Grist | Topics | 159 Results

RESULTS		Results 126 – 150 of 159
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
The Short-Term Solution That Stuck Where farm subsidies came from, and why they're still here	Tom Philpott	30 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Note: This is the second of a three-column series on the 2007 farm bill. The first article is available here; the third here. Fencerow to fencerow. Photo: iStockphoto Last week, I argued that it makes sense for society to support farming. Everybody needs to eat, and most would prefer to do so without devastating the environment or exploiting labor. Well, no one can accuse ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Edible Media: In seitan's lair Why the vegetarian critique of meat-eating should make meat-eaters squirm	Tom Philpott	28 Jan 2007	Gristmill
Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web. It's been a rough couple of months for meat eaters. In late November, the FAO issued a startling report claiming that livestock production emits fully 18 percent of global greenhouse gases -- more than all the automobiles in the world. Then out comes a big book: The Bloodless Revolution by British scholar and proud 'freegan' Tristram Stuart. The book seeks to trace the 'cul ...
Topics: agriculture, food, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, industrial ag, vegetarianism and veganism (all these topics)

Paying the Farm Bill Why federal farm support deserves a fresh look	Tom Philpott	23 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Note: Over the course of three weeks, as Congress begins discussion of the 2007 farm bill, Victual Reality will be devoted to analyzing the political economy of farming and teasing out an agenda for a socially and environmentally sustainable farm policy. It's more exciting than it sounds, we swear! [Read the first installment below, the second installment here, and the third here.] Like a barnyard sow ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Make way CAFO-diesel The latest beneficiary of biofuel subsidies: industrial feedlot operators.	Tom Philpott	04 Jan 2007	Gristmill
So far, a huge amount of the government's lavish support for biofuel has ended up on the bottom line of Archer Daniels Midland, the king of industrially produced, environmentally ruinous corn. Now another type of model corporate citizen is in line for a cut of the action: huge-scale confined-animal feedlot operation (CAFO) players like Tyson and Smithfield.This AP story details the efforts of a couple of oil men to set up a biodiesel plant outside of a Missouri industr ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, industrial ag (all these topics)

Feeding the Beast It's time for a real 'food vs. fuel' debate	Tom Philpott	13 Dec 2006	Victual Reality
It's time for a real "food vs. fuel" debate By Tom Philpott 13 Dec 2006 Grain piled high at an ethanol plant will feed only insatiable driving habits. Photo: iStockphoto Can U.S. farmers keep filling the nation's bellies as they scramble to fuel its cars? Given its evident gravity, the question has drawn remarkably little debate. Like it or not, though, more and more food is being devoted to fueling the nation's 211-million-strong auto fleet. High gasoline prices, ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, economy, energy, ethanol, food, fossil fuels, greenhouse-gas emissions, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Chemically Dependent Decades after Silent Spring, pesticides remain a menace -- especially to farmworkers	Tom Philpott	18 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
In 1962, Rachel Carson published her landmark Silent Spring, which documented the ravages of agricultural pesticides, particularly DDT, on wildlife. The book inspired wide outrage and helped spark the modern environmental movement. It eventually led to a (now-controversial) ban on DDT. But since then, use of other pesticides has boomed. Sign of the times? Photos: ...
Topics: agriculture, health, industrial ag, toxics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Heat and Serve Can industrial agriculture withstand climate change?	Tom Philpott	04 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
If the fossil fuels don't getcha, the genetics will. Photo: iStockphoto In the United States, the clearest signs of climate change so far have been stern words from Al Gore and a few hotter-than-normal summers. In Greenland, by contrast, global warming has sparked a revolution -- at least, when it comes to agriculture. A recent article in the German magazine Der Spiegel explores the dramatic new op ...
Topics: agriculture, climate, climate change adaptation, climate change impacts, fossil fuels, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

The Revolution Will Be Criticized Why the new 'Green Revolution' in Africa may be misguided	Tom Philpott	27 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
Why the new "Green Revolution" in Africa may be misguided By Tom Philpott 27 Sep 2006 In a bid to move "tens of millions of people out of extreme poverty" and "significantly" reduce hunger, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed with the Rockefeller Foundation to launch a new "Green Revolution" in Africa. These high-profile foundations have committed a combined $150 million toward fulfilling their admirable ...
Topics: Africa, agriculture, industrial ag, international politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Spinach Cycle Latest E. coli outbreak should prompt rethink of industrial agriculture	Tom Philpott	21 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
For the ninth time since 1995, California's Salinas Valley -- the "nation's salad bowl" -- has been implicated in an E. coli scare involving salad greens. Avoid E. coli, buy L. coli. Photo: iStockphoto As I write this, no definitive explanation has emerged for the latest outbreak, this one involving pre-washed, bagged spinach. But while the feds haven't yet figured out how ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, California, food, Food and Drug Administration, industrial ag, organic food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Environmentalism and animal rights: philosophical differences, common goals The activists among us should remember that there's plenty to do together	David Roberts	11 Sep 2006	Gristmill
I hope everyone's been following the discussion on animal rights and environmentalism. I continue to be impressed with the decency and thoughtfulness of the community that's gathered here. Frogfish said most of what needed to be said. The unit of analysis for conservationism is population; for animal rights it is the individual. If you ask me, animal rights is morally bankrupt in the absence of environmentalism -- not the other way around. But we should all remem ...
Topics: agriculture, animal welfare, industrial ag (all these topics)

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

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, industrial ag, Muckraker, politics, regulation, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics)

Mackey v. Pollan	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 ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, industrial ag, organic food (all these topics)

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 m�lange of travelogue, economic ana ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, interview, local food, organic food (all these topics)

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

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 ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, business, ethanol, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

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

The Meatrix II: Now playing at a website near you	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.
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, movies (all these topics)

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

Turn the Eat Around Forgotten by many, a Brooklyn neighborhood nourishes its own	Tom Philpott	22 Feb 2006	Main Dish
Wander into Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood on a Saturday morning in summer, and you'll see a sight not uncommon in New York City these days: a thriving and diverse farmers' market. Neighborhood denizens cluster around stands offering free-range meat, fresh cheese, cream-on-top milk, and a whole array of fresh fruit and vegetables, many of them grown right down the block. An Added Value ...
Topics: Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, environmental justice, gardening, grassroots activism, industrial ag, local food, New York, placemaking, Poverty and the Environment, sustainable ag (all these topics)

I'm Hatin' It How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare	Tom Philpott	22 Feb 2006	Main Dish
If you're going to talk about poverty, food, and the environment in the United States, you might as well start in the Corn Belt. So good, and so good for you -- until it's turned into soda. Photo: stock.xchng. This fertile area produces most of the country's annual corn harvest of more than 10 billion bushels, far and away the world's largest such haul. Where does it all go? The majority -- a ...
Topics: Big Ag, Department of Agriculture, environmental justice, gardening, grassroots activism, industrial ag, local food, New York, placemaking, Poverty and the Environment, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Archer Daniels Midland: The Exxon of corn? ADM is doing for soil what Exxon has done to air.	Tom Philpott	02 Feb 2006	Gristmill
Amid all the hoopla over President Bush's State of the Union address, Archer Daniels Midland's quarterly report (PDF), released Tuesday, got little attention outside of Wall Street -- where it drew cheers, sending ADM's share price to an all-time high. At the company's conference call with analysts, the Wall Street Journal reports, John M. McMillin of Prudential Securities 'likened [Archer Daniels Midland] to Exxon Mobil Corp., which just announced its own record-brea ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

The WSJ documents GM contamination	Tom Philpott	08 Nov 2005	Gristmill
The Wall Street Journal came out with a terrific page-one article documenting 'genetic pollution' -- the damage caused when genetically modified crops cross-pollinate with conventional crops. The article leads with an organic farmer in Spain whose sells his red field corn at a premium to nearby chicken farmers, who prize the product because it 'it gives their meat and eggs a rosy color.' (I'd be willing to bet that rosy color also translates to higher nutrition conte ...
Topics: agriculture, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Genetically modified TV Ag giants launch new public-tv show that promises to be so bad it's ... bad	Tom Philpott	24 Oct 2005	Gristmill
What do you get when Monsanto and the Farm Bureau (whose sorry politics are discussed here) team up with the National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, the U.S. Grains Council, and the National Cotton Council (discussed here)? If your answer is vast-scale, heavily subsidized, environmentally ruinous agriculture, you have a point. But I was thinking of a different response: Television that promises to be so bad that it might qualify as camp.The above-m ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, TV (all these topics)

How now, organic cow? USDA inaction supports feedlot-style	Tom Philpott	19 Oct 2005	Gristmill
Consumers looking for milk from grass-fed cows can't rely on the USDA's organic label. As this Chicago Tribune article shows, the department has been allowing feedlot-style mega-dairies to claim organic status -- despite a recommendation from the National Organic Standards Board that it close existing loopholes. Access to pasture lies at the heart of any meaningful definition of organic farm-animal stewardship. Grass-fed cows produce a healthier product, they're eas ...
Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, organic food (all these topics)

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