The politics of farming

Tom Philpott’s latest posts

By Culinate staff

September 21, 2011

Over on the Mother Jones website, ag activist Tom Philpott has been very busy all summer, publishing more than a dozen posts each month (and sometimes several in one day).

Recent highlights include posts about California's worrying dominance of the U.S. farming industry and the successful perversity of the agrichemical industry, especially its refusal to deal with the problems of monoculture and chemical resistance.

What’s the problem with California? It’s got a great climate for growing things, sure, but not enough water to sustain its agriculture. As for the agrichemical industry, Philpott’s not happy with its solutions to problems of its own making: chiefly, coming up with new ways to instill resistance into GM plants, and new chemicals for those plants to resist.