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Author |
Published |
Section |
Rethinking the bottom line
Bill McKibben questions thinking as usual when it comes to climate. |
Anna Fahey |
21 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The old thinking, as author and thinker Bill McKibben explains in today's LA Times, goes like this: bigger is always better, growth is good no matter what, and a booming stock market is the ultimate measure of our success. McKibben illustrates the kind of lopsided priorities that naturally flow when we're ruled by the bottom line, pointing to a scarcely-reported White House report that said the U.S. would be pumping out almost 20 percent more greenhous ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Bill McKibben, farmers markets, food, green living, health, local food (all these topics) |
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'Drop-dead gorgeous guts'
Metamucil's bold new marketing, uh, move |
Tom Philpott |
20 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Most people know intuitively that when they eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, they feel better and probably even look better. It's a virtuous circle, and you can try it at home. Eat fresh produce. Feel better. Look better. Crave fresh produce. But the food-pharmaceutical industry (yes, they're related) doesn't make much money when you eat a lot of fresh produce. It makes much more sense to them if you eat a lot of 'value-added' (i.e., highly processed) ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, green living, health (all these topics) |
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Eat local foods, import biofuels
A message from Kenya and Biopact |
Ron Steenblik |
23 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Over on the Biopact website -- probably the best website for up-to-date international news on bio-energy science and markets -- they have posted an interesting commentary, based on a BBC interview, on how small Kenyan farmers, Mr. Peter Ndivo and Mr. Samuel Mauthike, are affected by the confusion engendered by concepts such as 'carbon footprints,' 'fair trade,' and 'food miles.' Biopact's message? Buy your vegetables and fruits locally, if you must, but please allow ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, Kenya, local food (all these topics) |
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Bad Wrap
How Archer Daniels Midland cashes in on Mexico's tortilla woes |
Tom Philpott |
22 Feb 2007 |
Victual Reality |
| Much has been made in the U.S. press about Mexico's "tortilla crisis" -- the recent spike in the price of its definitive corn-based flatbread. Media reports tend to focus blame on U.S. ethanol production, which has surged over the past year, causing the global price of corn to double. The situation stoked the food vs. fuel debate, showing that even marginally offsetting gasoline with ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, Mexico, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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The Senate slaps sustainable ag
And what you can do about it |
Tom Philpott |
21 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Ask small-scale, sustainable-minded farmers where they go for tips, and invariably they'll mention ATTRA, an information clearinghouse funded by the USDA. Just this morning, I went to attra.org to get information on how to make organic potting-soil mix for starting seeds. Like many farmers, I've printed out copies of ATTRA's indispensable guides to cover crops and soil management and keep them in a prominent place in the farm office. As a new farmer, I can't imag ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Congress, Department of Agriculture, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, recipes, slow food, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Under the Covers: Flower power
'Flower Confidential' has the dirt on the floral industry |
Sarah van Schagen |
14 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Just in time for Valentine's Day, garden columnist Amy Stewart digs up the truth about the floral industry in her new book Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers. The behind-the-scenes look at the multi-billion-dollar industry took Stewart across the globe to track down geneticists and breeders, visit flower stands and farmers' markets, and learn firsthand how flowers are grown and harvested in Latin America, Califor ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, books (all these topics) |
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My veg moment
That's it for me and industrial meat |
David Roberts |
07 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The other day I went to Costco with my older boy -- during the Super Bowl, for stealth. It took a bit of persuading to get him there, so I told him about the ladies who stand around and hand out food samples. Everything was going fine. A mozzarella ball, yum. A little square of pizza, delish. Even the chicken taquito was tolerable. Then I made the mistake.A hunched lady with a bright red cart was handing out small pieces of chicken breast in teriyaki sauce. Or rather, ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, vegetarianism and veganism (all these topics) |
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Ethanol: clutching at the public purse
Is anyone still taking this stuff seriously? |
Tom Philpott |
05 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| President Bush's recent pledge to raise the Renewable Fuel Standard to 35 billion gallons by 2017 dropped with a bit of a thud.David Roberts made a pretty good case that all the recent hype around ethanol may soon prove quaint: that, in essence, the ethanol craze will eventually likely crumble under its weighty political, agricultural, and technological contradictions. Maybe so.Meanwhile, though, farmers are planting a shitload of corn, dozens of ethanol plants are spro ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol (all these topics) |
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The myth of grass-fed beef
It's only natural |
Julia Olmstead |
01 Feb 2007 |
Gristmill |
| About twice a day, an email from a mystery man/unflagging anti-ethanol crusader named Ray Wallace appears in my inbox, chock full of excerpts from the latest ethanol slams and, on lucky days, choice quotes from politicos and the like sounding less-than-smart about the whole business. I'm not sure how I got on his listserv, and I can't quite say how you can (but if you'd really like to, let me know and we can probably work something out). Anyhow (I'm getting to my poin ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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The Short-Term Solution That Stuck
Where farm subsidies came from, and why they're still here |
Tom Philpott |
30 Jan 2007 |
Victual Reality |
| Note: This is the second of a three-column series on the 2007 farm bill. The first article is available here; the third here. Fencerow to fencerow. Photo: iStockphoto Last week, I argued that it makes sense for society to support farming. Everybody needs to eat, and most would prefer to do so without devastating the environment or exploiting labor. Well, no one can accuse ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Edible Media: In seitan's lair
Why the vegetarian critique of meat-eating should make meat-eaters squirm |
Tom Philpott |
28 Jan 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web. It's been a rough couple of months for meat eaters. In late November, the FAO issued a startling report claiming that livestock production emits fully 18 percent of global greenhouse gases -- more than all the automobiles in the world. Then out comes a big book: The Bloodless Revolution by British scholar and proud 'freegan' Tristram Stuart. The book seeks to trace the 'cul ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, industrial ag, vegetarianism and veganism (all these topics) |
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Paying the Farm Bill
Why federal farm support deserves a fresh look |
Tom Philpott |
23 Jan 2007 |
Victual Reality |
| Note: Over the course of three weeks, as Congress begins discussion of the 2007 farm bill, Victual Reality will be devoted to analyzing the political economy of farming and teasing out an agenda for a socially and environmentally sustainable farm policy. It's more exciting than it sounds, we swear! [Read the first installment below, the second installment here, and the third here.] Like a barnyard sow ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Risky Business
Thoughts from a small farm during the midwinter lull |
Tom Philpott |
10 Jan 2007 |
Victual Reality |
| Before I became a farmer three growing seasons ago, I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., and reveled in the array of top-flight local produce available from mid-spring to late fall. Long about January, though, a kind of local-food withdrawal would set in. Frosty, with a chance of failure. Photo: iStockphoto By this time of year, the legendary produce aisle of the Park Slope Food Co-op would be given over mainly ... |
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| Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, farmers markets, food, local food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Make way CAFO-diesel
The latest beneficiary of biofuel subsidies: industrial feedlot operators. |
Tom Philpott |
04 Jan 2007 |
Gristmill |
| So far, a huge amount of the government's lavish support for biofuel has ended up on the bottom line of Archer Daniels Midland, the king of industrially produced, environmentally ruinous corn. Now another type of model corporate citizen is in line for a cut of the action: huge-scale confined-animal feedlot operation (CAFO) players like Tyson and Smithfield.This AP story details the efforts of a couple of oil men to set up a biodiesel plant outside of a Missouri industr ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, industrial ag (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, consumerism, farmers markets, food, green living, local food, organic food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Livestock's long shadow
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Jason D Scorse |
27 Dec 2006 |
Gristmill |
| The NYT has an editorial today about the UNFAO's new report on the environmental degradation caused by increasing numbers of livestock. Money factoid: More greenhouse gases are produced by livestock than the entire global transportation sector. |
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| Topics: agriculture, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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A Bridge to Somewhere?
What we've learned from the biofuels series |
Tom Philpott |
15 Dec 2006 |
Main Dish |
| Future or folly? Photo: iStockphoto After spending much of the last several months thinking about the biofuels boom and its implications in preparation for this special series, we've come to a few conclusions. Like other energy sources, biofuels have significant environmental liabilities. Boosters' rhetoric about "renewable energy" aside, topsoil -- from which biofuel feedstocks spring -- is ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics) |
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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, ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, economy, energy, ethanol, food, fossil fuels, greenhouse-gas emissions, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Miles to Go
An interview with Missouri farmer and ethanol co-op member Brian Miles |
Yolanda Crous |
13 Dec 2006 |
Main Dish |
| Cultivating change? Photo: iStockphoto Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him, Brian Miles spends his days working the family farm. Unlike his forebears, however, he also sits on the board of Mid-Missouri Energy, a farmer-owned ethanol cooperative in Malta Bend, Mo. Grist talked to Miles about the present ethanol boom, the potential for an ethanol bust, and the ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, interview, Missouri (all these topics) |
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The Ethanol Bill
Congress prepares to soak the 2007 Farm Bill in ethanol, to the delight of agribiz. |
Tom Philpott |
13 Dec 2006 |
Gristmill |
| 'You can have Republicans and Democrats absolutely in lockstep agreement on certain issues in the farm bill, and it has nothing to do with parties. These issues tend to be commodity-driven,' gushed USDA chief Mike Johanns. Uh-oh. Looks like a good old-fashioned 'bipartisan consensus' has formed: time to use the 2007 Farm Bill as a tool for maximizing ethanol production -- which evidently doesn't already draw enough government support.Talk in the above-linked piece cent ... |
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| Topics: politics, agriculture, biofuels, ethanol (all these topics) |
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Are We There Yet?
Not quite, but cellulosic ethanol may be coming sooner than you think |
Jennifer Weeks |
11 Dec 2006 |
Main Dish |
| Even as organizations ranging from Consumers Union to the Cato Institute cast doubt on the environmental value of corn-based ethanol, facilities designed to make it are popping up by the dozen throughout the Midwest. Meanwhile, cellulosic ethanol -- which can be derived from just about any plant matter -- draws near-unanimous environmental raves. Trouble is, the technology requir ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, ethanol, politics, scientific research (all these topics) |
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By the People, For the People
Toward a community-owned, decentralized biofuel future |
David Morris |
08 Dec 2006 |
Soapbox |
| President Bush visits the Virginia Biodiesel Refinery in 2005. Photo: whitehouse.gov Biofuels won't single-handedly solve the climate crisis, nor will they deliver energy independence. But a base of widely dispersed, farmer- and citizen-owned biofuel plants can displace significant amounts of fossil fuels -- while also building local economies. What follows is a strategy for tweak ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, energy, politics (all these topics) |
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Keep It Green
To fulfill its environmental promises, biofuel policy needs a kick in the pants |
Ana Unruh Cohen |
08 Dec 2006 |
Soapbox |
| As war simmers in the Middle East and oil prices rise along with global temperatures, Midwestern farmers and politicians aren't the only ones banging the drums for biofuels. Now big-time investors, security hawks, environmentalists, and even George W. Bush have joined their ranks. But is environmentally responsible bioenergy a real possibility, or are we bio-fooling oursel ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, politics (all these topics) |
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Something Ventured, Something Gained
Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla chats about the promise of ethanol |
Amanda Griscom Little |
08 Dec 2006 |
Main Dish |
| Venture capitalist and ethanol booster Vinod Khosla. Billionaires are piling onto the biofuels bandwagon. Bill Gates is doing it. Richard Branson is doing it. The Google guys are doing it. Less well-known is the billionaire who kicked off the whole trend: Vinod Khosla, a cofounder of Sun Microsystems and former partner with Kleiner Perkins, the ven ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol (all these topics) |
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