wit, small-scale organic farming is an art form -- and as with most artistic endeavors, the hours are long and the pay is crap. How did I wind up penniless and exhausted, sporting a beat-up pair of Carhartts? You'd think I had set up shop as an abstract painter in some squalid, ruinously priced Williamsburg, Brooklyn, garret. ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Junk food: The Senate trashes organic standards	Tom Philpott	07 Nov 2005	Gristmill
The Senate succumbed last week to food-industry pressure and approved a rider that would water down organic standards. (Grist's Amanda Griscom Little a few weeks ago ably laid out the context behind the Senate's surrender.) This AP article states that a Senate vote last Thursday ... ... unravels a court ruling on whether products labeled 'USDA Organic' can contain small amounts of nonorganic substances. Earlier this year, an appeals court ruled that nonorganic substan ...
Topics: agriculture, food, legislation, organic food, politics (all these topics)

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