Articles written by Elanor

Running dry: Time to save our nation’s dairy farmers

By Elanor • on June 11, 2009

Did you see that movie “Flash of Genius”? It follows the unlucky Robert Kearns, played by Greg Kinnear, as he spends his life (and his savings)

8 CommentsRead this story »

Transgenic seeds are toast(ed): New report says GE crops have not increased yield

By Elanor • on April 16, 2009

Couched deep within the earth-mother rhetoric of a recent

3 CommentsRead this story »

There are much scarier food safety bills than HR 875 in Congress

By Elanor • on April 3, 2009

If you care about food and farming and you use the Internet, you’ve probably received this particular e-mail. The title is something like, “BILL

23 CommentsRead this story »

While we were sleeping: Score one for the GMO lobby

By Elanor • on April 1, 2009

Updated at 3:10 pacific to include the full language of the relevant section of the bill. Thanks, IM. Things have been busy around here lately, but that’s

11 CommentsRead this story »

No comment, no say: lend your voice to shaping four big food & ag policies

By Elanor • on March 14, 2009

Photo from Iowa, courtesy of factoryfarm.org. It’s easy to get cynical about our ability to influence policy or policymakers - especially when

1 CommentRead this story »

Not milk: The ingredient behind the dairy crisis

By Elanor • on March 10, 2009

I have no idea what it would feel like to be a dairy farmer. I don’t run a business that was started by my father or mother or grandparents, or

18 CommentsRead this story »

Down (and out) on the farm: When even the good years don’t look so good

By Elanor • on March 1, 2009

In late 2006, I was driving by corn fields in eastern Iowa when Tom Ashbrook’s  NPR show “On Point” came on the radio. The topic was

2 CommentsRead this story »

More from this Author

All steriled up: Produce safety guidelines throw sustainability out, keep toxic bathwater

Readers may remember back in November when I announced the first installment of a two-part post on produce safety. It’s taken

4 CommentsRead this post »

Beer me: Trolling for craft brews in an ocean of Bud

Out of fairness, I should begin this post by admitting that I do not actually like beer. Never a big drinker, when the

4 CommentsRead this post »

Dope shit: Who to thank, and why, for antibiotics in your veggies

Manure, my favorite topic of conversation (particularly at parties), is pretty awesome. It has been a staple crop fertilizer

6 CommentsRead this post »

Let’s cure Absencia Grassosis! Weigh in on organic pasture rule by Dec. 23

We’ve reported before on a disturbing disease that’s

10 CommentsRead this post »

Human Rights Day revelation: Global food companies suck

I have a background in human rights work, so I was especially chagrined to discover this afternoon — having spent the day skulking about my office and being generally useless — that today was International

3 CommentsRead this post »

Produce perversions part 1: Living with the underbelly

Updated on 11/29 to clarify that perchlorate is from rocket fuel, not jet fuel. Thanks, Marc! (I admit that I thought they were the same thing; that is why I do not work for a defense logistics company.) 2008

4 CommentsRead this post »

Shameless: The Bush deregulatory free-for-all

Back in March, I reported that the EPA was proposing to exempt Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) from one of the very, very

3 CommentsRead this post »

Dispatch from APHA: Searching for the silver lining

Day two of the American Public Health Association meeting found me carting my breakfast (a poorly-executed bagel) to a hyper-air

9 CommentsRead this post »