Universal Free School Lunch Can End Cafeteria Shaming. But Now It’s Under Threat.
Kim Morris, head cook at Bella Vista School in Bella Vista, Ca, watches as students utilize the salad bar. Andreas Fuhrmann/The Record Searchlight/Associate Press A few weeks ago, I went back to school—literally, to the elementary school of my 1970s childhood in Austin, Texas. But I wasn’t (just) on a Proustian journey to recover the…
Trump Picked Big Oil Over Big Corn—and Now Farmers Are Pissed
As the Trump administration fights political fires raging in Washington, another one is smoldering on the prairie. Farmers in the corn belt, the cluster of states centered on Iowa that produce the great bulk of corn and soybeans, supported Trump overwhelmingly in 2016, helping swing battleground states like Iowa and Wisconsin. But now many of…
Farmers and Ranchers Know What Climate Change Feels Like. They Just Wrote Congress Demanding Action.
Farmer Leah Penniman is one of a coalition of 10,000 farmers and ranchers who sent a letter to Congress in support of a Green New Deal resolution.Jamel Mosely-Mel A coalition that unites farmers and ranchers behind the Green New Deal hopes to set a new tone for how the agriculture sector relates to policy solutions…
The Bizarre Trump-Fueled Backlash to Healthy School Lunches
Party of One Studio Back in 2010, then–first lady Michelle Obama launched a nefarious scheme to turn school cafeterias into liberal indoctrination zones. Or at least that’s how Obama’s right-wing opponents portrayed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law she spearheaded that gave the National School Lunch Program its first nutritional update in more than…
Trump’s National Labor Relations Board Trips Up Again
This story was originally published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Under the Trump administration, the National Labor Relations Board has been trying to roll back an Obama-era decision that made companies more responsible for temporary staffers, fast-food-franchise…
A Big New Study Finds Bee-Killing Pesticides Aren’t Even Worth it for Soybean Farmers
Dzophoto/iStock/Getty Images Ever year, farmers in the United States devote at least 80 million acres, a combined landmass three-quarters the size of California, to soybeans. At least half the crop comes from proprietary seeds coated with insecticides and fungicides. These chemicals infuse the plants as they emerge, protecting them from damage by insects and fungal…