Section » Activism
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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Time to ban practice of feeding poultry “litter” (eg poop & other waste) to cows
File in the bulging folder of Really Bad Ideas: It's estimated that as much as 2 billion pounds of poultry litter (comprising chicken manure aka poop, feathers, spilled feed, bedding material, dead rodents, etc.) are fed to cattle every year. That's more than just gross — it courts mad cow disease,
Time to get tray serious: Get involved with a Child Nutrition Act campaign now
School’s out for the summer, but there’s a food fight going on in the cafeteria. In Washington, Congress is turning up the heat on the policies that determine what 30 million children will eat once the lunch
Permaculture pressure: Keeping up with the Jones (Farm, that is)
Though I've been gardening for many years, every season I come up against all the things I don't know and want to learn. Usually I grab a book or talk to a friendly farmer at the local farmers market to see how someone else does what I want to do. But recently, I discovered a list of workshops available
English stars get on the real-food bandwagon
Now if we can just get Octo-Mom to eat organic: "Where celebrities are concerned, it seems, food is the new fur," reports the UK press. English A-list celebrities are part of a new seafood-awareness campaign to back the cinematic release of "The End Of The Line," a film about the threat of overfishing.
Running dry: Time to save our nation’s dairy farmers
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) perfecting the intermittent windshield wiper, only to have his idea snared and used without credit by the Ford Motor Company. He pursues lawsuits against Ford
The right to bear farms: Severine von Tscharner Fleming, young-farmers champion
Editor's note: Severine von Tscharner Fleming first inspired me back in 2006, when she was just an undergraduate activist at Berkeley. Since
Ask the Ethicurean: How do I work to change the food system?
We recently received an email from a reader asking for career advice on how best to make a difference in the food system. He has given me permission to post it here with his name removed — I'll call him Reader D instead. Our suggestions follow, and we'd love to hear yours as well. I have been reading
WK Kellogg’s Food and Society 2009: Follow the foundation funding
I've just come back from the WK Kellogg Foundation's invitation-only Food and Society conference in San Jose, CA, where I was hanging out on the foundation's dime with about 500 other
There are much scarier food safety bills than HR 875 in Congress
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 WOULD OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING!!!!" or "MONSANTO'S DREAM BILL!!!!" It appears, inevitably, in all caps. I have upwards of 30 versions in my inbox. Normally, it
While we were sleeping: Score one for the GMO lobby
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 no excuse. We've just been reminded that, like time, Monsanto stops for no man. Yesterday, eliciting not a ripple from the blogosphere, the Senate
No comment, no say: lend your voice to shaping four big food & ag policies
Photo from Iowa, courtesy of factoryfarm.org. It's easy to get cynical about our ability to influence policy or policymakers - especially when we don't have lots of money or a well-dressed K St. lobby firm to throw around. But I'd venture to say that with all the change-making, democracy-taking action
After Michelle Obama: a Q&A with Scott Schenkelberg of Miriam’s Kitchen
Mrs. Obama on the line at Miriam's Kitchen; photo courtesy of Choice Photography. Last week, Michelle Obama made news by serving a meal at Miriam’s Kitchen, a DC social service agency. Miriam’s
Serving meals, shedding anger, at a free lunch program in New England
Toward the end of last year, something happened. I still can’t say what, exactly, I just know it happened almost overnight. For two years, I’d been reading and blogging almost exclusively about food. I’d devoured articles about CAFOs and corn, downer cows and diabetes, subsidies and school lunches.
Ready, set, go change the food system, part 2: More USDA action items
On Friday we published the first half of a list of specific actions the new USDA could undertake in its first six months that could significantly change the food system. After polling a cross-section of groups and individuals, we cherry-picked
