Section » Business and technology
Open season: Local Roots Markets opens in Wooster, Ohio
Nine months doesn't really seem like a very long time: over the span of a lifetime, just a mere hiccup on a long journey. But when you're in the midst of those nine months (ask any expectant mother), you find yourself amazed at how much goes on in that time frame — and how it can seem to pass so slowly, and yet so quickly. That's how long (or how
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Report scrutinizes ties between Big Food, health organizations
Ignore the man behind the curtain: Reporters Rick Montgomery and Alan Bavley examine the “marriages of convenience” between unhealthy food producers and organizations aimed at promoting health, such as the newly announced alliance between Coca Cola and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Small-town grocery stores feed a need bigger than stomachs
In the small Nebraska town I now call home, a small grocery store anchors one end of Main Street. Once a farm-implement dealership, it has nine aisles, a dairy cooler, and a fresh meat counter. It employs nine full-time
USDA funding university research on organic
Drop in the bucket: Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan yesterday announced that more than $19 million in grants have been awarded to universities across the country to solve critical organic agriculture issues. The Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, administered by USDA's
Meet your greens, part 3: Taking the stand against the veggilantes
This is the third in a series about the USDA hearings on an industry proposal for a food-safety marketing agreement for leafy green vegetables. My first post describes what marketing agreements are and do; my second
Meet your greens, part 2: Industry seeks to outfox FDA
This is the second in a series of posts on my week in Monterey, CA, where I attended the first of seven USDA hearings around the country on an industry proposal to create a national
Meet your greens: National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings, Week 1
This is the first in a short series on the National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings held September 22-24 in Monterey, CA. I packed a suit for three days of USDA hearings over an industry-proposed
Flat world, fat world: Report from the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Symposium, part 1
By Nicole de Beaufort On September 21, 2009 in Minneapolis, a crowd of 300 people representing more than 30 disciplines gathered for a symposium hosted by the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute
Dairy runoff in our tap water
Big dairies, big problems: Reporter Charles Duhigg of the New York Times has been on the rampage these past few weeks with a series of great articles highlighting the need for better government regulation, oversight and enforcement of clean water
Mapping Markets and Organic Demand
Today is “Direct Markets” day for the USDA’s new “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, with the big event being the opening of a farmers market near the White House. In
Farm Labor Experts: The Solution is Not For Sale
Friend o' Ethicurean Twilight Greenaway writes about sustainable food for San Francisco's Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), which nourishes, inspires and educates SF residents and visitors by running the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and other
Naked Pizza of New Orleans: Because fast food doesn’t have to suck
A pizza a day…: The New York Times Magazine's Consumed column looks at Naked Pizza (formerly World's Healthiest Pizza), a small operation in New Orleans that's poised to go national, with franchises. Naked Pizza makes crust from 12 whole grains, uses low-fat skim mozzarella, and a tomato sauce with
Indian farmer suicides continue over debt and poor rainfall
Caveat emptor, Africa: Nearly every day, Indian newspapers report more farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh, an Indian state of 80 million people where 70% of the population depends on agriculture and where small farmers are increasingly in debt. "More than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between
Non-GMO Project gets rolling
Organic a 'dirty room' in need of cleaning: An organic and natural-foods industry group has begun a campaign to test products and label those "Non-GMO" that are largely free of biotech ingredients, reports William Neumann in the Times' Business section. Neumann focuses solely on the competitive business
Michael Pollan denounces Whole Foods boycott
Money quote: "Mackey is wrong on health care, but Whole Foods is often right about food, and their support for the farmers matters more to me than the political views of their founder. I haven’t examined the political views of all the retailers who feed me, but I can imagine having a lot of eating
