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Author |
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The Zone Die-It
Gulf dead zone likely to be more gigantic than ever |
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15 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:40 AM on 15 Jul 2008 The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico may be vaster than ever this year, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists predicted Tuesday. Thanks in large part to recent Midwest flooding, the oxygen-starved zone -- caused when fertilizer runoff from upstream ag spurs growth of algae that suck oxygen as they decompose -- could measure 8,800 square miles, or about the size of New Jersey. ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, fishing, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, news (all these topics) |
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Dispatches From the Fields: The 'far' in farmers markets
For some farmers, distant markets offer the best prices |
Stephanie Paige Ogburn |
14 Jul 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. I don't know how many different farmers markets readers have the opportunity to attend within one area. As a consumer, it seems reasonable to pick one and stick with it. But as a farmer, it's a good idea to sell at multiple markets; ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Colorado, economy, farmers markets, food, organic food (all these topics) |
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When Demand Rises in Deforest, Does It Make a Sound?
Demand for food, wood, biofuels driving tropical deforestation, report says |
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14 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 7:21 AM on 14 Jul 2008 Demand for food, wood, and biofuels will likely contribute to massive deforestation in developing countries around the world by 2030, according to a new report. The Rights and Resources Initiative estimates that if current agricultural land productivity doesn't increase substantially, by 2030 about 1.2 billion additional acres of land ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, deforestation, food, news (all these topics) |
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The bees
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David Roberts |
14 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| (thanks LL!) |
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| Topics: agriculture, video, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Too much of a good thing
The toll of agriculture and hundred-year rains on Wisconsin's farmland |
Jim Goodman |
11 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| We are, for better or worse, part of the land we live on. We can choose to extract as much as possible from the earth around us, the 'Manifest Destiny' (or nature's in my way) line of thinking. Or we can take as little as necessary and leave as small a trace as possible, the 'Seventh Generation' concept of the Native American peoples. If farming well were easy and profitable, everyone would be doing it. Farming is never easy, no matter how you go about it, but at ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, organic food, severe weather, sustainable ag, Wisconsin (all these topics) |
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Fumigant and Far Between
EPA cracks down on the pesticides on your peppers |
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11 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:35 PM on 11 Jul 2008 The U.S. EPA plans to tighten restrictions on five nasty soil fumigants that keep pests away from strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. The proposed mitigation measures include buffer zones, warning signs, air-quality monitoring, management and outreach plans, emergency-response training, and provision of breathing masks for farmworkers. The rules would apply to five sca ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, news, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Wal-Mart Comes to the Farmers Market
As the ground shifts under their feet, food giants experiment with new strategies |
Tom Philpott |
11 Jul 2008 |
Victual Reality |
| When you smile, the food world smiles with you ... maybe. Photo: Original by heatkernel For more than a generation, the major corporations that process and sell the vast bulk of our food have had it pretty easy. They've had access to cheap energy to ship food over globe-spanning distances and run giant food-processing plants; reveled in cheap inpu ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, food, green living, industrial ag, shopping, Victual Reality, Walmart (all these topics) |
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Wishing You Well(s)
Drought grips Iraq, threatening crops and water supplies |
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10 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 11:45 AM on 10 Jul 2008 On top of Iraq's myriad other problems, drought has hit the country hard recently, impacting crops and water supplies in many regions. Rainfall this winter was about 40 percent lower than usual in Iraq and Turkey, and as a result, the Tigris River near Baghdad is at its lowest level since 2001. In the country's main grain-growing area, Diyala province, some irrigation canals have dried ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Iraq, news, water crisis (all these topics) |
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Graze Anatomy
Conservation land in flood zone opened to grazing |
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09 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 1:26 PM on 09 Jul 2008 Livestock grazing will be allowed on thousands of acres of Midwest land that had been set aside for conservation, Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schaeffer announced this week. Under the federal Conservation Reserve Program, landowners are paid to let their acreage just chill out and be wildlife habitat. But after the region's recent spate of flooding, Schaeffer gave in to the requests of sev ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, habitat loss, livestock, news (all these topics) |
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Salmon lesson
Atlantic Salmon restoration efforts face grim realities |
Erik Hoffner |
09 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Stocks of wild salmon in the North Pacific are in trouble. That's news. What isn't news is that the spring has passed us by in Massachusetts again without returning more than a handful of wild Atlantic Salmon. The river closest to me, the Connecticut, saw just 132 salmon return, nearly all of which were captured at either of two dams and whisked away by biologists working for the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration program. The fish are bred at hatcheries so n ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, fishing, Massachusetts, salmon, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Organic carrots, or a new iPhone?
What people cling to when the going gets tough |
Tom Philpott |
05 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Things are getting rough here in the land of cheap food. Corn and soy -- building blocks of the industrial-food system -- are trading at or near all-time highs. And that's rippling through the food chain, from feedlots and food factories to the supermarket shelf. Here's the latest: [B]y next year, the price of a pound of chicken breast would climb to $2.63; beef round roast to $4.22, both up 10 percent. And the price of a pound of pork chop could be up to $4.78 - ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, economy, food, industrial ag (all these topics) |
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Chipotle grilled
When will the conscientious burrito giant pay up for less exploitative tomatoes? |
Tom Philpott |
03 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Tomato pickers in Florida: To earn $50, fill and carry 125 buckets. Photo: Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Chipotle Grill has received a lot of good press over its efforts to support local food systems in the areas where it operates. Even I've gotten into the act. In a post back in March, I reported on a conversation I had had with a Chipotle PR person: I told her that as long as Chipotle was committed to paying a fair price to farmers -- and no ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, food, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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Where the Farmed Things Are
30,000 farmed salmon escape off B.C. coast, endangering wild stocks |
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03 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 11:26 AM on 03 Jul 2008 Some 30,000 farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped from their pen off the coast of British Columbia into the Pacific Ocean. Farmed salmon can harm wild salmon stocks -- which are already declining on the west coast -- by competing with them for food as well as spreading disease. In this case, the escaped salmon are also a different species which is not native to the area ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, British Columbia, fishing, news, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Crisis and opportunity in the farm belt
Sen. Grassley: Screw conservation, let's grow more corn! |
Tom Philpott |
02 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Here in the U.S., our grocery bills are rising faster than they have since Gerald Ford bumbled about the Oval Office. Across the globe, the recent surge in crop prices is putting sufficient food out of reach of millions of people. The dismal human dimension of the food crisis has been amply (if sporadically) covered by the media. But its budding ecological component has gotten short shrift. The price surge has inspired a virtual tsunami of agrichemicals to be spilled on ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, industrial ag, Iowa, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Milkin' It
More use of growth hormones would boost sustainability of dairy industry, says study |
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01 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 2:00 PM on 01 Jul 2008 Shooting up cows with artificial growth hormones increases the sustainability of the dairy industry, claims a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Giving rbST to 1 million cows would enable the same amount of milk to be produced using 157,000 fewer cows," says the study, thus easing the impact that giant dairy-cow operatio ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, air pollution, food, health, industrial ag, news, scientific research, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Not Just for White People Anymore
How the organic movement can regain its relevance |
Tom Philpott |
27 Jun 2008 |
Victual Reality |
| Buying organic makes you feel good ... but does it make you think? On June 25, I spoke at the Organic Summit in Boulder, Colo., to an audience consisting largely of people who work in the organic food industry. This column is an adapted version of my talk. In his wildly popular satirical blog Stuff White People Like, the Canadian writer Christian Lander recently made some tart observat ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, organic food, shopping, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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Fish and pigs and chickens, oh my!
Farm animals consume 17 percent of wild-caught fish |
Erik Hoffner |
27 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Here's a guest post from Jennifer Jacquet of the Sea Around Us Project and the UBC Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C. ----- It is one thing to grind up wild fish to feed to farmed fish, but it is quite another to grind up these perfectly edible fish to feed factory-farmed pigs and poultry. After all, when is the last time you saw a chicken catch a fish? In the not-so-distant past, pigs and chickens ate grass, some grains, and food scraps. Today, in the throes of a ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, fishing, food (all these topics) |
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Amazin' maize
Corn tries to look a little too sweet |
Meredith Niles |
27 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This week's $4.8 billion merger of Corn Products International and Bunge Ltd. probably didn't catch your eye, but with revenues projected to increase 29 percent this year to $4 billion, you might consider paying attention -- for the sake of your belly and the environment. Corn syrup manufacturers are going on the offensive -- and that includes a charm offensive. The Corn Refiners Association -- an industry trade group -- launched a new marketing campaign yester ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, industrial ag, food, health (all these topics) |
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Flood, Sweat, and a Good Trout Mousse
Iowa's chefs and their farmer-suppliers get busy recovering from disaster |
Kurt Michael Friese |
26 Jun 2008 |
Chef's Diary |
| Roads and restaurants may be closed, but Iowa is getting back on its feet. Photo: Kurt Michael Friese The weather here in Iowa City has been gorgeous for more than a week. Is Mother Nature trying to make amends? While she smiles on us, she's still causing trouble for our friends to the south. The horrendous flooding continues, breeching nearly every l ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Chef's Diary, food, green living, recipes, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Nitrogen madness
The costs of unsustainable agriculture |
Erik Hoffner |
25 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Here's a guest post from Rodale Institute CEO Tim LaSalle. ----- Tom Philpott is right to highlight the tremendous ecological debt we've built up by depending on nitrogen fertilizer to run our crop production system. Depending on mined and fossil-fuel produced nitrogen for our food is no more sustainable than depending on peaking oil and mountain-top removed coal for our energy. There's no more 'cheap' food and fuel, because, really, there never was. The huge i ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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Pass the Sugar, Sugar
Florida will buy out sugar company to restore Everglades |
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24 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:22 PM on 24 Jun 2008 Nearly 300 square miles of sugar plantation in the Everglades will once again become marsh, as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced Tuesday that the state will buy the land from U.S. Sugar Corp. If all goes to plan, the $1.75 billion deal may be the largest environmental restoration in the history of the United States. Environmentalists have long lamented the sugar industry's role in ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Florida, habitat protection, industrial ag, national parks, news, progress, wetlands (all these topics) |
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Pyongyang syndrome
Agriculture and energy solutions to avoid the fate of North Korea |
Sharon Astyk |
24 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| John Feffer has a good article over at Asia Times Online. It points out the deep danger we're in -- how teetery both the world and America's food and energy systems are. It is well worth a read, particularly because of its clear articulation of the bind we're in -- the strategies we've used in the past to get out of disaster will only accelerate collapse in the long-term.. The tools we're using to get more food out of the ground take food from the future. The ana ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, North Korea, organic food (all these topics) |
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Check Mate, CheckMate
California officials yank controversial urban spraying plan |
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22 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:07 PM on 22 Jun 2008 California officials have announced that they will not spray the urban Bay Area with a pheromone this summer, delighting activists who had campaigned strenuously against the plan. The pheromone with the ominous name CheckMate LBAM-F keeps the crop-gobbling light brown apple moth from reproducing, but also has been linked to complaints of respiratory trouble in humans. Spraying had ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, California, health, news, San Francisco, toxics (all these topics) |
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One expensive cocktail
The toll of the shrimping industry on Southeast Asia |
Erik Hoffner |
20 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Southeast Asia would have fared better during the tsunami and the recent cyclone if the majority of the region's coastal mangrove forests were intact. Everyone accepts that. But many of the mangroves have been cut for firewood, largely to make way for shrimp farming. The cost of the mangrove-loss to coastal fisheries is great, since much of the food chain spends its early years amongst the trees' roots. But the human cost, besides those lost in the flood waters, is al ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, food, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Flood money
Midwest woes a boon to fertilizer companies |
Tom Philpott |
19 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The recent Midwestern floods have caused all manner of misery: Burst levies, lost homes, ruined crops, higher food prices, a gusher of agrichemicals and god know what else flowing into streams. One way to soothe the sting is to own shares in giant fertilizer companies like Potash Corp. of Saskatewan and Mosaic. These companies have seen their share prices jump over the past week. Investors may be bidding them up because the floods represent a sales opportunity. To ma ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, climate, food, industrial ag, severe weather (all these topics) |
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