Grist | Topics | 158 Results

RESULTS		Results 76 – 100 of 158
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Banana Split Six farmworkers compensated for pesticide exposure, six cases dismissed		06 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 3:00 PM on 06 Nov 2007 Six farmworkers who became sterile after working on a Nicaraguan banana plantation three decades ago were awarded a total $3.3 million from Dole Food Co. and Dow Chemical, after a judge agreed that the corporations "actively suppressed information about" the "reproductive toxicity" of now-banned pesticide DBCP. Six other plaintiffs with a similar claim had th ...
Topics: agriculture, business, health, industrial ag, litigation, news, Nicaragua, toxics (all these topics)

Farming and climate change More evidence that industrial ag is destroying the planet	Tom Philpott	04 Nov 2007	Gristmill
From an ecological standpoint, the fundamental problem with U.S. farm policy dating back to the '70s is that it rewards farmers for maximizing yield at all cost. Encouraged to produce as much as possible, all the time, farmers have few incentives to conserve resources or protect water, air, or soil quality. The federal government's dizzying array of biofuel subsidies -- which have propped up crop prices and encouraged yet more production -- only exacerbates the situ ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, climate, industrial ag (all these topics)

Bush names a new USDA chief The former governor of North Dakota loves biofuel and GMOs	Tom Philpott	01 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Speaking yesterday at a gathering of the Grocery Manufacturers Association -- a trade group whose member list reads like a directory of multinational food corporations -- President Bush waxed coy about his new choice for USDA secretary. This afternoon I'm going to name a new Secretary of Agriculture. I'm not going to tell you who it is, because I'm trying to -- [laughter] -- but I think you'll like him. He understands agriculture, of course, and he'll be a good follo ...
Topics: Department of Agriculture, GMOs, agriculture, biofuels, politics, industrial ag (all these topics)

High crop prices, more chemicals All hail the biofuel boom	Tom Philpott	01 Nov 2007	Gristmill
A UN official recently declared biofuels a "crime against humanity," because they leach agricultural resources from feeding people and direct them to feeding cars. But one man's crime is another's boon. Surging biofuel use encourages farmers to maximize yield over all other considerations -- and they do so by lashing the earth with all manner of chemicals. That's why shareholders in agrochemical companies are celebrating the explosive growth of biofuel ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, industrial ag (all these topics)

Hell no, he won't CAFO Edwards calls for moratorium on new industrial ag feedlots	David Roberts	27 Oct 2007	Gristmill
I was going to ask why this didn't get more play, but then I remembered I had forgotten to post on it for a week, so I guess I'm part of the problem. Anyway, Edwards apparently called for moratorium on new or expanded CAFOs. Is this not a big deal? As far as I know, Edwards is the only candidate to do this. (Sounds familiar.)
Topics: agriculture, elections, industrial ag, John Edwards, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

Pretty much business as usual The Senate Ag Committee's Farm Bill	Tom Philpott	26 Oct 2007	Gristmill
No jaded observer will be surprised: The Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday released its version of the 2007 Farm Bill, leaving the subsidy mechanisms in the 2002 bill pretty well intact. I'm still trying to chase down details of the proposal, but here are a couple of tidbits. The big news is that the version contains a ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock. This is (potentially) huge. Currently, dominant meatpackers like Smithfield Foods and Tyson also raise ...
Topics: politics, legislation, agriculture, industrial ag, ag subsidies (all these topics)

The Corn Supremacy A conversation with a spokesperson for the National Corn Growers Association and his friend from the American Farmland Trust	Tom Philpott	25 Oct 2007	Victual Reality
The productivity of U.S. corn farmers should inspire awe. According to the U.S. Grains Council, the U.S. produces about 44 percent of the globe's corn crop -- that's more than China, the European Union, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico combined. Iowa alone, which produces a sixth of U.S. corn, produces about as much as the Eu ...
Topics: agriculture, industrial ag, interview, Victual Reality (all these topics)

And Meals to Go Before We Sleep As food series ends, the story is just beginning	Tom Philpott	19 Oct 2007	Grist Feature
During my trip to the Midwest this summer, I saw many unsettling sights: vast monocropped landscapes lashed regularly with chemicals, insidious low-slung buildings that imprison thousands of animals and concentrate their waste. Yet I returned oddly invigorated, buzzing about Iowa's promise as a sustainable-ag mecca. Amid the cornfields and the CAFOs, I saw thriving homestead farms whe ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, Iowa, local food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Second Helpings Sustainable Table's Diane Hatz answers reader questions	Katharine Wroth	19 Oct 2007	Grist Feature
Earlier this week, we spoke with sustainable-food advocate Diane Hatz, who was fresh off an eating tour of the United States. Today, Hatz answers reader questions on everything from seafood to the farm bill to the best pie she encountered on her travels -- complete with links to the recipes. What's Sustainable Table's take on tropical products that can't be grown locally in the U.S. -- coffee, ...
Topics: agriculture, food, green living, industrial ag, sustainable ag (all these topics)

On Being a Second-Class Iowa Citizen A frustrated resident speaks out		17 Oct 2007	Grist Feature
The following letter was mailed anonymously to Marian Kuper, whom we featured in last week's "A Tale of Two Counties." She shared it with Tom Philpott so we could give readers a sense of the frustrations brewing in CAFO country. We welcome responses from other perspectives. I know that others still believe the United States and Iowa are sound democracies. I cannot be one of those. For about a dozen years ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, water pollution (all these topics)

From Bad to Thirst How the nation's breadbasket is poisoning its own water supply	Elizabeth Royte	16 Oct 2007	Grist Feature
In late September, the corn and soybean fields of the lower Missouri River floodplain are a lovely dull brown, nearly ready for harvest. The row crops sprawl as far as the eye can see, their regimental march broken only by levees, gravel roads, the occasional band of cottonwoods, and the endless tracks of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe. The scenery is pastoral and soothing. But ...
Topics: agriculture, food, health, industrial ag, Mississippi River (all these topics)

Snack and Diane An interview with sustainable-food advocate Diane Hatz	Katharine Wroth	15 Oct 2007	Grist Feature
� Ever dreamed of eating your way across the country? This summer, Diane Hatz did just that on the Eat Well Guided Tour of America. Convinced there was more to the sustainable-food movement than met the eye (i.e., it ain't just happening on the coasts), Hatz and her colleagues from Sustainable Table partnered with several other organizations to organize a 25-city tour that stretched from West Ho ...
Topics: agriculture, food, green living, industrial ag, sustainable ag (all these topics)

'The ABCs of rainforest destruction' Raising a ruckus about agrofuels at the Chicago Board of Trade	Tom Philpott	11 Oct 2007	Gristmill
From the The Chicago Tribune: Police this morning arrested five people who scaled the Chicago Board of Trade building in the Loop and unfurled a banner to protest the destruction of the world's rain forests. The demonstrators, members of the Rainforest Action Network ... displayed a 50-foot banner protesting three U.S. agriculture companies. The protest was part of a campaign to "halt agribusiness expansion in the rain forests of South America, Southeast Asia an ...
Topics: agriculture, business, Chicago, grassroots activism, industrial ag (all these topics)

A Tale of Two Counties In the farm belt, a look at the extremes of agricultural production	Tom Philpott	10 Oct 2007	Grist Feature
When I arrived in Iowa on a reporting trip this summer, I expected to experience it with city eyes: frankly, as a rural backwater. I've lived on a farm in the Appalachians of North Carolina since 2004, but the ten years before that, I lived in Mexico City and New York City. I don't know from vast fields and wide horizons. Instead, barreling down the highway between appointme ...
Topics: agriculture, farmers markets, food, grassroots activism, industrial ag, Iowa, local food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Angry greens giants Inspired by the spinach scare, new California rules could wilt small farmers	Tom Philpott	04 Oct 2007	Gristmill
This is a guest essay by Judith Redmond, co-owner of Northern California's legendary Full Belly Farm and president of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. California is on the verge of adopting a policy that would regulate all of the state's salad greens-producing farms -- including ones that sell to a local market -- as if they were huge operations that ship cross-country. That's as predictable as it is absurd -- another case of the problems caused by industri ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, California, food, health, industrial ag (all these topics)

ADM's man at the USDA USDA secretary resigns; industrial-corn man takes charge	Tom Philpott	21 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Big doings at the USDA yesterday: Mike Johanns, the reliably pro-agribiz former governor of Nebraska, resigned from his post as USDA chair -- right in the middle of Farm Bill negotiations, now in the Senate. He says he's going to run for the Senate seat that Chuck Hagel is vacating. Chuck Conner, currently the USDA's no. 2 man, will be the agency's acting secretary. Conner joined the Bush administration in 2001 as the president's "special assistant" on ag i ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, Department of Agriculture, industrial ag, politics (all these topics)

I scream against ice cream consolidation How to stick it to the ice-cream Man	Tom Philpott	28 Aug 2007	Gristmill
I've written a lot about the consolidation of U.S. food markets, and have become jaded to facts such as: just four firms slaughter 83.5 percent of cows, and so on. But I actually gagged on my ice cream when I read this bit in BusinessWeek: The days of mom-and-pop parlors and local brands are fading fast. Today, the $59 billion ice cream industry is dominated by two global giants: Switzerland's Nestl� (NESN.DE) and Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever (UN). Togeth ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, green living, industrial ag, local food, recipes (all these topics)

Big Ethanol Economists say that only the largest ethanol producers will survive	Tom Philpott	21 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Of all the arguments in favor of government backing for corn-based ethanol, only one seems even remotely reasonable to me: that it could lead to real economic development in depressed areas of the Midwest. The theory goes like this: When farmers pool resources and build their own ethanol plants, they'll capture much higher profits than by merely selling corn to big buyers like ADM and Cargill. According to an article in today's Wisconsin State Journal, that ratio ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, industrial ag (all these topics)

Living Piggy Lives On organic pork	Umbra Fisk	15 Aug 2007	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, Commercial pork production is a nasty, polluting operation and inhumane to the animals. What makes organic pork different? Simply what they are fed, or does it involve more humane and less polluting production operations? Related, I have been purchasing free-range, organic chicken for several years now. However, recently the free-range, organic chicken breasts have been humongous, conjuring up images of Dolly Parton chicken ...
Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, food, industrial ag, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Forget the Farm Bill For now, local politics is the way to effect ag-policy change	Tom Philpott	02 Aug 2007	Victual Reality
Over the past few years, grassroots support has swelled for new federal farm policies -- ones that promote healthy, sustainably grown food, not the interests of a few agribusiness firms. Udder madness. Photo: iStockphoto The target of much of this organizing has been the 2007 farm bill. If past farm bill debates have been the concern of a small cadre of lobbyists and activists, this one ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Congress, farmers markets, food, industrial ag, Iowa, local food, organic food, politics, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Factory farm map How many are there in your state?	David Roberts	01 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Via Modeshift, check out the Factory Farm Map, which shows the location of factory farms in the U.S. by state and by county. Here in Washington we have a relatively low eight. Sorry to all you folks in Iowa, where there are 3,876. That's a lot!
Topics: agriculture, industrial ag, Iowa, Washington (all these topics)

Eating local, and well, in Sioux City, Iowa An oasis amid slaughterhouses and monoculture	Tom Philpott	31 Jul 2007	Gristmill
When you make the three-hour drive from Des Moines to Sioux City (pop. 100,000), the heart of Woodbury County, nothing you see raises your hopes for a good dinner. All along the way, lush farmland lies smothered by what seems like one big blanket, alternately colored light and dark green: corn and soy. At a certain point, the monotony becomes dangerously hypnotic -- and nauseating, if you know all of that bounty is destined to feed confined animals and fuel factori ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, Iowa, local food (all these topics)

Take Me To Your Seeder On feeding birds	Umbra Fisk	30 Jul 2007	Ask Umbra
Dearest Umbra, Every winter I take pleasure in putting out birdseed to feed the backyard wildlife. I purchase the easily available, run-of-the-mill, found-at-my-local-hardware-store type of seed. My question is, in the big picture ... am I doing more harm than good? If the feed I am using is grown conventionally, am I doing a greater harm to the ecosystem as a whole? Or, on balance, is it better to provide free nosh to the locals? ...
Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, industrial ag, wildlife (all these topics)

Swine By Us Court rules against green groups, lets factory farms off the hook		19 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Swine By Us Court rules against green groups, lets factory farms off the hook Some 2,600 livestock companies are participating in a sweet deal from the U.S. EPA. In exchange for paying a minimal fee and agreeing to participate in an air-quality data-collection program, factory farms can basically be exempt from Clean Air Act requirements for 30 months. When the swap was announced ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Big Ag, industrial ag, litigation, news, US EPA (all these topics)

Gulf Dead Zone: Bigger than ever Thanks in part to that 'green' fuel, corn-based ethanol	Tom Philpott	17 Jul 2007	Gristmill
U.S. farmers planted 92.9 million acres of corn this spring, a 15 percent-plus jump from last year. If you lumped all that land together -- not too hard to imagine, given that corn ag is highly concentrated in the Midwest -- you'd have a monocropped land mass nearly equal in size to the state of California. The jump in corn acreage is excellent news if you own shares in mega meat-processing firms like Tyson and Smithfield. These firms have been complaining bitter ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, industrial ag, oceans, water pollution (all these topics)

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