Category Archives: Industrial Agriculture

The Most Deceptive Graph Ever Made?

Posted on June 15, 2025 by GDS

A Famous Graph of the Triumph of Science Actually Shows Just What is Wrong with Our Agriculture It’s the most reproduced chart in anything ever written on agriculture. It shows a triumph of science: the meteoric rise in US corn … Continue reading →

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Good Luck with the Corn, RFK You A-hole

Posted on December 10, 2024 by GDS

The point is that hundreds of businesses, laws, political allegiances, rural landscapes, and even the American palate have been shaped by this history for a century now. Our national integration of agriculture is the country’s biggest and most dysfunctional case of path dependence. Bummer that HFCS makes us fat and diabetic, but it’s part of a system that long ago metastasized throughout our economy. Poor RFK, that’s what he’s up against: its deep history. Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Public Health | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Unload DDT

Posted on August 25, 2015 by GDS

What a bloodbath on Wall St — XOM down 5%, UNH down 5%, DIS down 4%.  But the biggest loser this week was DDT. DDT featured prominently in the recent blog highlighting the ongoing studies by Berkeley’s Barbara Cohn.  Despite … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Industrial Agriculture, Public Health | 8 Comments

Three stories on the factory farm

Posted on February 15, 2015 by GDS

Three items crossed my desk this week concerning the factory farm scene, i.e. CAFO’s or Confined Animal Feeding Operations.  Two were scientific studies with troubling implications for our health, and one was a dumb piece of clickbait concerning bestiality. Guess … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Industrial Agriculture, Public Health | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The Right to Farm Right

Posted on August 3, 2014 by GDS

I’ve got an idea: why don’t we Missourians follow up on passing our ALEC-supported ag-gag law with a full-blown amendment to the state constitution to shield industrial agriculture?  That way, even if someone risks being officially listed as a terrorist … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Regulation | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Theme Park Farming in Japan

Posted on June 5, 2014 by GDS

[A different version of this post appeared as the inaugural “Notes From The Field” on the website for Culture and Agriculture.] Those of us interested in farming talk about “indigenous knowledge” a lot, but several years ago Paul Richards suggested … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Japan | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Obesogens

Posted on December 9, 2012 by GDS

Multiple choice question:  What does the “Obesity Epidemic” have to do with agriculture? What epidemic?  Obesity is an age old problem, and this “epidemic” is an invention of the press and the diet industry. There’s an epidemic alright, caused by … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

The Animal Lover’s Dilemma

Posted on November 26, 2012 by GDS

Today’s guest blog by Elizabeth Vandeventer of Davis Creek Farm, Nelson County, Virginia.  She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Univ. of North Carolina. ************************************************************************************** When Green Mountain College, a sustainable agriculture school in Vermont, recently decided to slaughter their … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , | 146 Comments

More to the Story — Top 5 GMO Myths

Posted on October 26, 2012 by GDS

When you hear about “Myths About GMO’s” you can usually expect a polemic from an activist.  It may be an anti-GMO activist debunking myths like “GMO’s can help feed the world” or a pro-GMO activist debunking myths like “GMO’s can’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Two Agricultural Donations

Posted on August 23, 2012 by GDS

Since I do research on small farms for a living, I don’t normally find it a cause for celebration to be wrong about small farms.  But I am toasting Caromont Farm’s kickstarter success and my complete wrongness. I described the … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments