Climate Food and Agriculture

Maverick chef Ann Cooper aims to spark a nationwide school-lunch revolution

Even the most intractable pathology can disappear, sometimes relatively quickly. A sign above a water fountain proclaiming “no coloreds” would cause any American to flinch today. Just half a century ago throughout the South, such abominations formed a banal part of the built landscape. Ann Cooper puts a fresh spin on school lunches.Photo: Chronicle/Craig LeeI […]

Thoughts from a small farm during the midwinter lull

Before I became a farmer three growing seasons ago, I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., and reveled in the array of top-flight local produce available from mid-spring to late fall. Long about January, though, a kind of local-food withdrawal would set in. Frosty, with a chance of failure. Photo: iStockphoto By this time of year, the […]

The latest beneficiary of biofuel subsidies: industrial feedlot operators.

So far, a huge amount of the government’s lavish support for biofuel has ended up on the bottom line of Archer Daniels Midland, the king of industrially produced, environmentally ruinous corn. Now another type of model corporate citizen is in line for a cut of the action: huge-scale confined-animal feedlot operation (CAFO) players like Tyson […]

Make your leftover Xmas sweets into something yummy

In my experience, even a calm and pleasant holiday results in a house strewn with bits of paper, empty boxes filled with styrofoam peanuts, a guilt-inducing list of thank-you notes to be written, and a fridge full of leftovers. Here are three recipes for "recycled" holiday desserts that turn less-than-enjoyable ingredients into actual treats:

Livestock’s long shadow

The NYT has an editorial today about the UNFAO's new report on the environmental degradation caused by increasing numbers of livestock. Money factoid: More greenhouse gases are produced by livestock than the entire global transportation sector.

Umbra on eco-choices

Dear Umbra, While I usually love your column, I have to take issue with encouraging people to eat sushi. This is the second “green” site I have seen that proposes the solution to overfishing is to eat different fish. Saying “of course you can continue to eat at sushi restaurants without feeling guilty” amounts to […]

Chinese food quality a concern as 2008 Olympics approaches

In 2000, when Beijing made its bid for the 2008 Olympics, it promised to get all cleaned up if it could please, pretty please, be the host. Its wishes came true, but China's goal of throwing a green Olympics seems ever out of reach. To quote ourselves:

China has promised to throw a "green" Olympics in Beijing in 2008 -- but simple livability may be the megacity's bigger challenge. Beijing has 15.2 million inhabitants; if current trends hold, that number could grow to 21 million by 2020. Gridlock is endemic, as the number of cars more than doubled in the past six years. Already-bad air quality is deteriorating. The city's water supply is so overtaxed that some experts are calling for rationing. City officials are racing to replace thousands of old, stinky public toilets, while over a hundred construction projects related to the upcoming Olympics are hurtling forward. Critics blame decades of bad urban-planning policy for the city's problems. "In the past, we never thought of the capacity of resources," said Huang Yan, Beijing's deputy director of planning. "We only focused on development." She's introduced a master plan that includes the bold goal of rendering Beijing "a city suitable for living."

Don’t Have a Cow

About 20 percent of farm-animal breeds* are endangered, says FAO Word association time: What comes to mind when you think “endangered animals”? Odd-looking tropical frogs and obscure birds with funny names? Time to adjust your thinking: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one in five breeds of farm animal are in danger of […]

It’s time for a real ‘food vs. fuel’ debate

Can U.S. farmers keep filling the nation’s bellies as they scramble to fuel its cars? Given its evident gravity, the question has drawn remarkably little debate. Like it or not, though, more and more food is being devoted to fueling the nation’s 211-million-strong auto fleet. High gasoline prices, a dizzying variety of government supports, and […]

A Krafty concoction of hydrogenated goo gets its day in court.

Do I live in an ethanol bubble? Yes I do, for another day or so.

But I'm coming up for air for long enough to give the finger to Kraft, the world's largest branded food conglomerate, for ripping off and desecrating one of the world's greatest food items.

Kraft's heinous Guacamole Dip contains about 2 percent avocado, which is a little like marketing a Martini with 2 percent gin and the rest, well, corn liquor (ethanol).

A woman in California is suing Kraft, arguing that the "guacamole" claim fraudulently promised an avocado-based concoction, and instead delivered, well, industrial goo designed to look avocado-y.

Does she have a case?