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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
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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California Connected on organic and Wal-Mart
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David Roberts |
10 Jul 2006 |
Gristmill |
| A nifty PBS show called California Connected recently did a special on organic food, focusing on Wal-Mart's decision to get into the organic-food market. It's unusually substantive and thoughtful (at least relative to cable tv fare). Check it out. |
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| Topics: business, food, organic food, Wal-Mart (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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Starbucks and milk
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David Roberts |
19 Jun 2006 |
Gristmill |
| My wife, who is in the coffee business (and an unreconstructed coffee snob), is fond of saying that it's misleading to call Starbucks a "coffee shop." Starbucks' primary beverage product is milk. Coffee is just one of the flavorings -- along with chocolate, syrups, chai, and lord knows what else -- they use in their warm milk. So while it's laudable, the focus on Starbucks' use of fair-trade coffee (and semi-recycled coffee cups and wind energy) misses th ... |
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| Topics: business, 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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The recipe for twins (sorry, vegans)
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Todd Hymas Samkara |
22 May 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Attention female vegans (and no, I'm not soliciting romance, thanks): If you're dreaming of birthing twins, you may want to read this. Women who eat a vegan diet -- a strict vegetarian diet that excludes all animal products including milk -- are one-fifth as likely as other women to have twins, a U.S. researcher reported on Saturday.But despite what some headline-writers suggest ('Vegan diet lowers odds of having twins' and 'Meat-Eaters More Likely to Have Twins ... |
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| Topics: food, health, population, vegetarianism and veganism (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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Wal-mart's organic bomb
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Kif Scheuer |
12 May 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Melanie Warner at the NYT reports today that Wal-Mart is about to dramatically increase its organic food offerings. In very understated fashion, she says, 'Wal-Mart's interest is expected to change organic food production in substantial ways.' Um, yeah, it sure will. Wal-Mart's plan is to sell organics ~10% over the price of non-organics -- a much closer premium than you can get elsewhere. It's also getting brands like Pepsi, Rice Krispies, and Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese in th ... |
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| Topics: business, food, organic food, 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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100-mile diet website and book
Check 'em out. |
Chris Schults |
26 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Last year, I tried to keep up with Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon and their campaign to follow a 100-mile diet. I failed, by only blogging about parts one through five. Since then, parts six through eleven have been published, which can now all be found on the 100-mile diet website:On the first day of spring 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon made a commitment to live for a full year on food and drink drawn from within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver, British C ... |
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| Topics: books, food, local food, Vancouver, websites (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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Under the Covers: Getcha grub on
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Sarah van Schagen |
21 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Grub, as defined in the book of the same name by Anna Lappé and Bryant Terry: grub* (grb), n. 1. Grub is organic and sustainably raised whole and locally grown foods; 2. Grub is produced with fairness from seed to table; 3. Grub is good for our bodies, our communities, and our environment. *Grub should be universal ... and it's delicious. Last night, I went with a cadre of social Gristers to a book reading and signing by Lappé and Terry at the Elliott Bay b ... |
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| Topics: books, food, organic food (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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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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Is FishScam.com a scam?
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Chris Schults |
08 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| I was reading the April 10th edition of The New Yorker this morning (for the cartoons, I'll admit). As I was flipping through the pages searching for the next illustration, I came across this full page ad that featured a message that caught me completely off guard. The smaller text reads as follows: Environmental scares about trace amounts of mercury in fish rely on a study of island natives who eat huge amounts of whale meat. However, scientists who study heavy ... |
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| Topics: food, mercury, oceans, toxics (all these topics) |
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Have Some Class: Eat it up
Universities up their organic offerings |
Sarah van Schagen |
04 Apr 2006 |
Gristmill |
| At about this time yesterday, students filling up their trays at the U.C. Berkeley salad bar realized something was missing: the carcinogens. On Monday, the Cal campus debuted an organic salad bar at one of the student dining facilities. Though many schools are offering organic options these days, Berkeley is the first in the nation to have an officially certified organic salad bar, complete with separate prep facilities -- so as to save the organic shreds of lett ... |
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| Topics: education, food, organic food (all these topics) |
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The Meatrix II: Now playing at a website near you
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Chris Schults |
29 Mar 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Ladies and gentleman. Boys and girls. The Meatrix II: Revolting is finally here. Help Leo, Moopheus, and Chickity fight factory farms. |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, movies (all these topics) |
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Got organic milk?
It may not be as eco as you think |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
22 Mar 2006 |
Gristmill |
| The Cornucopia Institute, an organic watchdog organization, has released a report (PDF) on the 'organic-ness' of 68 dairy name brands and private labels. While cow-conscious consumers might assume that the word 'organic' on the label means that their milk mustache comes from a happy cow grazing in non-pesticide-laden pastures, that's not always the case; guidelines for organic certification can be variously interpreted, and the USDA is lax on enforcing regulation ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, organic food (all these topics) |
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Food, sustainability, and the environmentalists
A food-politics writer expresses angst at the obscurity of his topic |
Tom Philpott |
21 Mar 2006 |
Gristmill |
| The other day, a prominent Canadian journalist paid me a visit to interview me for his book on building a sustainable future. At one point, I expounded on the closed-nutrient cycle of old-school organic farming, contrasting it with what writer Michael Pollan deemed the 'industrial-organic' way. In the old-school organic style, which relies on animals, farm wastes are recycled into the soil, providing all the nutrients necessary for the next harvest. The industrial-org ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics) |
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