Risk, bacteria, and the tragedy of food-safety reform (updated)
Grist - 11/29/2010. By Tom Philpott – After all the back-and-forth in our recent – and, if I may say, extremely informative – Food Fight debate on S. 510, I hold to the same opinion I expressed at first: that S. 510 represents a small step in the right direction, so long as it doesn't crush the alternative food systems that are emerging to challenge Big Food. |
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Wikileaks: State Department wants intel on African acceptance of GMOs
Grist - 11/29/2010.By Tom Laskawy – The Wikileaks release of U.S. State Department classified diplomatic cables may be problematic, but it has been quite a trove of information on the workings of our diplomatic corps. For the most part, the dump has confirmed things that we already knew about U.S. policy – and that seems to be the case regarding the one mention of agricultural policy in these thousands of emails and documents to which I was alerted. |
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An almanac of extreme weather
New York Times - 11/28/2010.By Jack Hedin – Rushford, Minn.: The news from this Midwestern farm is not good. The past four years of heavy rains and flash flooding here in southern Minnesota have left me worried about the future of agriculture in America’s grain belt. For some time computer models of climate change have been predicting just these kinds of weather patterns, but seeing them unfold on our farm has been harrowing nonetheless. |
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‘There is food all over the place’
Maine Sunday Telegram - 11/28/2010. By Beth Quimby – Farmer Denis Thoet has packed his root cellar with beets, potatoes and carrots and filled a storage room in his house with garlic, onions and squash. His freezer is stuffed with the leftovers from the food he grows for 69 households that each bought a share of this year's harvest. |
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