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RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 170
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Monsanto finds a buyer for its rBGH business Pharma giant Lilly snaps up Posilac for 'at least' $300 million	Tom Philpott	20 Aug 2008	Gristmill
A week or so ago, commenting on news that Monsanto was looking to unload its much-despised bovine-growth-hormone business, I offered this nugget of wisdom: Whatever company buys it probably won't have Monsanto's deep pockets. Hmmm. What's that word again? Oh, yeah -- W-R-O-N-G. (Hat tip to Jill of La Vida Locavore.)Today, Monsanto announced that Eli Lilly, one of the biggest of the Big Pharma companies, had bought Posilac (brand name for rBGH) for $300 million. AP r ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

Dispatches From the Fields: Mowing -- and re-growing -- the grassroots Now that farmers have gotten big or gotten out, it's up to alternative farmers	Ariane Lotti	19 Aug 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. ----- Since the early 1970s, if not before, U.S. farm policy has hinged on the mantra, 'get big or get out.' Larry Bee got big. He currently farms 5,000 acres in North Central Iowa and produces over 600,000 bushels of corn and about 90,00 ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, food, grassroots activism, industrial ag, Iowa (all these topics)

A prince's dream: Far-fetched fairytale or a real future of food? Prince Charles sparked controversy when he expressed doubt in GM crops	Meredith Niles	15 Aug 2008	Gristmill
The British royal family is no stranger to controversy and media attention, but Prince Charles caused a new kind of worldwide media flurry on Tuesday when he sat down for an exclusive interview with the Telegraph (U.K.). This time around, though, it seems unlikely the media story will be covered by the British tabloids since the Prince of Wales didn't discuss his sons, his love life, or even his future reign as king. Instead, the Prince talked about genetically modifi ...
Topics: agriculture, celebrity, food, GMOs, industrial ag, United Kingdom (all these topics)

More on markets and 'choice' The food system as 'largest quasi-public utility in the world'	Tom Philpott	13 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Apropos of the recent debate on Gristmill sparked by James Galbraith's polemic on free markets, I got to thinking about something I recently read in Paul Roberts' book The End of Food (which I reviewed here): [D]uring the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Congress created a vast system of of support for food production: a department of agriculture, whose mission was the provision of affordable food; a system of publicly funded farm programs, meant to maxi ...
Topics: agriculture, economy, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

Corn chronicles USDA says crops have shaken off flood damage	Tom Philpott	13 Aug 2008	Gristmill
In early June, heavy storms and floods pounded the Midwest, threatening the 2008 corn and soy harvests. With heavy U.S. and European biofuel mandates in place, any major shortfall in these key crops would cause food prices to spike.� Anticipating a poor harvest, investors bid corn and soy prices to all-time highs. Certain food-politics writers penned grim columns about what it all meant. Since then, however, the Midwestern weather has transformed from way-too-we ...
Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, industrial ag (all these topics)

Dispatches From the Fields: Whatever happened to organic? The limits of consumption-based food movements	Stephanie Paige Ogburn	11 Aug 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. This Olathe Sweet Corn is regionally renowned, entirely local, and grown entirely conventionally and industrially, meaning farmers use large amounts of water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Its locality has become a selli ...
Topics: agriculture, farmers markets, food, industrial ag, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Even Monsanto rejects synthetic bovine growth hormones! Evidently, the GMO giant has better things to do than to harass dairies over labels	Tom Philpott	09 Aug 2008	Gristmill
After years of battling in court to prevent dairies from labeling their milk rBGH-free, Monsanto is apparently udderly fed up. Facing a growing backlash against its genetically engineered Recombinant bovine growth hormone (hence rBGH) that once conquered the U.S. dairy industry, the Gene Giant is selling rights to produce Posilac, its name for the the product. Posilac had become increasingly marginal to Monsanto's profit growth, which derives mainly from its dominance ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

An agricultural Waterloo Globalization failed, cheap oil is gone, local production is the only way forward	Jim Goodman	07 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Bigger is always better, isn't it? Big cars, big houses, big businesses, big farms. If you were big, you made more money. Clearly, that is the way of the world. When Europeans colonized the Americas, they wanted more land -- not some of it; all of it. Napoleon wanted more land. Nothing stopped him until Waterloo. So, do you think that the human race, has reached its Waterloo? Have we finally hit the wall with our never-ending desire for 'bigness'? I decided years ago ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, CSAs, economy, ethanol, industrial ag (all these topics)

Industrial food and fuel forever! If we just trust Monsanto and ADM, we can eat and drive to our heart's content	Tom Philpott	28 Jul 2008	Gristmill
I've been a pretty harsh critic of industrial agriculture for a while. I've also been known to utter unkind words about the government's extraordinary, multibillion-dollar effort to promote ethanol. But I've changed my mind. I now believe chemical-dependent, monocrop agriculture can be counted on to not only 'feed the world,' but also keep its hundreds of millions of cars on the road -- now and forever. What turned me around? This news: Archer Daniels Midland Co., D ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, biofuels, ethanol, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

Farm-subsidy shenanigans Beware of U.S. trade officials bearing gifts	Tom Philpott	25 Jul 2008	Gristmill
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab made headlines this week by offering to reduce U.S. farm subsidies. The context was the so-called Doha Round of trade talks -- the WTO's latest, oft-stalled effort to grease the wheels of global trade. Among sustainable-food advocates, there's a reflexive tendency to cheer whenever farm subsidies go on the chopping block. But as is often the case in the farm-policy debate, this progressive-looking offer is anything but. First ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, shenanigans, World Trade Organization (all these topics)

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, green living, industrial ag, shopping, Victual Reality, Walmart (all these topics)

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 - ...
Topics: agriculture, economy, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, industrial ag, Iowa, severe weather (all these topics)

Milkin' It More use of growth hormones would boost sustainability of dairy industry, says study		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 ...
Topics: agriculture, air pollution, food, health, industrial ag, news, scientific research, water pollution (all these topics)

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, food, health, industrial ag (all these topics)

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Pass the Sugar, Sugar Florida will buy out sugar company to restore Everglades		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 ...
Topics: agriculture, Florida, habitat protection, industrial ag, national parks, news, progress, wetlands (all these topics)

Me, at the Organic Summit What should I ask -- or tell -- the (organic-cotton) suits at a fancy Colorado confab this week?	Tom Philpott	23 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Later this week, I'll be reporting from the Organic Summit in Boulder. Judging from the attendees list on the homepage, the summit brings together the shakers and movers behind what Michael Pollan has called 'industrial organic' -- the large-scale producers and processors that stock the shelves at Whole Foods and the organic sections at Wal-Mart, Safeway, etc. But the organizers seem intent on shaking things up. The speakers list ranges from Brahm Ahmadi of Oakland' ...
Topics: consumerism, food, green living, industrial ag, organic food (all these topics)

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, climate, food, industrial ag, severe weather (all these topics)

After the deluge As Midwest floods recede, what's being washed into the groundwater?	Tom Philpott	16 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Flooded road in eastern Iowa. Photo: Dan Patterson Things are grim in Iowa, arguably the epicenter of global industrial food production. If Iowa were a nation, it would be the globe's second-largest corn producer, behind only China. The state leads the U.S. [PDF] in the production of corn, hogs, and eggs, and ranks number two in soybeans.In short, it's a rotten place for a massive, flood-inducing early-summer deluge. Of the state's 99 counties, 24 have been ...
Topics: agriculture, climate, climate change impacts, health, industrial ag, Iowa, severe weather (all these topics)

Monsanto: still reading blogs PR firm Edleman launches charm offensive for the GMO giant	Tom Philpott	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Not so long ago, I was an utterly obscure farmer-blogger dashing off indictments of industrial agriculture for some 30 loyal readers (many of them house-mates and relatives). And then, evidently by the miracle of the Google search, a functionary from Monsanto's legal office discovered my blog and fired off a cease-and-desist letter. I published it, added a tart response, and alerted a few editors to the exchange. Within days, my site meter showed thousands of reade ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Take My Breath Away Fumes from Minn. dairy force neighbors to evacuate		11 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 3:25 PM on 11 Jun 2008 A giant dairy farm in Thief River Falls, Minn., is producing such noxious fumes that the state health department has advised nearby residents to evacuate. Excel Dairy's emissions of hydrogen sulfide have been calculated at 200 times the standard allowed by Minnesota law; neighbors' complaints include headaches, nausea, blurred vision, shortness of breath, and fatigue. "It's so strong and ...
Topics: agriculture, air pollution, health, industrial ag, Minnesota, news, toxics (all these topics)

Attack of the killer tomatoes, national edition Tomato salmonella scare hits the big time	Tom Philpott	11 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Insert everything I said in this post, except now the salmonella-tainted tomato scare has gone nationwide, whereas before, the FDA had been limiting its warning to Texas and New Mexico.Here is Associated Press: Federal officials hunted for the source of a salmonella outbreak in Connecticut and 16 other states linked to three types of raw tomatoes, while the list of supermarkets and restaurants yanking those varieties from shelves and menus grew. Meanwhile, ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, messaging, organic food (all these topics)

Cuba's urban-ag miracle The U.S. media discover how food production works without access to cheap oil	Tom Philpott	10 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The story is legendary in peak-oil circles: Twenty years ago, the Soviet Union pulled the plug on Cuba's cheap-energy, cheap-food era. (See Bill McKibben's feature piece on the subject here.) No longer would the fading superpower accept the tiny island nation's sugar as payment for crude oil. From then on, only hard currency would do. It also halted food aid. In short order, gas and food prices spiked and people's living standards tumbled. Next, a widespread s ...
Topics: agriculture, Cuba, food, industrial ag, organic food (all these topics)

Meat Wagon: Filthy swine U.S. officials dither while antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains creep into our pork supply	Tom Philpott	10 Jun 2008	Gristmill
In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries.The good news is that people are earnestly trying to figure out if a deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria strain is infecting our nation's vast supply of pork.The bad news is, they don't work for a government regulator with the power to do something about it. Rather, they're university researchers and journalists, whose only real power is the public outrage they can generate through th ...
Topics: agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, Food and Drug Administration, health, industrial ag (all these topics)

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