| Oct 2, 2013 | Food / FarmingHave you ever eaten a genetically engineered food? If you’re like most Americans, you have no idea. Genetic engineering is a controversial technology in which genes from one species (say, bacteria) are inserted into the DNA of a different species (for example,...
| | Food / FarmingSome aspects of American agriculture are quite odd. For example, to meet a farmer these days, you don’t need to venture out to the hinterland. Thousands of our farmers are city slickers. And they’re really slick, for many of them neither plant nor harvest...
| Sep 25, 2013 | Food / FarmingOscar was good at his job. He folded chicken wings at an Alabama poultry plant. As bird carcasses zipped by on the processing line, he twisted the wings into position, folding fast enough to meet a quota of about 40 chicken wings per minute — roughly 18,000 wings per...
| | Food / FarmingOne of the biggest drawbacks of the factory farms producing most of our food is the amount of pollution they generate. Factory farms, which raise the bulk of our chickens, hogs, and turkeys, and house most of our dairy cows, are one of the nation’s largest...
| | Food / FarmingSeveral years ago, I worked in a grocery store bakery. At the end of each day, we threw away piles of perfectly good food. Before the store closed, employees walked down each aisle, checking the expiration dates of bread, bagels, and cookies to toss out whatever...
| Sep 18, 2013 | Food / FarmingAs the fast food workers’ minimum wage campaign gains momentum, another group of workers is expanding the fight to address one of the least-known economic outrages. You may not realize it, but the measly $7.25 an hour McDonald’s and other fast-food giants...
