In China, milk represents modernity and progress. But the radical plan to triple the nation’s consumption has serious environmental consequences.
agriculture
Posted inEditor's Pick
Fighting the Vanilla Thieves of Madagascar
Demand for vanilla from Madagascar has skyrocketed in recent years, but the process of exporting the spice to markets around the world is fraught with risk, unpredictability, and — increasingly — violence.
Posted inBooks, History, Science & Nature, Story, Unapologetic Women
A British Seaweed Scientist Is Revered in Japan as ‘The Mother of the Sea’
Kathleen Drew-Baker died never having set foot in Japan, and never knowing what an impact her research would make. Plus, how to build a lazy bed, how to cook Irish blancmange, and other surprising seaweed stories.
Posted inBooks, History, Science & Nature, Story
Taming the Great American Desert
By advocating for agriculture in the arid West, Major John Wesley Powell challenged the way America viewed its right to develop the continent.
Posted inFood, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Farming A Warming Planet: An Interview Nathanael Johnson
How California farmers are planning ahead for climate change while balancing their immediate economic concerns.
Posted inFood, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
Farming a Warming Planet
Even if rising sea levels flood many coastal cities, California farmers plan to grow food for a living. So what will the future California grow?
Posted inFood, History, Quotes
Goodness, How Delicious, Eating Goober Peas
Is there anything peanuts aren’t good for?
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Food, Quotes
It Turns Out No One’s in Kansas Anymore
Kansas is great at growing wheat, but growing wheat hasn’t been great for Kansas.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Profiles & Interviews, Story
It’s a Wonderful World: The Remaking of California Agriculture
An interview with Mark Arax about the two decades he spent writing about the San Joaquin Valley empire of Lynda and Stuart Resnick.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Current Events, Nonfiction, profile, Quotes
The Couple Who Turned a California Desert Into a Multi-Billion Dollar Snack Empire
Taxpayers have helped Stewart and Lynda Resnick turn an irrigated desert into a dangerous and lucrative agricultural gamble.