Food

mcdonalds fries

The High Cost of Cheap McDonald’s Fries

Co-written with Honor the Earth’s Winona LaDuke and first published at Civil Eats. For 50 years, a single company has extracted millions in profits from one of Minnesota’s most important and ecologically vulnerable regions, the Pineland Sands. The 770-square-mile area in northern Minnesota is home to globally threatened jack pine forests and abundant streams and wetlands. It is also […]

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spraying pesticides

A Neighbor’s Plea to Potato Giant: ‘You’re going to have casualties’

Previously at EWG. Mike Tauber, a plumber by trade, grew up and now lives on the outskirts of Hackensack, a town of 300 located within 10 miles of 127 lakes in north central Minnesota’s Cass County. Hackensack is also on the eastern boundary of the Pineland Sands region, where for 30 years the RD Offutt company

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How Cover Crops Can Help Farmers, Protect Drinking Water and Fight Climate Change

Previously at EWG. As farmers struggle with a plummeting farm economy in the wake of President Trump’s trade war, the administration is rushing to send a second round of cash payments – reportedly totaling $15 billion to $20 billion – to farmers across the nation. Trump’s tariffs are hitting farmers as they are also struggling with floods,

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Sean Sherman The Sioux Chef

The Sioux Chef Wants to Bring Pre-Colonial Cuisine to the People

Previously at Civil Eats. Chef Sean Sherman grew up Ogallala Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. After working his way up through a number of kitchens in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sherman decided he needed to strike out on his own. In April, he launched his event catering business as “The Sioux Chef.” And he’s working on a

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buffalo

A Sustainable Bison Rancher With a Wild Idea

Previously at Civil Eats. For years Dan O’Brien raised cattle on his ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After enduring beef’s punishing boom and bust cycle and experiencing first-hand the environmental toll that cattle took on his land, O’Brien made a dramatic change. He started raising North American Bison*, the great icon of the Great

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