There is one thing that my new book is about: corporate control of every aspect of our food system, from how it is labeled to the pesticides we are exposed to. The main thesis of Foodopoly is simple -- we, the people, must reclaim our democracy. We must...

Since January, I have been traveling the country promoting my book Foodopoly. While the travel is exhausting, the people I meet on the road keep me going. They tell me how much they appreciate Foodopoly's honest account of the imbalance of power at the root of our dysfunctional...

When it comes to exposure to radioactive materials, how much is too much? If you're like most people, or scientists, the answer is probably "any amount." But the Obama Administration apparently didn't get the memo because this week, it finalized new guidelines for the amount of radioactivity to...

Open government and transparency are essential pillars of a functioning democracy. But when governments privatize public services and infrastructure, we too often lose access to information and the tools to hold officials accountable.

In many cases, residents lose access to public information even before a service is privatized. Some...

It's not what you know, but who you know. Relationships are everything, and they're the key to understanding why certain partnerships do not represent the real social justice and environmental movements opposing the oil and gas industry's continuing efforts to compromise public resources and wreak havoc on the environment. Last...

Global pork titan Smithfield has ranked second among food production companies on Fortune magazine's 2013 list of "Most Admired Companies." Before we untangle how terribly strange and ironic this is, just what does "Most Admired" mean, and how was this list generated?

According to Fortune's

It doesn't take a nuclear physicist to know that the process of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") threatens our communities and their most essential resources, so why has President Obama appointed Dr. Ernest Moniz, a proponent of the process, to guide our nation's energy future? As director of MIT's Energy Initiative, whose...

Tonight, millions of people will enjoy a beer. What the vast majority of them probably won't realize is that the variety of brands they see in the stores come from just two foreign-based multinational companies that control 80 percent of the market here in the U.S.

While many...

If I were to ask you to imagine that the frying pan you use to prepare meals was slowly dosing you and your family with radiation, what would you say? Or how about the steel water bottle you use to tote water? It's not a far cry from reality if...

For many months, New York activists have followed Gov. Cuomo wherever he goes to deliver a simple message: ban fracking in the state. Just a few weeks ago hundreds of marchers surrounded the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the governor was holding a high-dollar birthday fundraiser, to remind him and his moneyed...

Ah, Nestlé, you've done it again. First, in the 1970s, campaigners boycotted you, charging that you violated World Health Organization guidelines on advertising and duped mothers (especially, and most tragically, in developing countries) into thinking infant formula was better than breast milk. Then Elisabeth Badinter, the heiress to...

Recently, the Huffington Post reported that Change.org has abandoned its progressive roots and apparently planned on doing it without telling anyone, according to documents leaked from a Change.org employee to Jeff Bryant with Campaign for America's Future. (According to this petition on rival petition site Signon.org, that employee...

Kathy Phillips is a real heroine. She's standing up to Perdue, a company responsible for a large percentage of the pollution pouring into the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding waterways. Kathy is braving the anger and malice of a powerful corporation that wields power in her community. While all...

This week, Food & Water Watch and Friends of the Earth filed a joint lawsuit to force the Environmental Protection Agency to preserve the integrity of the Clean Water Act as it turns 40 years old this month. Represented by the Columbia Law School's Environmental Law Clinic, we...

Here's a memo to the technocrats, pundits, environmental organizations and foundations that believe corporate collaborations and market-based solutions are the key to solving the critical environmental problems facing us. Why are you so afraid of fighting for what we really want -- a future based on renewable energy...

Last week, with Obama re-election posters blanketing the audience at the Democratic National Convention and Republicans mocking Obama's campaign slogan, the word of the moment was Forward. But when it comes to food safety, this Administration is stuck in reverse. The 56-page 2012 Democratic Party Platform included

I have news for the Environmental Defense Fund: the fracking activist community is shocked that you received $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies to advocate for fracking regulations. And we aren't going to stand for it.

EDF says that they'll be working for "responsible" regulation in 14 states. Of...

The notion of a profit-driven multinational corporation controlling the supply of water to our homes (yes, the water we as humans rely on daily to drink, bathe and live) seems odd to many. Perhaps as odd as the notion of a corporation controlling (and charging us for) the sunshine we...

Last Saturday at the Stop the Frack Attack rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., you could easily have convinced yourself you were at an anti-fracking rally in Albany. There were so many signs urging people to call Governor Andrew Cuomo that it is clear concerned citizens...

Drilling and fracking for shale gas continues to expand across the East Coast despite consumer outcry over the environmental and health risks associated with this dangerous form of fossil fuel extraction. Now, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has identified new potential targets in central and southern Maryland, as well...