http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/agriculture/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Tue, 06 Jun 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2657/drug_warriors_push_eye_eating_fungus/ On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its "ReNu with MoistureLoc" rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis. This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States. It is caused by a mold-like fungus that can penetrate the cornea of soft contact lens wearers, causing redness and pain that can lead to blindness--requiring a corneal replacement. That same week, the House of Representatives passed a provision to a bill requiring that the very same fungus be sprayed in "a major drug-producing country," such as Colombia. The bill's sponsor was Rep. Mark Souder… Drugs International Affairs Agriculture Medical and Health David Sirota Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2660/biofuel_challenges_big_oil/ As oil surpasses $75 a barrel and gas hits $3 a gallon, Americans might find it hard to imagine higher costs. But this auto-centric perspective overlooks the hidden costs of our petroleum addiction. "The diesel engine is the backbone of the American economy," says Matt Atwood, project manager for Biodiesel Systems, LLC, an independent, Madison, Wis.-based start-up. "While accounting for only 12 percent of our total fuel consumption, it transports 70 percent of the nation's goods to market in shipping containers hauled by semi-trucks." Diesel also accounts for transporting 18 million tons of freight and 14 million people every day, to the tune of $6 trillion a year, or about 51 percent of our GDP. But what if diesel and… economy corporations agriculture environment David Sirota Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2893/the_e_coli_free_market/ Since the advent of giant industrial enterprises in the late 19th century, corporate capitalism in the United States has been defined by its use of economies of scale to increase profits--profits further enhanced by the die-off of those businesses unable to compete. Today, vast corporate enterprises--protected by a legal system that defines corporations as persons endowed with the same constitutional rights as flesh-and-blood people--control whole sectors of the U.S. economy, the three branches of government and the Fourth Estate (the mass media through which the public gets its information). The end result: an interconnected, self-reinforcing system of political power--Corporate America--that operates outside human control. (Of course, the machine is oiled by a class in thrall to their six, seven and… Corporations Environment Medical and Health Agriculture David Sirota Tue, 26 Dec 2006 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2969/seeds_of_hope_gardening_in_barren_times/ The image of the Hortus conclusus--literally "enclosed garden"--has had a place in Western art and literature at least as far back as the book of Genesis. The Garden of Eden was humanity's first home, an earthly paradise walled off from the wasteland. Gardens have always been places apart, spaces of contemplation and respite from the travails of everyday life. They fulfill basic human needs, producing sustenance and bringing us into contact with the vital forces of the natural world. In his Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime (Trinity University Press), professor of landscape architecture Kenneth Helphand explores the many meanings of the hortus conclusus as expressed under the most extreme conditions. As the title suggests, Helphand is interested in gardens… agriculture books David Sirota Wed, 11 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3095/biofuels_promise_or_peril/ When Matt Hawkinson started growing corn in the rich farmland of western Illinois nearly a decade ago, he sold the grain for $2 a bushel, 50 cents less than the cost him to produce it. Recently, buyers have been paying him $4.35 a bushel. It's a welcome profit--even if it raises the cost of the hogs he feeds--and eliminates his need for government subsides. Hawkinson owes this good fortune to factories like those in the nearby towns of Galva and Pekin that turn corn into ethanol for fuel. Yet the simple decision to make fuel from crops turns out to be anything but simple: it involves a tricky tangle of environmental, farm, trade, economic and foreign policy issues. Biofuels--energy sources… agriculture environment David Sirota Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3093/the_multinational_beanfield_war/ Rural eastern Paraguay used to be full of jungle, small farms, schools and wildlife. Now it is a green sea of soybeans. The families, trees and birds are gone. The schools are empty. The air is filled with the toxic stench of the pesticides like paraquat and 2,4-D used to protect the soy crops. We drove through the sea of soy on a red dirt road. Meriton Ramírez was bringing us to the former community of Minga Porá, to the farm where his family used to live. Ramírez is a member of the Asociación de Agricultores de Alto Paraná (ASAGRAPA), a farmer's union spearheading the fight against the expansion of the soy industry. "I didn't want to leave. I built… agriculture south america David Sirota Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3123/a_win_for_the_coalition_of_immokalee_workers/ During Florida's prime tomato-picking season from November to May, Norberto Jimenez rises at 4 a.m. six or seven days a week to pack his lunch. He needs to be at the central parking lot in Immokalee, Fla., early if he wants to be selected by a crew leader and catch an early bus to whatever field is being picked that day. By the end of the working day--either "five or six or seven" at night, he says--Jimenez has picked around 125 buckets of tomatoes, each weighing 32 pounds, for which he'll earn $.40 to $.50 a bucket. When the night bus returns to the parking lot, Jimenez will have earned somewhere between $50 and $60 for lifting two tons of… activism agriculture labor David Sirota Mon, 14 May 2007 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3200/doing_it_for_themselves/ The Florida tomato pickers of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) rolled into Chicago in blustery April, ready to stand before McDonald's corporate headquarters and press their demands that the fast-food behemoth take responsibility for the miserable way its tomatoes are farmed. It proved unnecessary. As more than 1,000 tomato pickers and their allies wound their way to Chicago, McDonald's unexpectedly agreed to all of the coalition's demands. The groundbreaking settlement will almost double salaries for farm workers, reveal where the company buys its tomatoes and create a monitoring plan expandable to other corporate buyers. McDonald's capitulated two years into the campaign, and on the eve of the coalition's call to boycott the company. It followed a similar deal the… agriculture corporation labor David Sirota Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3190/whose_subsidy_is_it_anyway/ The farm bill, which Congress will likely vote on this fall, will affect environmental, consumer, industrial, trade and anti-poverty policies as well as the prices and subsidies farmers receive for producing commodity crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans. Legislators are now conducting hearings and readying proposals, but the outcome is "more up in the air than it has been in 30 to 40 years," says senior policy analyst Dennis Olson at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. A small opening exists for a new progressive farm policy based on some old principles. The winners Conventional wisdom says that the villains in farm policy are American farmers, who have in recent years collected about $20 billion a year… agriculture congress David Sirota Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3297/farming_the_concrete_jungle/ At 9 a.m. on a cool, bright Saturday in mid-June, Robert Burns and Diana Baldelomar set up a farm stand outside the YMCA in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. The stand is simple: a tent to keep out the sun, two folding tables set in an L-shape and a handful of zinc washtubs filled with two inches of water. In the tubs stand heads of green and red lettuce, greens, broccoli, and bunches of mint and basil. When two women approach and ask the price of the greens, Baldelomar tells them that the turnip, mustard and collard greens are a dollar a bunch. "Honey," the woman says, "in this neighborhood, if someone asks you for greens, they are only talking about the… agriculture environment David Sirota Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3342/who_does_us_food_aid_benefit/ Last month, in a move that shocked observers, CARE, one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations, rejected $45 million in U.S. food aid, shining a spotlight on a practice the group says may hurt starving populations more than help them. Complaining that U.S. food aid policy is inefficient, unsustainable and perhaps even detrimental to combating food insecurity, CARE belives "enough is enough," according to Bob Bell, director for CARE's Food Resource Coordination Team. The decision comes at a time when other humanitarian and food advocacy organizations are calling on members of Congress to rewrite food aid policy that puts starving populations first when they authorize this month's 2007 Farm Bill. The United States is the world's largest provider of international… agriculture foreign policy David Sirota Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3351/recipe_for_disaster/ A decade after high school, and I'm still being served mystery meat. Oh sure, a label is slapped onto the package, but the secret isn't in the calorie count. The unaccounted for ingredients--or rather, what's been done to my food before it becomes dinner--is being quietly and covertly left off of the label. Hungry? No, I could go for an antacid. The realization that the public is left entirely in the dark about what's going in the pan really churns my stomach. It's the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) that are the lunch ladies who won't share the recipe. Fortunately, the recipe isn't too difficult to find: One part cloned meat: Last month,… agriculture medical health regulation David Sirota Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:18:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3405/biofuels_are_no_cure_for_climate_change/ Sigh. Another day, another inane strategy to fight global warming. The bee in my bonnet this time is biofuels. They're nothing new, but governments and corporations are pushing biofuels with a renewed ferocity as the panacea for our ailing planet. But just as biofuels are working their way into our climate-cures lexicon, organizations, environmentalists and even the United Nations are blowing a very loud whistle. They warn that the United States and the European Union's renewable energy plans, which rely on biofuels, will have devastating impacts for the global South, turn our gaze away from investing in truly carbon-free technologies, and even add a flame to the fire igniting climate change. Last month, Jean Ziegler, a U.N. expert, called for… agriculture environment global warming David Sirota Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3445/king_of_the_crop/ Two buddies from Yale trek to northern Iowa, buy an acre of farmland, start growing corn and make a documentary about the experience. Sound like a trite tale of East Coasters playing Midwest farmers? It could be, if not for the filmmakers' sincerity and their message in the new movie, King Corn. Director and producer Aaron Wolf follows the two recent Yale graduates--his cousin Curt Ellis and Ellis' friend Ian Cheney--as they travel to Iowa to investigate the state's corn production. Cheney and Ellis each had a great-grandfather who lived in the same rural town of Greene, Iowa, so the trip, in some ways, is also an exploration of their roots. This connection to their heritage gives Ellis and Cheney… agriculture corporation movies David Sirota Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3447/corporate_potluck/ For three days early this fall, the Pennsylvania Convention Center was home to corporate entities such as PepsiCo, Hershey's, Taco Bell, Crisco and McDonald's. They weren't there to count calories but to rub bellies with members of the American Dietetic Association, who had gathered in Philadelphia for the annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo. PepsiCo cares about you. The company's "Health and Wellness" website pictures a smiling family in tennis shoes and workout clothes enjoying a brisk walk. All are consuming Pepsi products. Dad is drinking a can of Pepsi. Grandma is toting a bag of Lay's potato chips. Aside from the questionable workout, we're left to wonder: When did Pepsi become an advocate for health? Marsha Holmberg, a… agriculture environment medical health David Sirota Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4037/origins_of_the_obama_machine/ During the United Farm Workers' critical decade of growth, from 1966 to 1976, farmworker activists became experts in conducting voter registration among low-income and minority voters, and operating get out the vote (GOTV) drives to boost turnout in traditionally low-voting, working-class neighborhoods. The UFW responded to political attacks from growers by adopting innovative approaches for almost every type of electoral campaign. These strategies brought the union victories in statewide initiative contests, legislative fights and races for public office--and continue to set the course for today's progressive election campaigns. In 1966, the farmworkers movement had no more experience with politicians and elections than it had with boycotts. Cesar Chavez's previous job as an organizer for the Community Services Organization had included… farmworkers Obama campaign unions California David Sirota Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4045/monsanto_beets_down_opposition/ WILLAMETTE VALLEY, Ore.--The sugar beets growing in farmer Tim Winn's fields do not look menacing. But other farmers in Oregon's fertile Willamette Valley fear the beets could devastate their crops. Winn's sugar beets have been genetically modified to allow them to survive application of Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide. The modification allows Winn to kill weeds in his field with two sprayings of Roundup, rather than the multiple applications of various herbicides he used to use. Winn and other sugar beet farmers across the country say Roundup Ready sugar beet--which are being grown on a commercial scale for the first time this year--make farmers' work easier and more profitable. And, they claim, there will be environmental benefits because farmers will make… environment USDA sugar beets David Sirota Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4175/this_land_is_their_land/ SÃO GABRIEL, BRAZIL--The three-day, 30-mile march stopped before the main gate. Hundreds of exhausted farmers from Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) fanned out along the fence. On the other side of the gate was the Southall Plantation, which for the last six years had been at the heart of a relentless struggle for land in southern Brazil. Two people slammed metal farm tools into the lock, forcing it open. Marchers poured into the plantation, chanting "MST, MST!" as fireworks rocketed off in the distance. "Agrarian reform! MST! We will succeed!" On Dec. 18, 700 families from 13 MST land occupations were awarded land from the Brazilian government in the São Gabriel region of Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul.… social justice activism agriculture David Sirota