Food and Farming
The Outgoing Texas Ag Commissioner’s Red Meat Agenda
In Texas, not all goobers are produced by peanut farmers. A bumper crop of some of our nuttiest goobers comes out of far-right-wing political soil. Check out this blue-ribbon specimen: Todd Staples. Carefully cultivated by corporate agribusiness powers, he's served as...
We Can’t Go On Eating Like This
Once the human race stopped throwing spears and gathering berries, our bodies suffered. Planting seeds and harvesting produce made leisure possible, but it also meant we grew shorter, fatter, sicker, and considerably more overworked. An alien visiting from another...
Hooked on Apples
When it comes to solving big problems, I believe in reaching for the low-hanging fruit first. What's the easy stuff we can get out of the way before working on harder challenges? Right now, many of us can go for the low hanging-fruit in a very literal way: by visiting...
The Nouveau Sodbusters
We know from the childhood song that Old MacDonald had a farm. But e-i-e-i-o — look who's got his farm now. It's outfits like American Farmland, Farmland Partners, and BlackRock. These aren't dirt farmers wearing overalls and muddy boots. They're Wall Street hucksters...
Seeds of Greed
Another Fast Food Stunt
Now here's a dinner I wish I could've attended. I hear it was an elegant evening of fine dining in New York City's chic Tribeca neighborhood. Celebrity chefs prepared a sumptuous spread of international cuisines for this truly unique ballet for the taste buds. The...
The Case for Making Foreign Aid a Two-Way Street
What if I told you there was a lot in Africa that was going right? Now, I don't mean programs that are successfully handing out food aid, treating malaria, or preventing elephant poaching, although I'm sure some of those are succeeding too. I mean intrinsic parts of...
No Appetite for Fixing School Lunch
You can lead a kid to vegetables, but you can't make her eat. Especially if the food doesn't taste good. That's what the government found out in the wake of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. I was active in advocating for school lunch reform at the time. The...
A Prickly Question
California's harsh new measure to deal with long-term drought is making waves. Residents caught wasting by washing sidewalks with their garden hose and committing similar reckless acts are incurring fines of up to $500. Is that fair? Or will the fine be perceived as...
Sick Pig Problems
A pound of bacon now costs more than $6. That's a record increase from $3.86 a pound four years ago. What's driving this spike? Blame Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus. The disease, known as PEDv, is rattling the pork industry after claiming over 10 percent of the U.S....
