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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
The USDA goes all lukewarm on cellulosic ethanol
In related news, the '07 corn harvest will break records |
Tom Philpott |
13 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| For decades now, the USDA has been dumping cash into cellulosic ethanol research (most recently through a joint venture with the DOE). So the USDA's analysts should know something about the prospects for mass production of cellulosic ethanol, hailed by its boosters as a panacea that can wean us not only from oil, but also from corn as an ethanol feedstock. So what's the latest from USDA analysts on this miracle fuel? From a report released last week: Althou ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, Department of Agriculture, energy, ethanol (all these topics) |
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Swap Meat
Study says eating less red meat improves health, helps fight climate change |
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13 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 11:49 AM on 13 Sep 2007 The British medical journal The Lancet published a study this week that advises people in rich countries to eat less red meat in order to help mitigate climate change and boost their health. Far from advocating citizens of the world entirely eschew meat, the study advised a climate-friendly cut in red-meat consumption of 10 percent of the world average by 2050; the average is c ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, climate change mitigation, food, news (all these topics) |
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Guest movie review: King Corn
Children of the corn armed with movie cameras |
Tom Philpott |
13 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest post by Nicole de Beaufort, a long-time advocate for local, sustainable, and accessible food systems. She is principal of Fourth Sector Consulting in North Oaks, Minn., which employs strategic communications to work with food system advocates and funders to mobilize the growing food movement. The film King Corn is set to open in theaters nationwide starting Oct. 12 in New York. ----- In 1977, Stephen King published a short story in Penthouse about some ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, Iowa, movies (all these topics) |
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Is eating local the best choice?
Strengthening community is an important benefit of eating locally |
David Morris |
12 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest essay originally posted at AlterNet by David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Some 30 years ago NASA came up with another big idea: assemble vast solar electric arrays in space and beam the energy to earth. The environmental community did not dismiss NASA's vision out of hand. After all, the sun shines 24 hours a day in space. A solar cell on earth harnesses only about four hours equivalent of full sunshin ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, local food, placemaking (all these topics) |
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'OECD warns against biofuels subsidies'
Biofuels subsidies will only lead to increased food costs and habitat destruction |
Jason D Scorse |
11 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This, courtesy of the Financial Times, is a welcome development. Hopefully, the Doha Round of the GATT will get restarted, and this can be addressed in addition to the more general discussion of agricultural subsidies. |
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| Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, habitat loss (all these topics) |
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Post-Labor Day link dump, the second
Exploring the tubes so you don't have to |
David Roberts |
04 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Mo' links! Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland Ohio recently passed a renewable portfolio standard that falls prey to the worst pitfalls of that particular policy mechanism: Gov. Ted Strickland wants to require that 25 percent of the electricity sold in Ohio by 2025 come from alternative energies, such as fuel cells, solar panels, windmills, nuclear and hydroplants. Half of that would have to come from renewable energy while the other half would come from n ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, climate, energy, placemaking, politics (all these topics) |
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Edible media: Local yokel
'Extreme localism' in the New Yorker |
Tom Philpott |
03 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism. Whatever else it has accomplished, the local-food movement has certainly conquered the appetites of New York's influential food-media editors. Following the lead of Gourmet, glossy mags like Food & Wine and Bon Appetit now offer regular paeans to place-based eating. The New York Times Wednesday food section sometimes seems like the house organ of the city's burgeoning eat-l ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, local food (all these topics) |
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Agribusiness As Usual
Huge organic dairy farm skirted organic rules, agrees to behave |
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30 Aug 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 12:11 PM on 30 Aug 2007 One of America's largest organic dairies has agreed to alter its operations to comply with national organic standards after the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to remove its certification for skirting the rules. Aurora Organic Dairy, which sells milk under the label High Meadows and also makes milk for private-label brands including Wild Oats and Wal-Mart, was accused ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, news, organic food, United States (all these topics) |
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Import-Export Business
How globalization is smothering U.S. fruit and vegetable farms |
Tom Philpott |
30 Aug 2007 |
Victual Reality |
| Earlier this month, President Bush roiled U.S. vegetable farmers by announcing a crackdown on undocumented workers. Last week, industrial-meat giant Smithfield Foods goosed the hog-futures market by inking a deal to export 60 million pounds of U.S.-grown pork to China. These events, unrelated though they seem, illustrate a common point: that despite all the recent fuss around loc ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, food, international politics, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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The Cornucopia Institute bags another one
USDA brings the enforcement hammer down on nation's largest organic dairy producer |
David Roberts |
30 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This, fresh from the Cornucopia Institute, is big news: Tonight at 7:20 p.m. EST, August 29, the USDA issued an emergency news release announcing that they had sent a Letter of Revocation to the Aurora Organic Dairy. In lieu of revoking Aurora's organic certification, the Agency has instead entered into a consent agreement requiring the nation's largest certified organic dairy to make substantial and wide-ranging changes to the livestock management practices a ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, organic food (all these topics) |
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Cali water madness
Interior Dept. plans huge water giveaway to Big Agribiz |
David Roberts |
29 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Brad Plumer points to this, which tells the story of how the Interior Department is planning to give away gargantuan amounts of water to Big Agribiz in California. If you'd like to dig into the background details, check out some posts we ran by Lloyd G. Carter, president of California's Save Our Streams council -- here, here, and here. It's mind-boggling. |
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| Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, California, Department of Interior, politics (all these topics) |
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'Oh, crap ...' says the industrial agrodiesel investor
Small protest may be start of agrodiesel's biggest nightmare |
biodiversivist |
29 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| A link to John Cook's Venture Blog in the Seattle P-I via a post by Glenn Hurowitz brought my attention to a guy named Duff Badgley (not to be confused with Duffman or Ed Begley). Duff is an old-school, grassroots, car-free, long-haired, bleeding-heart, dirty hippie environmentalist. His protests may very well turn out to be Imperium's worst nightmare. From an article about the filing of Imperium Renewables' IPO (initial public offering) where they must, by law, warn ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, politics (all these topics) |
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Grass Backwards
Carbon dioxide contributing to un-grassing of grassland, says new study |
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29 Aug 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Grass Backwards Carbon dioxide contributing to un-grassing of grassland, says new study Thanks in part to rising levels of carbon dioxide, the world's grasslands are turning into woody shrublands, says a new study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When researchers artificially doubled CO2 levels over sections of the Colorado plains, they observed a fortyfold increase in the growth of fringed ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, habitat loss, news (all these topics) |
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A Shareable Feast
On singles and CSAs |
Umbra Fisk |
29 Aug 2007 |
Ask Umbra |
| Hi Umbra! I've held back from joining a CSA because 1) I live alone and am worried about wasting food, and 2) I'm worried I'll get so much oddball stuff, especially in the winter, that I won't know what to do with it. I figure I can overcome No. 1 by seeking out some sufficiently hip neighbors and seeing if they want to share (although someone cautioned me that it gets hard to split the choice stuff -- she mentioned an incident with ... |
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| Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, food, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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More cleverness from Free Range Studios
A short video called 'The Farm Bill Food Battle' |
JMG |
29 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Funny and smart. |
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| Topics: agriculture, food (all these topics) |
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The Best Defense Is a Good ... Marsh
Two years after Katrina, New Orleans is still succumbing to water |
Wayne Curtis |
29 Aug 2007 |
Dispatches |
| is a freelance writer who's written for The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, American Scholar, Preservation, and American Heritage, and is the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. He recently traded Maine winters for New Orleans summers. Dispatch: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Wednesday, 29 Aug 2007 NEW ORLEANS, La. Katrina left these boats high and dry -- b ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Big Oil, Dispatches, Louisiana, Mississippi River, placemaking, severe weather, urban planning, water pollution, wetlands (all these topics) |
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Attack of the Helpful Tomatoes
Radiation breeding of plants is way better than it sounds |
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28 Aug 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 3:47 PM on 28 Aug 2007 Think two wrongs don't make a right? Meet radiation breeding, a method of modifying crops by zapping them with gamma rays. While "radiation" and "modify" are unpleasant words to many, "I'm not doing anything different from what nature does. I'm not using anything that was not in the genetic material itself," says plant breeder Pierre Lagoda. The ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, news (all these topics) |
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I scream against ice cream consolidation
How to stick it to the ice-cream Man |
Tom Philpott |
28 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I've written a lot about the consolidation of U.S. food markets, and have become jaded to facts such as: just four firms slaughter 83.5 percent of cows, and so on. But I actually gagged on my ice cream when I read this bit in BusinessWeek: The days of mom-and-pop parlors and local brands are fading fast. Today, the $59 billion ice cream industry is dominated by two global giants: Switzerland's Nestlé (NESN.DE) and Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever (UN). Togeth ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, food, green living, industrial ag, local food, recipes (all these topics) |
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Fork it over: Food miles to go
The vexed question of exactly how far our food travels. |
Tom Philpott |
23 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Update [2007-8-24 9:4:33 by Tom Philpott]: Now this is really getting vexed. As Gristmill blogger JMG comments below, the Department of Energy did not exist in 1969. (Jimmy Carter started it in '77.) Hmmm. Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center, mentioned below the fold, emailed me with his source on the 1969 study: a paper by John Hendrickson, naming the Department of Energy as the source. Rich is going to try to get to the bottom of this annoying mix-up. Meanwhile, I'm goin ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, local food (all these topics) |
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Big Ethanol
Economists say that only the largest ethanol producers will survive |
Tom Philpott |
21 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Of all the arguments in favor of government backing for corn-based ethanol, only one seems even remotely reasonable to me: that it could lead to real economic development in depressed areas of the Midwest. The theory goes like this: When farmers pool resources and build their own ethanol plants, they'll capture much higher profits than by merely selling corn to big buyers like ADM and Cargill. According to an article in today's Wisconsin State Journal, that ratio ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, industrial ag (all these topics) |
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Crops and Neighbors
On community-supported agriculture |
Umbra Fisk |
20 Aug 2007 |
Ask Umbra |
| Umbra, Please illuminate CSAs for us, how they work, and how your readers can join one. Thanks! (And by the way, that photo of a peach in your recent column is an apricot.) Bobbe Santa Fe, N.M. Dearest Bobbe, Alas for stone-fruit misidentification. Hopefully corrected by the time this question hits the screen, but still. A fruit ignorance that community-supported agriculture might solve, if one lived where apricots ... |
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| Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, food, placemaking, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, green living, Kenya, local food, organic food (all these topics) |
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Heard it through the bovine
Scientists try to reduce methane emissions by tweaking cow diets |
Katy Balatero |
16 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Did you know that cows belch every 40 seconds? I did not. A recent article in The Christian Science Monitor states this fun fact, and goes on to explain how scientists are trying to manipulate bovine diets to reduce the amount of methane that they emit: British researchers have begun a $1.5 million government research program to propose ways to change cows' diets in order to reduce methane production by feeding them grasses with higher levels of sugar, whi ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, climate, food, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Living Piggy Lives
On organic pork |
Umbra Fisk |
15 Aug 2007 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, Commercial pork production is a nasty, polluting operation and inhumane to the animals. What makes organic pork different? Simply what they are fed, or does it involve more humane and less polluting production operations? Related, I have been purchasing free-range, organic chicken for several years now. However, recently the free-range, organic chicken breasts have been humongous, conjuring up images of Dolly Parton chicken ... |
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| Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, food, industrial ag, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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