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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Sucker Lunch
It's time to get serious about reforming school lunches |
Tom Philpott |
06 Sep 2006 |
Victual Reality |
| Playground bullies aren't the only ones shaking down kids for their milk money. Despite lots of recent fuss about the poor quality of school-cafeteria fare -- and mounting evidence of widespread diet-related maladies among kids -- corporate interests are still lining up for their cut of the cash the federal government and families spend on feeding kids at school. Did you want fries with that? Pho ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, education, health, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Cold Comfort Farm
Could small farms provide fresh food year-round, even in northern climes? |
Tom Philpott |
30 Aug 2006 |
Victual Reality |
| Is the sustainable-agriculture movement essentially Luddite? It's a common charge -- and a fair enough question. The Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug, perhaps industrial agriculture's greatest living apologist, deplores at every opportunity the organic movement's supposedly technophobic ways. Addressing a graduating class a few years ago at Texas A&M -- that factory for fu ... |
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| Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, local food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Up Against the Wal-Mart
Big buyers make organic farmers feel smaller than ever |
Tom Philpott |
23 Aug 2006 |
Victual Reality |
| With Whole Foods continuing to dazzle Wall Street with its growth and Wal-Mart vowing to become the world's No. 1 organic grocer, now would seem to be a wonderful time to be an organic farmer -- particularly one with enough acreage to supply the corporate giants. According to classical economics, when demand jumps, supply should follow, pulled up by the good's rising price. But a funny ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, California, food, organic food, Victual Reality, Wal-Mart (all these topics) |
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Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood
Why 'the market' alone can't save local agriculture |
Tom Philpott |
16 Aug 2006 |
Victual Reality |
| Why "the market" alone can't save local agriculture By Tom Philpott 16 Aug 2006 The local-food movement has reached an interesting juncture. Through one lens, things are looking better than ever. According to a USDA report (PDF), the number of farmers' markets leapt 79 percent to 3,100 between 1994 and 2002. Community-supported agriculture programs -- wherein consumers buy a share of a farm's output before the season starts, sharing the risks and rew ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, CSAs, farmers markets, food, local food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality, Wal-Mart (all these topics) |
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Reform ag subsidies, but don't plow them under
Why the late, lamented Doha round wasn't really the answer for ag policy. |
Tom Philpott |
07 Aug 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Harvesting a bit of vintage Reagan-era rhetoric, L.A. Times columnist Jonah Goldberg recently denounced what he called 'welfare queens on tractors.' The right-winger's target was clear: The U.S. farm subsidy program, which doles out around $14.5 billion per year (depending on market fluctuations), mainly to large producers of corn, cotton, wheat, soybeans, and rice. As Congress opens debate on the 2007 Farm Bill -- the omnibus five-year legislation that governs agricu ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, food (all these topics) |
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China's shrinking farmland
As China's exports boom, its farmland shrinks and food imports rise. Coincidence? |
Tom Philpott |
04 Aug 2006 |
Gristmill |
| The philosopher Slavoj Zizek once remarked that the United States does still have a working class -- it's simply in China. With the U.S. manufacturing base shriveling (Ford Explorer, anyone?) and imports from China booming (set to surpass a quarter trillion dollars this year), it's hard to contradict that trendy Slovenian academic. China's manufacturing miracle means (among many other things) that even in a period of stagnant wage growth, U.S. consumers can march into ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, China (all these topics) |
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Sour milk
The case for boycotting factory-farmed 'organic' milk |
Tom Philpott |
02 Aug 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Of all the environmental gaffes the species homo sapien commits in the process of feeding itself, the practice of cramming megafauna into huge pens and plying them with corn may rank as the most imbecilic. The excellent web site Eat Wild documents the environmental ills of confinement dairy and meat production; here are a few. Cows evolved to eat prairie grass, not grain, which makes them sick. Huge concentrations of large ravenous animals create huge concentrations o ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, organic food (all these topics) |
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How now organic cow?
USDA will soon decide how much pasture time organic dairy cows should get |
Lisa Hymas |
11 Jul 2006 |
Gristmill |
| With demand for organic milk soaring, the stakes are high in the debate over what exactly 'organic milk' is -- and that debate will soon be settled, at least from a legal standpoint, by the USDA's National Organic Program. As Samuel Fromartz writes in The Rocky Mountain News, the NOP is now considering a proposed regulation that would require all organic dairy farms to meet a certain standard for letting their cows out into pasture. Current USDA regulations only require t ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, organic food (all these topics) |
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Ag Reflex
Factory farms let off the hook for water pollution, activists say |
Amanda Griscom Little |
30 Jun 2006 |
Muckraker |
| The Bush administration wants to let factory farms determine whether the animal excreta that oozes from their facilities into waterways should be regulated, environmentalists say -- and they argue that the plan, well, stinks. The cow factor. Photo: iStockphoto. Agriculture has long been a top source of water pollution in the U.S., but in the last two decades the scale of the problem h ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, industrial ag, Muckraker, politics, regulation, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Mackey v. Pollan
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David Roberts |
20 Jun 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Foodie journalist Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (review here; interview with Pollan here) makes some disturbing points about the increasingly industrial character of organic agriculture. It uses as its exemplar of "industrial organic" the burgeoning Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey took quite a bit of umbrage at that, and responded with a long, passionate letter about the work his store has done to nurture the organic mov ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, food, industrial ag, organic food (all these topics) |
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Hooray natural fibers, and please don't eat the sheep
Wool and silk pass the test |
Todd Hymas Samkara |
14 Jun 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Vindication is a strange animal (like unto a marmot, or maybe an echidna) creeping up where one least expects it. Such as the BBC yesterday. A fan, nay, a necessary devotee of natural-fiber clothing (see: Multiple Chemical Sensitivities), I often get flak from fellow outdoorspeople for outdoorsifying in non-synthetics. Especially so on high-altitude peaks in Colorado. But, newsflash, people: natural fibers like wool and silk, when worn correctly in layers, can ho ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, fashion, food, green living (all these topics) |
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You are positively glowing this evening, my dear
Champagne vineyards threatened by radioactive contamination |
Corey McKrill |
05 Jun 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Global warming isn't the only thing threatening wine. In France, groundwater less than 10 km from the famous Champagne vineyards has tested positive for radioactive contamination, caused by a nearby leaking nuclear waste dump:'We have been told for decades that nuclear dumpsites will not leak and that the best standards are being applied. In reality the dumpsite in Normandy is a disaster, and radioactivity is already leaking from the dumpsite in Champagne,' said Shaun ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, energy, food, France, nuclear power, waste (all these topics) |
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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 mélange of travelogue, economic ana ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, interview, local food, organic food (all these topics) |
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Pollan blogs on corn ethanol and local-food resources
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, food, local food, organic food (all these topics) |
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South Central Community Farm update
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David Roberts |
26 May 2006 |
Gristmill |
| If you haven't been keeping up: The situation at the South Central Community Farm has gotten even more grim. The farmers have received an eviction order. A variety of celebs and quasi-celebs and hippie ex-celebs have taken up direct action, camping out on the farm. Julia Butterfly Hill is even sitting up in a tree. It's not looking good. Go give them some money. (Meanwhile, the same city that can't cough up $10 million for this community farm is contemplating spe ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Los Angeles, placemaking (all these topics) |
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dh love life: emergency episode
Save South Central Farm |
Chris Schults |
22 May 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Over at Daryl Hannah's vlog, dh love life, she's posted an 'emergency episode' about the plight of the South Central Farm that Dave blogged about recently. Watch it now. (Damn, those fruits and veggies look good!) |
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| Topics: agriculture, celebrity, food, Los Angeles (all these topics) |
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Beyond organic: A new label
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food, Wal-Mart (all these topics) |
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How to make Wal-Mart's organic push not matter
An innovative Alabama CSA shows the way forward. |
Tom Philpott |
15 May 2006 |
Gristmill |
| When Wal-Mart announced plans to become the world's biggest purveyor of organically grown food last week, the polite applause from the enviro gallery grated on my ears. (Here's a spirited recent debate on Gristmill.) Even the New York Times editorial page could see through this move. While some greens cooed at at Wal-Mart's magnamity, the Grey Lady unleashed an appropriately cynical analysis: There is no chance that Wal-Mart will be buying from small, local organic fa ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, organic food, sustainable ag, Wal-Mart (all these topics) |
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ADM, high-fructose corn syrup, and ethanol
A speculation about why ADM's HFCS business is booming. |
Tom Philpott |
10 May 2006 |
Gristmill |
| In the first quarter of 2006, as I reported yesterday, Archer Daniels Midland somehow managed to boost the price of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) despite mounting concern over the sweetener's health effects. The company booked a cool $113 million profit from HFCS over the quarter, more than three times more than it netted in the same period a year before ($33 million). This, despite a slowing domestic market for sweet soft drinks, as consumers increasingly switch to j ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, business, ethanol, food, industrial ag (all these topics) |
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Small is still beautiful
My problem with David Kamp's NYT review of Michael Pollan's new book |
Tom Philpott |
24 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| In his review of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, published in Sunday's NYT Book Review, David Kamp expresses a bit of received wisdom that needs rethinking. Kamp, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and GQ who himself is writing a book about food, generally approves of Pollan's well-documented indictment of the dominant U.S. food system and exploration of its alternatives (which I reviewed here). But to the big-picture problems presented by Pollan, Kamp demands ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, books, food (all these topics) |
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They Put the 'Dies' In 'Subsidies'
Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' traced back to farm subsidies |
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17 Apr 2006 |
Daily Grist |
| They Put the "Dies" In "Subsidies" Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" traced back to farm subsidies You know that massive "dead zone" that shows up every year in the Gulf of Mexico? The oxygen-starved, life-free patch of water about the size of, oh, Connecticut? That's your tax dollars at work. The zone ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Environmental Working Group, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Midwest, news, toxics (all these topics) |
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SOL: Sustaining Ourselves Locally
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Chris Schults |
16 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| According to the Current TV Studio blog, SOL, a viewer-contributed piece about a sustainable development project in Oakland, will be airing on TV. I think this is a good example of how people like you, armed with a camera and a passion, can produce a short film that could potentially reach 28 million homes (according to a company press release [PDF]). Here's the synopsis on Current: This is specifically a piece on an urban sustainable development project in Oa ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, California, food, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Ethanol dreams and ethanol realities
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David Roberts |
14 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Christopher Cook has a piece in the American Prospect identifying my central concern about the ethanol boom. To wit, here are the sustainability advocates: An array of ideas are afloat to encourage a more sustainable biofuels expansion: a diversified renewable energy policy that, rather than expanding corn crops, promotes more wind power and cellulosic energy from switchgrass and crop residues (which may favor localized, small-scale production); a federal vers ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol (all these topics) |
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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. ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, books, food, green living, local food, organic food (all these topics) |
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