By virtually eliminating risk, crop insurance subsidies are encouraging farmers to plow up wetlands and prairies, a trend that is increasing water pollution, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere and destroying wildlife habitat.
After months of extensions and some breathtaking backdoor dealing, it's time to ask: What are we -- and our rapidly eroding farmlands -- getting out of the bargains being cut between a handful of legislators and the powerful agribusiness lobby?
Large landowners and agribusinesses in the West have been corrupting the county, state, and federal governments. They siphon off billions of dollars of public subsidies while they cannibalize the family farmers and wreck the communities and ecology of rural America.
Guestworkers, as well as Americans who do or would do farm work, lack lobbyists and talking points. But what happens in rural America to guestworkers and displaced American workers is an untold story of wrong that deserves attention.
Just outside of the small town of Maumelle, Arkansas sits your run-of-the-mill American strip mall. And as in so many other box store hubs, a Walmart dominates the landscape. But something is a shade different about this one; its big, looming letters are not the standard blue.
Colleges can -- and should -- do more to prepare students for "the real world." We can chop up our lessons a bit and create short intense courses that work well with full time jobs. We can create partnerships with employers that offer student programs that are "half work, half school."
I have taught sporadically at several universities. My latest teaching is at Pitzer College that prides itself for its liberal and environmental value...
From community gardens to just global policy, a national and global movement is growing to reclaim food, land, and agricultural systems from agribusiness and put them back in the hands of citizens.
When considering immigration reform, we should take a lesson from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and not settle for baby steps. Exploited immigrant labor must become a thing of the past.
Mark my words; we won't all be going to school via a computer. The flat screen in front of you is too one dimensional to make information sticky.
The industry's response to years of evidence of egregious, and often criminal, animal cruelty and of diseased and adulterated meat entering the market is to attempt to outlaw undercover investigations.
This abundant Brazilian agriculture, which has long ceased to be a mere commodity exporter, is based on a strong technological apparatus. When speaking of agriculture in Brazil today, the talk is about a rural universe of high technology, of which the urban population enjoys, but few see.
To be authentically sustainable means to be vegan. No matter how animals are grown, growing plants to feed humans is easier on the earth than growing plants to feed animals and then turning those animals into food.
Farmers have a hard enough job as it is. Add an unpredictable supply of labor, and farmers are downright vulnerable. We need an immigration process that is responsive to our economic needs. That means a stable and skilled agricultural workforce.
So on Monday, October 1, is World Vegetarian Day--the kickoff for Vegetarian Awareness Month than runs throughout October. If you've been toying with the idea of going vegetarian, then let me be your cheerleader, and let the following lists inform and inspire! Good luck...and please share your journey!
A little-understood but devastating beetle is infesting trees in commercial avocado groves, botanical gardens and backyards in Southern California.
As a public health scientist and as a public citizen, and I have come to the conclusion that for the health of our families, the health of the environment, and the health of the people who work to put food on our dinner tables, we should stick with organic.
Farm workers in California work in the extreme heat and tough conditions to feed our nation and face the risk of death and illness. The people who feed us should not fear death when they go to work.
If you ever thought that the farm bill was just about agricultural subsidies and food stamps, think again. Not only does the farm bill dictate what we eat -- it also establishes whom our nation's leaders are listening to on issues far beyond food.
If you want to eat healthfully, you have to fight an uphill battle. Why are government subsidies pushing in the wrong direction?
Child farmworker struggles are symptoms of a blight that's buried by the spin of corporate agriculture: the politics of the food system are spoiled rotten.
According to a report in the Journal of Pediatrics, approximately 26,650 youth are injured on farms every year. Of these injuries, more than 3,700 require hospitalization. Now, passing the CARE Act is even more important.
How can we meet the world's increasing demands for food, water and energy without degrading the natural systems we depend on for survival?
To fight our insane wars, we're wrecking our soldiers' ability to live with themselves and function in society, then regulating what's left of them with chemicals, which often make things immeasurably worse.
What matters is having a leader, not a politician, assume political office. And so I suggest that people look to break out of the two-party trance and take on a pro-active role in taking your government back to serve You, your family, your friends, your community.
