Food and Farming
Smithfield’s Pork PR Scam
The factory farm giant can’t call itself “sustainable” while polluting water, spraying manure, and getting into the natural gas business.
Overhaul the USDA
For decades, the agriculture department has been indifferent to struggling rural communities. That has to change.
Planet Plastic
The vast tonnage of this trash increases every minute, with an afterlife lasting centuries.
Learning the Lessons of the Latino Vote
Georgia will determine control of the Senate. The votes of Latinos, who have suffered badly during the pandemic, could be decisive.
This Holiday Season, Choose a New Food Future
What better symbol of agri-industry’s vision of “food” than the ubiquitous Butterball turkey so many ate for Thanksgiving?
Make USDA ‘The People’s Department’ Again
For years, the Department of Agriculture has been run by Big Ag acolytes. Biden has a chance to change that.
The First Thanksgiving?
Wherever it began, and whatever the purists claim is “official,” Thanksgiving today is as multicultural as America.
Putting Out Wildfires, Now and Tomorrow
Yes, we need more immediate safety measures — but also longer-term solutions for the pollution causing these climate disasters.
Farmers and Meatpackers Are Teaming Up
During the pandemic and recession, farmers are realizing they have more in common with immigrant meatpackers than agribusiness CEOs.
Trump’s USDA Is Serving Up Diseased Chicken
Federal regulators recently okayed selling chickens suffering from Avian Leukosis, which produces cancerous tumors.