Three years ago, I went to work undercover in America's food system. To the extent that I was motivated by journalistic intrigue, I wanted to see how the country's vast industrial food system worked. But more than that, I had a bone to pick with foodies.

The breaking point came...

Food activists are likely mourning one of their own this morning: the Fair Food Foundation. The killer? Securities fraudster Bernard L. Madoff.

The fledgling grantmaking enterprise sent an email to supporters today:

The Fair Food Foundation is ceasing operation as a grant making foundation. The funds of the donors...

With few supermarkets, city dwellers seeking fresh good grow their own.

It's easy to dismiss the growing trend of urban agriculture as a phenomenon for the affluent, given the lofty undertones of most writing on fresh and local food. However, as I tried to point out this New York...

At a moment when Democratic Party officials are urging voters to trust unelected superdelegates to act in the country's best interests, HuffPost's OffTheBus investigation into the background of DNC superdelegates reveals at least one appointed superdelegate who is as likely to use his political connections for personal profit as for...

Last night, I did something that I haven't done in years: I went out with a crew of political activists. As a journalist, I shy away from campaigning for candidates, so when acquaintances or college friends would invite me out to knock on doors, pass out leaflets, or otherwise accost...

A brighter note sounded in the obesity epidemic battles this week: Federal Women, Infants and Children vouchers are being overhauled to include fresh fruits and vegetables. But does that mean folks will drop the white bread and American cheese for greens?

In a word: Yes.

Until now, this massive...

The lack of healthy food in our nation's poorest communities is finally making it into public discussion, but there's a tricky hurdle we've yet to get around: How to fix it. The most obvious solution--bring in food stores like supermarkets, which are correlated with people eating more fruits and vegetables--is...

It's common knowledge that tax day inspires a nationwide grumble, but it's beginning to be known for bringing annual cheers from the country's working poor. In recent years, the Earned Income Tax Credit--a stealth antipoverty program with broad bipartisan support--has become one of the country's most successful efforts to help...

Cooking mania is trickling into publiic school, as per a nicely done profile of New York City's Food and Finance High School by Kim Severson in the Times' Dining Out section. The school's 600 students study Fast Food Nation in English class, grow hyrdoponic bok choy, and...

Yesterday, New York City's Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled specifics on the newest piece of his groundbreaking antipoverty initiative: Paying the poor for behaving well. From a press conference in hardscrabble Brownsville, Brooklyn, Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs explained that, come September, the city will be paying...

Forget marriage promotion as the solution to poverty. New York State is taking on fathers. The move has been a long time in coming; for all the success welfare reform had in moving single mothers into jobs--albeit low-wage ones--it's largely been a failure at doing the same...

With the Katrina anniversary come and gone, it's unclear how quickly poverty will recede from public debate. But in New York City, it was yanked back to center stage by yesterday's announcement of the findings of a high-profile antipoverty commission chartered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Taking on poverty...

You can generally count me out in heralding welfare reform as an unmitigated success. When President Clinton signed the bill into law ten years ago today, on August 22, 1996, he struck a dicey bargain, based on a premise that only a rich man would find credible: To end poverty,...

Forget organics. Stop worrying about local. Just get some fresh food into the 'hood. That's a pretty basic summary of the latest brainstorm in the "How do we stop being so fat?" conundrum: Use bodegas--the cheap corner stores found in poor urban neighborhoods--as beacons of health. If it sounds unlikely...