Food and Farming
A Frog-Jumping Double Standard on Food Subsidies
I'll bet that Mark Twain, who wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," would've loved a current saga. I call it "The Jumping Congress Critter of Frog Jump." The critter's name is Representative Stephen Fincher. He's a millionaire, agribusiness...
Food Stamps SOS
How I Fell for Farmers’ Markets
I'll never forget the first time I went to a farmers' market. I hated it. Like many who buy food only from the grocery store, I didn't realize that local farmers can't produce every food all year round. I didn't expect pineapples or anything, but the extremely limited...
Faking Farm Savings
Sometimes it appears common sense and reality can't penetrate the Capitol's marble-lined walls. This financially costly phenomenon struck when both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees recently passed their versions of the Farm Bill. Instead of debating where...
Censoring Our Food
Standing outside a slaughterhouse in Draper City, Utah, Amy Meyer was horrified by what she saw. Cows struggled to stay out of the plant and employees hauled one cow that appeared sick or injured in a tractor. While standing on public property, Meyer pulled out her...
The New Crime of Eating While Homeless
Whenever one of our cities gets a star turn as host of some super-sparkly event, such as a national political gathering or the Super Bowl, its first move is to tidy up — by having the police sweep homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug. But...
Less Beer, More Can
Anyone who says that America has lost its innovative edge in technology and manufacturing hasn't chugged a can of Bud recently. The buzz is back, baby! Well, actually, Budweiser is no longer American. It's now part of a Belgian outfit called Anheuser-Busch InBev, the...
Those Uninvited Guests at Your Barbecue
Planning a Memorial Day barbecue? When you buy meat for that festive meal, watch out for some uninvited guests. An alarming amount of American meat harbors not just pathogens, but "superbugs" — antibiotic-resistant bacteria. For now, you'd better cook your meat well...
Superbugs at the Supermarket
Fighting the Foodopoly
My new book is called Foodopoly. It's about the corporate control of every aspect of our food system, from how what we eat is labeled to the pesticides we're exposed to. We, the people, must reclaim our democracy. We must reestablish strong antitrust laws to begin the...
