Bitter Greens Journal

• Philpott lands two pieces on Grist.org

  Number of comments: 26
  The first one, a couple of weeks ago, a cheeky piece on how to have a "green" Thanksgiving; the other, just out today, a review of legendary multi-species pastured meat farmer Joel Salatin's new book. These are independent of my regular blogging on Gristmill.org. Check them out.[...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2005, 8:15pm EST
  

• Philpott deemphasizes Bitter Greens, throws lot (for now) with Grist

  Number of comments: 5
  Some readers may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately. That's because I've essentially moved over to Gristmill, the blog at environmental Web 'zine Grist.org. I've done so not for the lure of cash--Gristmill doesn't pay its bloggers--but in search of a broader readership. While I plan to [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2005, 12:52pm EST
  

• Seedy business: A sustainable-ag champion gets plowed under at Iowa State

  Number of comments: 20
  Plunked down in the land of huge, chemical-addicted grain farms and the nation's greatest concentration of hog feedlots, Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has always had a tough row to hoe.

  
  Imagine trying to operate an Anti-Cronyism League from Bush's West Wing, and you' [...]

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  Posted: November 03, 2005, 10:41am EST
  

• New posts on Grist and MaverickEats

  Number of comments: 6
  Check new posts on Gristmill: here and here; as well as on MaverickEats. [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2005, 1:25pm EDT
  

• Note to readers: Philpott to blog on Grist

  Number of comments: 7
  I've been invited to write about food politics on Grist.org, an environmentalist Web zine that claims 100,000 readers. While the gig pays the exact same amount that Bitter Greens pays, I can't resist the opportunity to reach a broader (by a factor of about 1,000) audience.
  
  My plan [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2005, 3:38pm EDT
  

• Dominant traits II: Why GM soy looks set to swamp Europe

  Number of comments: 6
  Maverick Farms lies on a dirt road halfway up a steep hollow in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Twenty years ago all the land around here was agricultural. Each family generally had a couple of milk cows, a pig or two, and a garden plot to feed themselves; for cash, they [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2005, 11:37am EDT
  

• Dominant traits: Can the seed trusts be busted?

  Number of comments: 7
  According to a recent study by ETC Group, the world's ten-largest seed vendors control about half of the global seed market.
  
  By the standards of late capitalism, that's a modest concentration level. In the United States, for example, the top four beef packers pack more than [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2005, 4:56pm EDT
  

• Roundup, ready

  Number of comments: 2
  "Roundup, ready" is an occasional feature of Bitter Greens Journal. Named in honor of Monsanto's famed line of seeds genetically engineered to withstand its herbicide Roundup, this feature will give a brief overview of recent news, trends, and topics in the food-politics world. Each of them is a candidate for' [...]
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  Posted: September 22, 2005, 4:10pm EDT
  

• New blog launched: MaverickEats

  Number of comments: 1
  We've launched a food-oriented blog at Maverick Farms called MaverickEats. Check it out.' [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2005, 9:59pm EDT
  

• The organic label controversy: an update and an exchange

  Number of comments: 3
  As I reported here Monday, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) raised an alarm that a Senate Committee might, as early as Tuesday, "acting in haste and near-total secrecy," make serious changes to national organic standards.
  
  Nothing substantial has happened yet, and OCA now reports that the vote [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2005, 2:18pm EDT
  

• The organic label and beyond

  Number of comments: 2
  What, precisely, is going on with the organic label in Congress?
  
  I found the e-mail I received last night from the Organic Consumers Association (posted here) troubling, important---and somewhat confusing.
  
  Why, suddenly, was the Senate "acting in haste and near-total secrecy" to water down organic?
  [...]
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  Posted: September 20, 2005, 4:47pm EDT
  

• Urgent: Organic standards under attack

  Number of comments: 7
  I'm on the e-mail list of the the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), which sent me the following urgent missive this evening. Key sentence: 'In the past, grassroots mobilization and mass pressure by organic consumers have been able to stop the USDA and Congress from degrading organic standards. This time Washington [...]
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  Posted: September 19, 2005, 11:12pm EDT
  

• The fault lines of industrial agriculture, Part I: an overview

  Number of comments: 2
  "The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain a conception of history that is in keeping with that insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about" [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2005, 1:31pm EDT
  

• Saxby Chambliss and family values

  Number of comments: 4
  Saxby Chambliss, R.-Ga, who serves as chair of the powerful Senate Agriculture Committee, has been a vigorous advocate of agricultural subsidies. When President Bush hinted earlier this year he might have to cut ag subsidies to help offset surging military spending, Chambliss rushed to the rescue. He got Bush to [...]
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  Posted: September 06, 2005, 10:17pm EDT
  

• Roundup, ready

  Number of comments: 11
  "Roundup, ready" is an occasional feature of Bitter Greens Journal. Named in honor of Monsanto's famed line of seeds genetically engineered to withstand its herbicide Roundup, this feature will give a brief overview of recent news, trends, and topics in the food-politics world. Each of them is a candidate for' [...]
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  Posted: September 02, 2005, 1:43pm EDT
  

• Bitter Greens responds to Monsanto

  Number of comments: 42
  As I reported Friday, Monsanto contacted me to "request" that I cease using the headline "Roundup, ready," a title I use for an occasional feature that rounds up food-politics news. Below find Monsanto's letter followed by my response.
  
  Dear Mr. Philpott,
  I am the trademark and copyright attorney' [...]
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  Posted: August 29, 2005, 11:53am EDT
  

• Monsanto to Bitter Greens: "Cease" and Desist

  Number of comments: 16
  Yesterday the farming project I work for, Maverick Farms, received the following extraordinary e-mail. I don't have time to respond now, as we're scrambling to put on our monthly farm dinner. Given Monsanto's record of suing farmers, I suppose I should stifle guffaws and take it seriously. For now, though,' [...]
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  Posted: August 26, 2005, 10:35am EDT
  

• Roundup, ready

  Number of comments: 8
  "Roundup, ready" is an occasional feature of Bitter Greens Journal. Named in honor of Monsanto's famed line of seeds genetically engineered to withstand its herbicide Roundup, this feature will give a brief overview of recent news, trends, and topics in the food-politics world. Each of them is a candidate for' [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2005, 3:52pm EDT
  

• Down and dirty: the fate of soil in industrial society

  Number of comments: 2
  "Common as dirt," goes the old insult. Despite its antique nature, the saying may sum up industrial (and post-industrial) society's take on soil: low, squalid, filthy, annoyingly abundent, beneath dignity and respect.
  
  Consider the zeal to clean, to wash, to sterilize and scrub. Claudia Hemphill, a doctoral student' [...]
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  Posted: August 02, 2005, 1:39pm EDT
  

• The political economy of flavor: an exchange with a chowhound

  Number of comments: 3
  Responding to this post--my tribute to an effort to link traditional hog-raising with traditional North Carolina barbecue--New York food writer and chowhound.com founder Jim Leff objected to my characterization of his take on a Manhattan barbecue joint. I had written: "Leff once told me he thought it was ridiculous" [...]
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  Posted: July 12, 2005, 4:21pm EDT
  

• Clearing the air on ethanol: an exchange

  Number of comments: 2
  Responding to this post, an unnamed person from the American Lung Association of Minnesota wrote in with the following spirited defense of ethanol.
  
  Bitter, green, and uninformed, I'm afraid.
  
  Patzek [Editor's note: Berkeley oil geologist and ethanol critic Tad W. Patzek] is a Big Oil [...]
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  Posted: July 04, 2005, 7:21am EDT
  

• The Way Forward

  Number of comments: 5
  "The Way Forward," an occasional Bitter Greens Journal feature, focuses on small-scale sustainable-food efforts that challenge the dominance of industrial and industrial-organic agriculture. Readers are urged to e-mail me--tom@maverickfarms.com--with ideas for this column.
  
  Smoking out industrial hog production
  Has industrial pig farming ruined traditional North Carolina barbecue?
  
  [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2005, 2:26pm EDT
  

• Still kicking/toward a more robust Bitter Greens

  Number of comments: 4
  Bitter Greens Journal has entered a period of dormancy, laid low by intensive time demands from Maverick Farms.
  
  We're just putting the finishing touches on a massive overhaul of our farmhouse kitchen and bathrooms, designed to streamline our cooking activities and boost our agritourism operation. Amid the chaos' [...]
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  Posted: June 16, 2005, 7:59am EDT
  

• A well-oiled machine

  Number of comments: 3
  Big Ag is getting nervous about energy costs. The hand-wringing reveals much about the energy-intensive nature of industrial agriculture--and its lack of imagination regarding alternatives.
  
  Here's an Associated Press article laying out the energy story in terms dictated by the American Farm Bureau Federation, which' [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2005, 11:48am EDT
  

• A billion acres sold (and counting)

  Number of comments: 2
  The genetically modified (GM) seed industry is aglow with news of its latest milestone: one billion acres have now been planted with biotech crops. As one industry executive enthused in an Associated Press story, "somewhere in the northern hemisphere, a farmer has [recently] planted the one billionth acre of" [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2005, 11:24pm EDT