Today’s New York Times featured an op-ed by Bridget Stutchbury, a biology professor at the University of Toronto and author of Silence of the Songbirds. Her book follows in the footsteps of Silent Spring and documents the rapid disappearance of migratory songbirds — by her account, a 50% decline in the last four decades — […]

Tomorrow night (Monday, March 31) I’m moderating a discussion about making environmentally conscious food choices, sponsored by CUESA. It’s a pretty great panel — all women, incidentally:

Helene York, Director of Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation and Project Director of the company’s Low Carbon Diet program
Gail Feenstra, Food Systems Analyst at the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research […]

As March draws to a close, I start counting the weeks until the farmers market returns. (Ten, thanks.)
After a long winter rounded out by a handful of late snowstorms, I’m really looking forward to the first local salad of mixed greens, the first fresh asparagus, and the chance to restock my garlic stash. […]

There hasn’t been nearly enough fun around here lately. Our last attempt at making you smile — despite Farm Bill delays, Monsanto victories, the co-option of the EPA, and tragic transgenic pigs — caused quite a brawl in the comments section. (22 and counting!)
So, it’s Friday. Start the weekend off right with this beguiling little […]

The Spring 2008 issue of Meatpaper, the magazine’s third, is out and it’s even better than the first two. One of the two editors (Sasha Wizansky and Amy Standen) admits she has gone back to vegetarianism, and perhaps coincidentally there is a complicated new awareness to the array of articles and a little less fetishization of the flesh. If you think about meat, really think about it, you must also contemplate death, and that is what the most interesting of the pieces in this issue do.

There was plenty of positive energy and discussion of the food and agriculture connection yesterday at the opening of the three-day Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program’s 20th anniversary conference, held this year in Kansas City, Missouri. More than 800 people were expected to attend, and even more that had been interested but planners […]

In an excellent 2000 report titled "The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs," researcher Marlene Halverson of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy recounts the following stories:
On July 26, 1989, five farm workers in one family died after consecutively entering a 10-foot deep liquid manure pit on their Michigan farm….. The […]

A while back, I began a series of posts examining the infamous "farm lobby," that oft-mentioned force supposedly responsible for our food system’s many ills.  I noticed that mainstream media coverage of the Farm Bill tends to demonize farmers to the exclusion of other, more powerful figures whose fingerprints are all over our grocery carts […]

Breaking news and developments, such as contaminated-food outbreaks, Farm Bill milestones, and how the farming community is faring around the world.

Editorials and op-eds about sustainable agriculture (or its opposite) from newspapers and websites big and small.

In-depth, offbeat, or thought-provoking features about aspects of SOLE food, from eating locally to farms marketing to methods of food preservation.

Posts by bloggers at both personal and nonprofit sites that you won’t want to miss.

This year was the first time I have ever eaten just-picked asparagus: I tagged along when my husband photographed Vision Cellars winemaker “Mac” McDonald for an upcoming Edible San Francisco out at his place in Windsor, CA; Mac plucked a tender head straight off a stalk shooting out of the dirt and offered it to me. … Fresh lemonade is one of my favorite things, and I have been experimenting with making a spicy version of Marc’s Whole Lemon Lemonade , using less organic evaporated cane sugar than the recipe calls for, plus finely diced fresh ginger (I usually supplement with powdered too, to get the full strength I’m after), and a few dashes of cayenne.

Of all of the alliances between egg and dairy, custard is one of the most interesting to me. Silky in texture, elegant in flavor, acceptable to tastes ranging from unadventurous children to the most discerning adult, it’s a perfect way to enjoy the eggs and milk you worked so hard to source from SOLE producers. […]

Agribusiness stocks rose sharply today, following the announcement this morning of a new technique that transforms conventionally raised produce into organic, instantly and at almost no cost.