Farm Animals Hog 80 Percent of U.S. Antibiotics

Staff / Truthdig Dec 28, 2010 The overuse of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant superbugs, so it's cause for concern to the folks at Johns Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future that the vast majority of bug-killing drugs aren't even consumed by sick humans. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Tea Party Socialism

Yasha Levine / Truthdig Oct 6, 2010 Tea party candidates say big government is tyranny, but they don't object when the tyranny flows their way in the form of taxpayer funded farm subsidies.Tea party candidates say big government is tyranny, but they don't object when the tyranny flows their way. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Mr. Colbert Goes to Washington

Staff / Truthdig Sep 27, 2010 After spending a day as a migrant farmworker, farceur Stephen Colbert hit Congress to testify about his experience. Media outrage ensued, but as Firedoglake points out, Colbert has done more for the powerless in this instance than any of the "blow-dried idiots that sit around the White House press room."After spending a day as a migrant farmworker, farceur Stephen Colbert hit Congress to testify about his experience. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Obama’s USDA Leaves Subsidy Payees More Places to Hide

Staff / Truthdig May 20, 2010 Yasha Levine, who reported for us on tea party diva Michele Bachmann's hypocritical penchant for federal farm subsidies, tipped us off that the Obama administration and Congress are making it harder to track the millionaires who hit up Uncle Sam for crop cash. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Yasha Levine / Truthdig Dec 22, 2009 The anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.The anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Monsanto Dominance Prompts Antitrust Inquiry

Staff / Truthdig Nov 29, 2009 Some 93 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn: Those numbers reflect how much of each crop is grown with seeds genetically altered under the patents of agro-giant Monsanto. An antitrust investigation is at hand, as questions about a monopoly status seem not too far off. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Food Is Power and the Powerful Are Poisoning Us

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Sep 7, 2009 Our most potent political weapon is food. If we take back our agriculture, if we buy and raise produce locally, we can begin to break the grip of corporations that control a food system as fragile, unsafe and destined for collapse as our financial system.America's corporate food system is as fragile, unsafe and destined for collapse as our financial system. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Old Mai Dong Lao Had a Pension

Staff / Truthdig Aug 6, 2009 It's hard to keep up the communist rhetoric when you've got Gucci. Harder still with millions of farmers struggling to scratch out a living while China's select few live the good life. Beijing is hip to the growing class tensions, however, and will start subsidizing a national pension for rural workers. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Jane Ciabattari on the Delights of the Rural Life

BLANK Jul 10, 2009 Is the pastoral arcadia of the country life far from derivatives and emissions and the other excreta of our modern cities all that it's cracked up to be? Two new memoirs give readers who don't want to stir from their armchairs to take up farming an insider's look. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

U.S. Unemployment Hits 7.6 Percent

Staff / Truthdig Feb 6, 2009 With little surprise but incredible effect, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent in January, hitting its highest level since 1992. President Obama used the report to prod Congress to pass his economic stimulus package. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Staff / Truthdig Feb 5, 2009 The key word being had: The new secretary of energy, Nobel Prize-winning Steven Chu, is making waves in the policy community with his daunting comments about climate change. Chu warns that the farms of California, the nation's leading agricultural producer, could vanish by the end of this century if steps to slow global warming are not taken. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

How Can These Fundamentals Be Called Strong?

Staff / Truthdig Oct 3, 2008 A government report released Friday morning leaves little room for any defense of the failed policies of the Bush administration or any belief in the economic wisdom of John McCain, whose erroneous assertion that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" failed to mention a 6.1 percent unemployment rate, up nearly two percentage points since 2007. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )