Grist | Topics | 18 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 18 of 18
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Dispatches From the Fields: Whatever happened to organic? The limits of consumption-based food movements	Stephanie Paige Ogburn	11 Aug 2008	Gristmill
In 'Dispatches From the Fields,' Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape. This Olathe Sweet Corn is regionally renowned, entirely local, and grown entirely conventionally and industrially, meaning farmers use large amounts of water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Its locality has become a selli ...
Topics: agriculture, farmers markets, food, industrial ag, local food, organic food (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)

U. of North Carolina students say no to Smithfield pork Pushing for 'fair food' on campus in the land of hog factories	Tom Philpott	08 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Last year, a bunch of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill got tired of the industrial dreck served up in the cafeteria. They discovered that the landscape around them was producing some amazing, chemical-free meat and produce and set about figuring out how to get some in school dining halls. Photo: iStockphoto Led by seniors Sally Lee and David Hamilton, they declared themselves FLO Food (FLO = fair, local, organic), and began negot ...
Topics: agriculture, campus activism, education, food, industrial ag, local food, North Carolina, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

How will we feed ourselves? What a fossil-fuel free agriculture might look like	Jon Rynn	06 Dec 2007	Gristmill
At some point in the future, humanity will have to produce its food without the help of fossil fuels and without destroying the soil. In a well-researched and succinct new essay, 'What will we eat as the oil runs out?', Richard Heinberg analyzes the main problems with the global agricultural system, and proposes a solution: a global organic food system. Heinberg lays out four major dilemmas of the current system: The direct impacts on agriculture of higher oil pric ...
Topics: agriculture, energy, food, fossil fuels, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Long-distance organic Is it really a savior for smallholder farmers in the global south?	Tom Philpott	17 Aug 2007	Gristmill
In the latest Victual Reality, I addressed the "eat-local backlash" -- the steady trickle of media reports seeking to debunk the supposed social and environmental benefits of eating from one's foodshed. Some of the charges are easy to refute. Hey, in Maine, it takes more energy to produce hothouse tomatoes in January than it does to ship them up from South America! Really? Try eating something besides fresh tomatoes in January in Maine. Hell, if you rea ...
Topics: agriculture, food, green living, Kenya, local food, organic food (all these topics)

The Eat-Local Backlash If buying locally isn't the answer, then what is?	Tom Philpott	16 Aug 2007	Victual Reality
Is long-distance better than local? Photo: Sheila Steele Attention farmers' market shoppers: Put that heirloom tomato down and rush to the nearest supermarket. By seeking local food, you're wantonly spewing carbon into the atmosphere. That's the message of a budding backlash against the eat-local movement. The Economist fired a shotgun-style opening salvo last December, peppering what it ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Freight Fright Organic farmers in Africa fear for their livelihoods as U.K. frets over food miles		03 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
Freight Fright Organic farmers in Africa fear for their livelihoods as U.K. frets over food miles Small-scale organic farmers in Kenya and other African countries are waiting anxiously to find out whether the U.K.'s main organic certifier, the Soil Association, will withdraw organic certification from food items that are flown in from far-flung regions. Concerned that the ai ...
Topics: Africa, agriculture, England, food, local food, news, organic food, shopping (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)

Maverick Farms Grist's own Tom Philpott and his farm get written up	David Roberts	31 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Grist's own Tom Philpott is apparently too humble to draw attention to the media adulation with which he is being showered. It's a task I'm happy to take up. The Winston-Salem Journal has a fantastic long piece on Maverick Farms, the small organic farm Tom runs with his co-conspirators. As the piece describes in detail, it's not just a farm -- it's a grand experiment in creating a local food economy and culture. At Maverick they host local-food dinners, teach cookin ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Yuppy chow, food miles, and labels Interesting juxtaposition of stories	JMG	31 May 2007	Gristmill
Interesting juxtaposition of stories: First, an essay on what has become of organics, as it turns into what Fromartz calls 'Organic, Inc.' Then, Energy Bulletin links to a story suggesting that some Brits might deny the organic label to food flown in from abroad. And, of course, there's the post right here on Gristmill about labeling as an attempt to help consumers understand the effect of their purchases. The issue boils down to the fact that our prices don't help con ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food, sustainable ag (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)

Bad day for organics? E. Coli news is bad news, any way you cut it	Chip Giller	15 Sep 2006	Gristmill
Grim headlines for organics, as the feds are linking Natural Selection Foods (Earthbound Farm) and its prepackaged fresh organic spinach to an outbreak of E. coli in many states.If the linkage is confirmed, I bet we'll be hearing a lot from organics skeptics (including chief skeptic Dennis Avery), who'll do their darnedest to say that organic food on the whole is a scary thing (inputs like cow manure may contain contaminants and dirt is, you know, dirty!). And we'll prob ...
Topics: agriculture, food, health, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Eat the Press An interview with foodie author Michael Pollan	David Roberts	31 May 2006	Main Dish
Michael Pollan has built a reputation as a sleuthing agro-journalist. In his writing for The New York Times Magazine and a quartet of books, he's trailed a steer from birth to dinner plate, traced America's obesity epidemic to corn subsidies, and narrowly, fumblingly outwitted a small-town cop who came uncomfortably close to his marijuana patch. His writing -- an engaging m�lange of travelogue, economic ana ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, interview, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Pollan blogs on corn ethanol and local-food resources	David Roberts	26 May 2006	Gristmill
Did you know that foodie writer Michael Pollan (look for my interview on Tuesday!) has a blog? Probably not, because it's hidden behind the cursed NYT Select subscription wall. Too bad -- it's a great blog, and deserves wider readership. The latest entry reviews arguments against corn ethanol that will be familiar to readers of this blog, and concludes with this: So why the stampede to make ethanol from corn? Because we have so much of it, and such a powerful lob ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, food, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Beyond organic: A new label	David Roberts	15 May 2006	Gristmill
If you haven't been following the discussion under this post about Wal-Mart selling organic food, I recommend you catch up. It's quite insightful, with a range of views well-expressed. One note of consensus seems to be this: "Organic," at least as denoted by the USDA label, falls well short of genuinely sustainable agriculture. Tom is better qualified than I to give a comprehensive description of the latter, but one important element is locality. Food that ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Let's Make a Meal Michael Pollan digs into the mysteries of the U.S. diet in The Omnivore's Dilemma	Tom Philpott	13 Apr 2006	Arts and Minds
In The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan diagnoses the national attitude toward food: angst. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, 320 pgs, 2006. Channeling the modern middle-class shopper wandering vast supermarket aisles, Pollan asks: "The organic apple or the conventional? And ...
Topics: agriculture, books, food, green living, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Iowa grows local In the heartland of industrial agriculture, a county goes local and organic.	Tom Philpott	24 Feb 2006	Gristmill
Nestled in the heartland of globally oriented commodity-food production, Woodbury County in Iowa has made a bold move away from industrial agriculture. Last summer, the Kellogg Foundation's Food and Society (FAS) website reports, 'the County passed an 'Organics Conversion Policy,' offering up to $50,000 annually in property tax rebates for those who convert from conventional to organic farming practices.' And then in January 2006, FAS continues, the county ... .. ...
Topics: agriculture, food, Iowa, local food, organic food (all these topics)

The Organic Verses On organic food and farming	Umbra Fisk	26 Nov 2002	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, I try to buy organic food where possible, but I notice that there is often a tradeoff with other factors. For example, organic food has often been shipped further and/or is more heavily packaged. How do I assess those tradeoffs? Ellen Watertown, Mass. Dearest Ellen, As I've mentioned before, the USDA national organic standards came into effect last month, an event that has caused both rejoicing and concern in t ...
Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, CSAs, farmers markets, food, food and agriculture, green living, local food, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

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