The Latest Green New Deal for Farmers Would Restructure Everything About How They Make Money
eclipse_images/Getty The Green New Deal, the climate-change-fighting policy framework proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) nearly a year ago, laid down bold goals for transforming agriculture: It called for a “10-year national mobilization” to “eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector” while “supporting family farming.” The plan…
These Emails Show a Trump Official Helping Her Former Chemical Industry Colleagues
The Department of Agriculture building in Washington, DC.Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/AP Images This story was published originally by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. In 2017, Dow Chemical scored a long-sought-after…
Will Small Farmers’ Beef With Trump Sway the 2020 Election?
Marco Cibola On an October morning, two men and a woman wearing cowboy hats, bearing American flags, and sitting atop horses rode into a windowless conference room in the depths of a Ramada Inn on the edge of Omaha. When they reached the front of the room and faced the crowd of about 500 ranchers,…
Cory Booker Just Went All-In Against Factory Farming and the Meat Industry
As his presidential bid struggles to gain traction, Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.) is out with a bold new bill, introduced Dec. 16, that proposes a serious crackdown on two powerful industries: meat and dairy. It might seem like a strange thing move for a candidate seeking to increase his broad appeal in a meat-loving nation—especially…
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,…