Grist | Topics | 101 Results

RESULTS		Results 51 – 75 of 101
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
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)

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)

Maverick Farms Grist's own Tom Philpott and his farm get written up	David Roberts	31 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Grist's own Tom Philpott is apparently too humble to draw attention to the media adulation with which he is being showered. It's a task I'm happy to take up. The Winston-Salem Journal has a fantastic long piece on Maverick Farms, the small organic farm Tom runs with his co-conspirators. As the piece describes in detail, it's not just a farm -- it's a grand experiment in creating a local food economy and culture. At Maverick they host local-food dinners, teach cookin ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food (all these topics)

15 Green Chefs		26 Jul 2007	Main Dish
Savor our list of eco-conscious chefs, then dish on your own favorites in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Photo: David Sifry via Flickr Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, Berkeley, Calif., U.S. Thirty years ago, the words "imported from France" signified the height of status and taste on U.S. restaurant menus. Today, the phrases "locally grown" and "organic" have taken over that function (naming the actual farm earns extra points) ...
Topics: Alice Waters, food, lists, local food, organic food, slow food (all these topics)

Welcome Back, Kosher Popularity of 'eco-kosher' diet growing in U.S.		10 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Welcome Back, Kosher Popularity of "eco-kosher" diet growing in U.S. Eco-food awareness has undeniably seeped into the mainstream, and religious communities are no exception. More and more, a low-impact diet is seen not just as a matter of health or ethics, but as a spiritual obligation. As evidence, look no further than the quickly growing "eco-kosher" mo ...
Topics: food, green living, local food, news, organic food, religion and spirituality (all these topics)

Yuppy chow, food miles, and labels Interesting juxtaposition of stories	JMG	31 May 2007	Gristmill
Interesting juxtaposition of stories: First, an essay on what has become of organics, as it turns into what Fromartz calls 'Organic, Inc.' Then, Energy Bulletin links to a story suggesting that some Brits might deny the organic label to food flown in from abroad. And, of course, there's the post right here on Gristmill about labeling as an attempt to help consumers understand the effect of their purchases. The issue boils down to the fact that our prices don't help con ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, organic food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

God of Small Things An interview with underground foodie hero Sandor Katz	Tom Philpott	17 May 2007	Main Dish
Sandor Katz. Like a well-made batch of kefir, the ancient cultured milk drink, Sandor Katz has an effervescent quality. Spend time with him or read his classic Wild Fermentation, and you'll see your food in a new light. Bread, cheese, cured meats, chocolate, beer, wine, vinegar -- all are products of fermentation, he points out: "Virtually all of the compelling, strong flavors that people a ...
Topics: food, interview, local food (all these topics)

Unrigging the game How to stop the agribiz giants from impeding the growth of local food.	Tom Philpott	26 Apr 2007	Gristmill
In today's Victual Reality I discussed how a few companies dominate U.S. food production, and how their market girth weighs heavily on efforts to rebuild local-oriented, environmentally and socially responsible food networks. Now I'd like to add a few words on what might be done to remedy the situation. First of all, it's important to note that heavily consolidated food markets rig the game to favor large-scale, industrial-style farming. As companies like Cargill a ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, food, industrial ag, local food, sustainable ag (all these topics)

Plenty to think about Now that I've actually read the book ...	Kate Sheppard	25 Apr 2007	Gristmill
When I caught up with 100-mile dieters Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon a few weeks ago, they were just kicking off their book tour with a stop in Toronto, and I hadn't even had a chance to read Plenty, in which they recount a year of local eating. Sure, I had the basic info -- one man, one woman, a year of eating only food grown within 100-mile radius of their Vancouver, B.C. home. They'd kept up a blog on their website, 100milediet.org, posted regular dispatches o ...
Topics: food, local food, Vancouver (all these topics)

Cloves to Home Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon chew the fat on their 100-mile diet	Kate Sheppard	24 Apr 2007	Main Dish
Two years ago, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon set out to see if it was still possible, in these hyper-globalized times, to live off food grown in your own 'hood. The pair made a pact to dine on dishes culled from within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver, B.C., home for an entire year. Their personal experiment quickly evolved into a movement, and now Smith, a freelance journalist w ...
Topics: books, food, green living, interview, local food, Vancouver (all these topics)

Garden Variety Now's the time to discover the myriad pleasures of growing food	Tom Philpott	29 Mar 2007	Victual Reality
"A natural diet lies right at one's feet." -- Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution It's springtime here on my mountain farm, and that means an explosion of activity. We're starting seeds in one greenhouse, and finishing construction on another. Fields are being tilled, and we're putting in the very first sugar-snap peas and spring onions. We're depleting a pile of compost ...
Topics: food and agriculture, gardening, local food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Rethinking the bottom line Bill McKibben questions thinking as usual when it comes to climate.	Anna Fahey	21 Mar 2007	Gristmill
The old thinking, as author and thinker Bill McKibben explains in today's LA Times, goes like this: bigger is always better, growth is good no matter what, and a booming stock market is the ultimate measure of our success. McKibben illustrates the kind of lopsided priorities that naturally flow when we're ruled by the bottom line, pointing to a scarcely-reported White House report that said the U.S. would be pumping out almost 20 percent more greenhous ...
Topics: agriculture, Bill McKibben, farmers markets, food, green living, health, local food (all these topics)

Eat local foods, import biofuels A message from Kenya and Biopact	Ron Steenblik	23 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Over on the Biopact website -- probably the best website for up-to-date international news on bio-energy science and markets -- they have posted an interesting commentary, based on a BBC interview, on how small Kenyan farmers, Mr. Peter Ndivo and Mr. Samuel Mauthike, are affected by the confusion engendered by concepts such as 'carbon footprints,' 'fair trade,' and 'food miles.' Biopact's message? Buy your vegetables and fruits locally, if you must, but please allow ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, Kenya, local food (all these topics)

Reform School Bush's farm bill 'reform' proposal falls woefully short	Tom Philpott	06 Feb 2007	Victual Reality
Bush's farm bill "reform" proposal falls woefully short By Tom Philpott 06 Feb 2007 Note: This is the third of a three-column series on the 2007 farm bill. The first two columns are here and here. The author promises not to return to the topic for at least a few weeks -- but will likely backslide from this pledge in his Gristmill blog posts. Can Bush point the way for America's farmers? Photo: whitehouse.gov/Eric Draper In this series, I promised to lay out new models for ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, food, local food, politics, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Ask a Brokeass: The first real column! Popping your (organic) cherry	Kate Sheppard	06 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Hello again, fair, broke readers. Sorry to tease you with my column intro and then leave you hungering for more for all these weeks. Your resident brokeass took an unexpected journey to Utah to steal swag from well-heeled, earth-friendly-ish corporations and stalk eco-savvy celebs -- and then returned and promptly got sick. So, the long-awaited second column, in which I actually answer some of your questions: Dear Brokeass, I'd love it if you could help clarify w ...
Topics: consumerism, food, local food, organic food, shopping (all these topics)

Meet the Lunch Lady Maverick chef Ann Cooper aims to spark a nationwide school-lunch revolution	Tom Philpott	18 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Even the most intractable pathology can disappear, sometimes relatively quickly. A sign above a water fountain proclaiming "no coloreds" would cause any American to flinch today. Just half a century ago throughout the South, such abominations formed a banal part of the built landscape. Ann Cooper puts a fresh spin on school lunches. Photo: Chronicle/Craig Lee I go ...
Topics: education, food, local food, organic food, slow food, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Risky Business Thoughts from a small farm during the midwinter lull	Tom Philpott	10 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Before I became a farmer three growing seasons ago, I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., and reveled in the array of top-flight local produce available from mid-spring to late fall. Long about January, though, a kind of local-food withdrawal would set in. Frosty, with a chance of failure. Photo: iStockphoto By this time of year, the legendary produce aisle of the Park Slope Food Co-op would be given over mainly ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, farmers markets, food, local food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Poor Taste Why The Economist's recent assault on 'ethical food' missed the mark	Tom Philpott	03 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Why The Economist's recent assault on "ethical food" missed the mark By Tom Philpott 03 Jan 2007 Last month, the influential British newsweekly The Economist took the measure of the sustainable-food movement and found it wanting. "There are good reasons to doubt the claims made about three of the most popular varieties of 'ethical food': organic food, fair-trade food, and local food," the journal declared, and proceeded to subject each to withering analysis. Do ...
Topics: agriculture, business, consumerism, farmers markets, food, green living, local food, organic food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Elite Eats Locally grown food shouldn't be just for those with cash to spare	Tom Philpott	29 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
As a critic of the globalized industrial food system, I often face charges of elitism -- in part, likely, because I neglect to acknowledge the system's clear achievements. So here goes. In the mood for good food? Look no further than your backyard. Photo: iStockphoto In human history, few pampered Roman emperors or African kings had as easy access to a broad variety of foods as the present-d ...
Topics: agriculture, farmers markets, food, gardening, local food, slow food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Local food takes a hit in Canada Calls the Mounties -- someone's enjoying locally raised meat in rural Ontario	Tom Philpott	14 Nov 2006	Gristmill
A couple of weeks ago in my Victual Reality column I wondered why more farm areas don't focus on growing food for local consumption, since the global commodity market had proven such an economic disaster. I acknowledged one key problem: the collapse of local food infrastructure after 50 years of investments in stuff like grain elevators and train systems designed to haul food far, far away. I forgot to add a factor I mentioned in an earlier column: federal regulations ...
Topics: agriculture, Canada, food, local food (all these topics)

Bread Basket Case What if the Midwest stopped trying to feed the world and started focusing on itself?	Tom Philpott	01 Nov 2006	Victual Reality
In Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," a sailor contemplates the paradox of thirst amid a literal sea of water. "Water, water everywhere," he famously laments, "nor any drop to drink." Is the sun setting on Midwest farming, or can it be saved by the dawn of a new model? Photo: iStockphoto Rural Midwesterners can likely identify w ...
Topics: agriculture, food, local food, Midwest, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Roughage Riders Senators threaten to impose industrial-strength rules on small vegetable farms	Tom Philpott	11 Oct 2006	Victual Reality
Salad greens thrive in the fall; they love brisk, cool nights and mild, sunny afternoons. Meet your greens. Photo: iStockphoto Here in western North Carolina, members of my farm's CSA (community-supported agriculture) program are enjoying salad mixes that include spicy arugula, mizuna, and purple Osaka leaves, along with bitter endive, earthy shinginku -- and yes, even spina ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Congress, Department of Agriculture, food, local food, regulation, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Bad day for organics? E. Coli news is bad news, any way you cut it	Chip Giller	15 Sep 2006	Gristmill
Grim headlines for organics, as the feds are linking Natural Selection Foods (Earthbound Farm) and its prepackaged fresh organic spinach to an outbreak of E. coli in many states.If the linkage is confirmed, I bet we'll be hearing a lot from organics skeptics (including chief skeptic Dennis Avery), who'll do their darnedest to say that organic food on the whole is a scary thing (inputs like cow manure may contain contaminants and dirt is, you know, dirty!). And we'll prob ...
Topics: agriculture, food, health, local food, organic food (all these topics)

Tortilla Spat How Mexico's iconic flatbread went industrial and lost its flavor	Tom Philpott	13 Sep 2006	Victual Reality
In a spectacle similar to the one conjured up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, a Mexican judiciary panel handed the nation's presidency to Felipe Calder�n last week. Even The New York Times, in its circumspect way, acknowledged that the new president-elect's narrow victory over leftist rival Andr�s Manuel L�pez Obrador involved seemingly illegal activity by Calder�n's governmental and bi ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Big Ag, business, food, local food, Mexico, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Cold Comfort Farm Could small farms provide fresh food year-round, even in northern climes?	Tom Philpott	30 Aug 2006	Victual Reality
Is the sustainable-agriculture movement essentially Luddite? It's a common charge -- and a fair enough question. The Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug, perhaps industrial agriculture's greatest living apologist, deplores at every opportunity the organic movement's supposedly technophobic ways. Addressing a graduating class a few years ago at Texas A&M -- that factory for fu ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, Department of Agriculture, food, local food, sustainable ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

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