The Skinny on Farm Subsidies and Obesity

The Skinny on Farm Subsidies and Obesity

Obesity has reached epic proportions in the United States and its price tag is soaring. With one-third of adults and more than 12 million children and adolescents obese, the direct and indirect medical costs of this scourge total as much as $147 billion a year. The...
New Rules will Support Farmers and Jobs

New Rules will Support Farmers and Jobs

Several lawmakers are proposing a time-out on new regulations to supposedly generate a more job-friendly environment. To some that might sound reasonable given the nation’s entrenched unemployment, but there’s one set of new rules in particular that should...

Waiter, There’s a Newfangled Technology in My Soup

The U.S. food system has a new bedfellow, and it may already be on your plate. Increasingly, the coatings that keep supermarket produce fresh-looking and the chemicals used in pesticide-intensive farming are incorporating nanotechnology — a technology still in...
Casino Crops

Casino Crops

Thanks to decades of deregulated agriculture, markets for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and other farm commodities have become high-stakes casinos. If family farmers are to be stewards of the land and safe, nutritious local supplies of food are what we want, then we...

Dairy Farmers vs. Commodities Traders

Despite treating her cows humanely, strictly adhering to milk production regulations, and carefully stewarding her land, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer I know is $70,000 in debt. She has no idea how she’ll repay her creditors or how much longer they will allow her...