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Halliburton gets tripped up by Indian bean farmers*
Economics 101: supply and demand. The more supply in the market, the price of a product drops. The more demand, prices rise. Demand leads to sales, which reduces supply and forces prices higher and...
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Climate change could cause ‘zombie weeds’
This rice might look like the type farmers cultivate for food, but it’s a weed. And as CO2 levels in the air rise, it might just take over. (Photo courtesy of The International Rice Research...
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Line ‘em up, knock ‘em down: Senate plans 73 farm bill votes today
To farm bill or not to farm bill, that is the question. Or that’s been the question occupying the Senate for the last week. The problem, as the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition explains, is...
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No, genetically modified grass isn’t killing cows with cyanide
Cows eating something besides cyanide. (Photo courtesy of the University of Missouri Extension.) Perhaps you heard the story going around today. A genetically modified grass started pumping out...
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After the Rio Earth Summit: Will agriculture really get any greener?
If last week’s Rio+20 Earth Summit made anything clear to those of us at home, it’s the degree to which the world’s developed nations have been sitting on their hands since the original Earth Summit...
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‘Monsanto Protection Act’ would keep GMO crops in the ground during legal...
It’s that exciting time of the year again when the Senate and House Appropriations Committees get together to hash out the annual agriculture budget. I know, right? Really fun stuff. This year, in...
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Parched Midwest could mean smaller Gulf dead zone
Here’s last year’s Gulf dead zone. How big will this year’s be? (Photo courtesy of NOAA.) If you’re an underwater creature living in the Gulf of Mexico, summer is not your friend. All spring long,...
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Sudden desert: Midwest drought is bad news for farmers and eaters
Photo by Claire-Marie Harris. What do you say to a corn stalk ravaged by a heat wave? Nothing. Its ears are stunted. Corn growers throughout the Midwest this summer are facing an extraordinary ordeal...
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The lesser of two evils: Why food advocates are pushing for a farm bill they...
What’s that sound? It’s the clock ticking as the timeline for this year’s farm bill process begins to run out. The current bill expires Sept. 30, and we now have less than two weeks before Congress’...
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GMO sugar beets get the green light
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ruled once and for all to allow unrestricted planting of Monsanto’s GMO sugar beets. This announcement puts an end to a long court battle to force...
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Science says: Cut that steak in half to keep the climate in check
Photo by Jack Lyons. Eric Davidson has no grand plan to turn you into a vegetarian. But in order for us to avoid catastrophic climate change, this senior scientist and executive director at Woods Hole...
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‘Bitter Seeds’ documentary reveals tragic toll of GMOs in India
When home-front battles over GMO labeling, beekeeping, and the Farm Bill get heated, we can sometimes lose sight of the fact that Big Ag’s influence extends far beyond our own borders. Micha Peled’s...
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Born to bee wild: How feral pollinators may help prevent colony collapse...
A rare cross-sectional glimpse of natural honeycomb construction. (Photo by Max Westby.) In 2009, lifelong beekeeper Dan Harvey faced an existential crisis when he lost much of his honeybee stock to...
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Proposed law would keep California farmworkers from overheating
In most jobs, if you have to spend even part of your workday exerting yourself under the hot summer sun, you’re likely to have drinking water nearby. And, if you don’t, you probably won’t be penalized...
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Cows cause as much smog in L.A. as cars do
Photo by Daniel. L.A. gets a bad rap for its car culture. But it turns out that Americans’ addiction to milk, cheese, and other delicious dairy products plays just as big a role in the city’s smog...
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University strikes back against Occupy the Farm
Photo by Steve Rhodes. “Maybe you’ll be my one phone call from jail,” urban farmer and activist Ashoka Finley says, just before our phone conversation ends. He’s joking, but I imagine he can probably...
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A growing problem: Notes from the ‘superweed’ summit
Last week, the National Academy of Sciences hosted a summit to discuss “superweeds,” or the widespread problem of herbicide-resistant weeds currently afflicting millions of farm acres across the...
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Put it in your pipe and grow it: Former tobacco farms evolve
A sweet potato from Saura Pride Purple Sweet Potato, a fledgling business that was once a tobacco farm. (All photos by RAFI.) Alan Flippin comes from a long line of North Carolina tobacco growers....
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Politicians, advocates make an 11th-hour push for a better farm bill
Senator Debbie Stabenow, head of the Senate Ag Committee, has pledged to get a farm bill passed by September. (Photo by Lance Cheung for the USDA.) Right now, the Farm Bill needs a hero, and Sen....
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Flame retardants could affect our bodies for generations
Photo by Steve Ryan. It’s always nice when someone writes an article so you don’t have to. In this case it was New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, who has been doing the thankless job of writing...
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Americans want more fruits and veggies for everyone
Photo by Chiot’s Run. If you’ve noticed more carrot-crunching, more orange-peeling, and an abundance of leafy green salads lately, it’s probably not a coincidence. As The Washington Post reported...
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Blame it all on my roots: Local food sees a resurgence in the South
A still from the documentary Eating Alabama. People in Alabama love to gather and, when they do, it’s usually around football or religion and it is always fortified with plenty of food and drink. What...
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Land grabbing hurts the world’s poor more than climate change, Fred Pearce...
A version of this article originally appeared in The Observer. Investigative journalist and author Fred Pearce has a new book out this week: The Land Grabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns the Earth,...
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File under bad idea: G8 asks Big Ag to take the lead in feeding the world
When President Obama announced a new program during the recent G8 summit to help bolster food and agriculture in developing nations through corporate “pledges,” I was most struck by his choice of...
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What humans hath wrought: What happens when we mess with Mother Nature?
Click to embiggen. (Photos c/o the Center for PostNatural History.) Want to learn about dinosaurs and elephants and mountain gorillas? Head to your local natural history museum. But if you’re looking...
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Celebrity chefs and food movement leaders tell Congress: ‘This farm bill stinks’
Wendell Berry, Dan Barber, Rick Bayless, and Mario Batali are among 70 food movement leaders who signed a letter asking Congress to invest in healthy food. Mario Batali, Dan Barber, Rick Bayless, and...
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Feds to farmers: Grow GMO beets or face sugar shortage
If you’re Monsanto, you’re probably really proud of your genetically modified (GMO) sugar beets. Introduced in 2008, the beets are the company’s most recent Roundup Ready product genetically...
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Farmers, the most likely cause of the monarch butterfly’s travails, may now...
The monarch population has plummeted in recent years, and it’s probably because farmers have gotten a lot better at controlling weeds. They’ve waged war against milkweed, wiping out the plant monarch...
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You know you want to be Grist’s newest fellow
Are you an early-career journalist, storyteller, or multimedia wizard who digs what we do? Then Grist wants you! We are now accepting applications for the spring 2017 class of the Grist Fellowship...
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Eating grass-fed beef probably won’t save the planet, according to a new review.
Sorry to ruin the party, but a report from the Food Climate Research Network casts doubt on recent suggestions that pasture-raised cattle could sequester massive amounts of carbon in the soil. By...
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