A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Economy

  • Creative destruction

    The book reviewed here asks if capitalism as we know it is compatible with reining in environmental destruction. The author is pretty convinced that the answer is no. If this is right, the problem then seems to be that 1. there’s no particularly attractive alternative to capitalism currently on offer and 2. even if there Read more

  • Farm bill folly

    I caught part of this Bill Moyers interview with Bread for the World‘s president Rev. David Beckman. Rev. Beckman talked a lot about the farm bill currently wending its way through Congress and how its distorted system of subsidies rewards big landowners and hurts poor people, both here and abroad. Worth watching if you’re interested. Read more

  • Polish farms vs. the EU

    Old Ways, New Pain for Farms in Poland: On the clash between traditional, organic farming in Poland and EU regulations that tilt the playing field in favor of big agribusiness. Read more

  • Chipotle goes locavore

    Speaking of cheap meat, here’s a bit of good news. Chipotle, the Mexican food chain, has made a deal with Joe Salatin’s Polyface Farms to use his pork in its branch in Charlottesville, Virginia. Salatin, the “Christian libertarian environmentalist” farmer immortalized in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pasture-raises his animals in a traditional and sustainable Read more

  • What price meat?

    Ezra Klein on why “meat should not be cheap.” P.S. Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t be concerned about food prices, particularly for poorer folks. However, the system we currently have 1) subsidizes industrially produced meat while hiding costs (particularly environmental ones) and 2) makes healthier foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables) more expensive than they Read more

  • Two on animals from the WaPo

    Factory farms may be exempted from emission rules A debate over culling elephants in South Africa Read more

  • The “green consumer” revisited

    Via Russell Arben Fox comes a terrific post by Laura McKenna taking a shot at trendy “green consumerism.” Rusell adds his thoughts here. I blogged a bit about this phenomenon here. It’s interesting (and maybe significant) how much conventional political wisdom is frequently at odds with common-sense (and traditional) wisdom. For instance: the idea that Read more

  • Factory farming: bad for animals, bad for people

    See here for the story on the meat recall. Here for the Humane Society’s statement on their investigations into the ways sick animals are dealt with on the slaughterhouse floor. This seems like a fairly direct result of treating animals as units of production rather than living beings. (But I would say that, wouldn’t I?) Read more

  • How green is McCain?

    John McCain has distinguished himself from the Republican pack by actually acknowledging the reality of global warming and even sponsoring some legislation to combat it. But would a President McCain really do what’s necessary to seriously address the problem? Read more

  • Crunchy cons, Pollan, Scully and meat-eating

    Rod Dreher of Crunchy Cons fame reflects on the morality of meat-eating, prompted by a discussion with a Christian friend about The Omnivore’s Dilemma (permalinks don’t seem to be working – scroll down to “Re-thinking the meat guzzler”). He also refers to Matthew Scully’s Dominion, an indictment of the factory farming system (and other practices Read more