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,…
This Ancient Fruit Holds Secrets for How to Farm in Climate Change
Heiko Wolfraum/dpa/AP Cloverleaf Farm, a small produce operation in Davis, California, managed to do okay during the extreme drought that lasted from 2012 to 2016. But in the first wet year after the long dry period, the farm lost its entire apricot crop to disease—$40,000 to $50,000 down the drain. Researchers predict that as climate…
That Viral Study About Red Meat Left Out The Most Important Part
gilaxia/iStock/Getty Americans consume, on average, more than a half a pound of meat per day—more than our counterparts in any other country. Should we eat less? A panel of 14 researchers from seven countries—all of whom claim to receive no meat-industry funding—just produced a study finding no compelling reason to cut back. There’s a catch,…