Tom Philpott: Another Food Supply Writer Worth Following

Tom Philpott

I share many of Mark Bittman's columns from the online edition of The New York Times in this space, but another writer who—if you are interested in the state of our food supply—should be followed is Tom Philpott of Mother Jones.

Philpott is edgy like Bittman, but seems to cover more ground, thanks mostly to the fact that he writes about three blog posts per week.

Here are his five most recent stories (the headlines say everything) from his Food for Thought blog, with links:

• "Monsanto Claims to Ditch Herbicide While Selling More of It"
• "Fast-Food Workers Protest Poverty McWages"
• "Sen. Roy Blunt: Monsanto's Man in Washington"
• "Yes, Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs Can Jump from Animals to Humans"
• "Is Your Workout Gear Ruining Farm Fields?"
• "Not Just the Bees: Bayer's Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too"

Here are the first two paragraphs of the "Monsanto Claims to Ditch Herbicide" story to give you get a sense of Philpott's style:

"Genetically modified seed giant Monsanto likes to trumpet its 'commitment to sustainable agriculture.' The story goes like this: by generating novel, high-tech crop varieties, Monsanto will wean farmers off of synthetic chemical poisons. The company even markets its flagship product, seeds genetically engineered to survive its own Roundup weed killer, as a tool they can use to to 'decrease the overall use of herbicides.'

"But as I've shown before, herbicide use has actually dramatically ramped up as the Roundup Ready technology conquers vast swaths of US farmland. That's because weeds quickly developed resistance to it, forcing farmers to apply ever-larger doses and resort to older, more toxic herbicides to combat resistant weeds. And while the company has tried hard to leave behind its past as a purveyor of toxic chemicals and rebrand itself as a technology company, those toxic chemicals remain central to its growth and profitability, as its latest quarterly profit report shows."