Section » Climate Change
California’s tree crops are screwed, says new report
Things heat up in the nation's produce basket: Tree crops like apples, cherries, pears, walnuts and almonds rely on a chilly winter to set the stage for a productive spring and summer. But in a study released today, UC Davis scientists report that climate change is chipping away at the number
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African farms getting hotter, need to start looking across borders for adapted seeds
Sounds like a great project for the Gates Foundation: African farmers are about to face growing seasons hotter than any in their experience. They can look to other regions that already have those hotter climates for ideas of how and what to grow: "A few lucky countries, such as Tanzania, Ethiopia and
Should agriculture count as a carbon offset?
"If a cow burps, how do you measure it?" (best NYT subhead ever): Debate over whether to include agriculture in the Waxman-Markey climate legislation is heating up between supporters of agricultural offsets, which fund projects like methane capture systems over CAFO animal-waste lagoons, and those who
Big Ag trying to hijack Waxman-Markey climate change bill
Time to eat your intellectual spinach: Cap-and-trade schemes are nobody's favorite beach reading, but Tom Philpott is valiantly, and cogently, tackling an important twist in the wrangling over the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. Some of the largest corporations in the agribusiness sector are trying
Considering a Green Bank
Greening the greenbacks: Reed Hundt, co-chair of the "Coalition for a Green Bank," writes about an interesting idea — a government-run, not-for-profit "Green Bank" that will help provide financing for projects that reduce the carbon intensity of our economy. If created by Congress, the bank's initial
Tossing cowpies at today’s New York Times “Greening the Pasture” story
Right idea, wrong approach: We were so happy to see the New York Times piece, "Greening the Herd," about a Stonyfield Farm-backed program to change dairy cows' diets to see if it might reduce their methane emissions and thus curb their contribution to climate change. Especially this sentence: "Since
Big Food vs. Mother Nature
Money can't buy you cheap oil again: FoE Tom Laskawy has a nice overview of Big Food's recent desperate-seeming lobbying efforts, before launching into how the one threat Big Food hasn't proven itself very adept at handling is "the multiheaded hydra of climate change, drought, and the shrinking supplies
Digest - News: Perilous pork, the First Lettuce, food safety plateaus
Free-range throwdown: A New York Times op-ed turns the food-fear spotlight on pastured pork, covering a study that finds that "free-range pork can be more likely than caged pork to carry dangerous bacteria and parasites" including potentially-deadly Trichinosis. The author gets in a few more digs with
Digest - Features and blogs: Free-range response, literary seasonality, the Hamburg wish list
Fighting the Averyian Flu: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University look a little deeper at the NYT pork op-ed and find that the study mentioned was funded by the National Pork Board, which represents conventional producers, and that the Trichinosis "positive" pigs tested seropositive, meaning they have
Digest - Features and blogs: Why go local?
Agriculture next to fall? In his latest blog screed, famed dystopian James Howard Kunstler predicts that agriculture will be the next to fall in the world economic crisis, noting that "if the US government is going to try to make remedial policy for anything, it better start with agriculture, to promote
Digest - News & Features: Grass-fed emits more CO2 than grain-, wheat threatened, Grandin creates certification
Have you read (or written) something savory lately? Send your Digest tips to digest@ethicurean.com. Grass-fed meat still linked to climate change: Grass-fed cattle have a higher carbon footprint than grain-fed, says Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Yes, you read that right. He
Digest - Blogs, features, opinions: Michigan builds local, peanut pontification, and snacks from the sea
Eating local, even below zero: More than a hundred people gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan to plan for the growth of the region's local food movement and feasted on local greens, squash, beans, meat, and other goodies. Organizers hope that the products of the 2009 Local Food Summit will "transform the
Digest - News: Vilsack updates, Clif Bars recalled, OJ CO2
Tractor tire hits the dirt: After clearing the Senate confirmation process, new USDA chief Tom Vilsack gets to work. (Des Moines Register) Meanwhile, speculation abounds on who may join him at the agency
Taxing cows to curb climate change
When you fill your car's tank, you pay a gas tax. Someday, when you fill your belly with cheese, milk, or steak, you might have to pay another type of gas tax — one levied on the methane and nitrous oxide emitted by the cows that produced or became your food. Bacteria in a cow's gut help digest what
Digest: Food’s future heats up, dairy prices tank, and we ask FDA to hold the peanut butter
Incompetence sandwich: 400 people have been sickened nationwide by a Salmonella outbreak linked to King Nut peanut butter, and while the company has quickly responded with a voluntary recall, the FDA has yet to issue a press release telling the public they should avoid the stuff. Are they nuts? (CNN.com) 2100:
