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…
Tech Company Free Meals Beget a Lot of Leftovers. Meet the Man on a Mission to Rescue Them.
Marisa Endicott I meet Les Tso on a corner in San Francisco’s SoMa district on a wet Thursday afternoon. He pulls his silver Isuzu SUV into an alley. “Today because it’s the first rain, people are going to be driving cluelessly—there are a lot of Uber and Lyft drivers that come from out of 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…
Wisconsin’s Statehouse Is at War Over Its Dairy Crisis
In April 2019, Ryan Dunham sold the 50 dairy cows on his farm in Westby, Wis. Dunham, due to the challenging finances he faced from low milk prices.Peter Thomson/AP Photo/La Crosse Tribune In Wisconsin, one of the nation’s key battleground states for the 2020 presidential election, dairy is big business. But low milk prices and…
Heath Officials Finally Have a Clue in the Vaping Lung Illness Mystery
nd3000/Getty The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new lab results on Friday that identify a chemical that may be the cause of recent vaping-related lung illnesses: vitamin E acetate, a thickening ingredient. Health officials tested lung fluid from 29 people who fell ill after vaping—and detected vitamin E acetate in all samples. The findings are…