The Rise and Fall of Ukraine’s Fertilizer King
Mother Jones illustration; Ronald Zak/AP; Getty Those paying close attention to President Donald Trump’s impeachment drama will have heard of the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash. His story contains multitudes. In the 2000s, he rubbed shoulders with Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chair who’s now serving time for crimes linked to his work with the…
Presidential Candidates Wouldn’t Touch This Radical Idea to Transform Agriculture—Until Now
Mother Jones illustration; John Minchillo/AP; Getty Food and agriculture policies have been at best a fringe issues during the last few Democratic presidential primaries. Candidates tend limit their agricultural appeals to “broad value statements” rather than dive into the policy specifics “that would indicate they’ve given these issues the attention they deserve,” says Sarah Hackney,…
Trump Ag Secretary to Struggling Farmers: Get a Job!
Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue maintains a, well, sunny view of the current farm economy. “I don’t think there could have been a better time to be in agriculture than today, I really mean that,” he recently mused on his podcast, The Sonnyside of the Street. In the latest episode, “Do Right and Feed…
California’s Wildfire Policy Totally Backfired. Native Communities Know How to Fix It.
When it came time to set fire to the hillside, Kitty Lynch paused. A 70 year-old retired waitress, Lynch’s job during the controlled burn of a 2,200 acre ranch in Humboldt County, California this June was to keep the fire in check by tamping down small, errant flames with a tool called a McLeod. Lynch…
Eat, Stomp, Poop: Could Better Ranching Help Save the Planet?
Mother Jones illustration; Getty Rancher Loren Poncia counts roughly 500 glossy Angus beef cattle, 350 sheep, and 19 hogs among his brood at Stemple Creek ranch, a scenic stretch of sandy rolling hills dotted with bony Eucalyptus trees near the Pacific Ocean in Tomales, California. The animals have brought Poncia acclaim: Stemple Creek’s organic meats…
Bite Podcast’s New Series Explores How Climate Change Is Transforming Dinner
Mother Jones illustration; Getty Climate change has already started to unleash its fury, from megastorms to flooding to ravenous fires. But the way many people will first experience this phenomenon is in the quiet of their homes—at the dinner table. As Amanda Little, author of The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger,…