When global leaders won’t save our food system, cities take the lead.
This piece I co-wrote with Anita Krajnc of Plant Based Treaty and Nital Jethalal of VegTO was published by the Independent Media Institute in December 2022 and syndicated in Countercurrents, CounterPunch, AlterNet, Independent Australia, and others.
While oil and gas corporations are notorious for campaigns to hinder climate action, are other industries escaping under the radar? Laura Lee Cascada investigates the impact and obfuscations of the meat industry, and a worrying pattern of green organisations in their pay. Sponsored by the Better Food Foundation.
Coral reefs are dying, and fish are disappearing. The current of devastation begins in our everyday lives, including the food on our plates.
We’re celebrating our second Earth Day in the midst of a global pandemic, which, in just one year, has redefined the word “normal” for us all. Yet COVID-19’s disruption has also afforded us an opportunity to hit the reset button and establish a resilient, sustainable new normal. We’ve long counted on environmental groups to model what this sustainable future looks like—one where single-use plastics are rare and electric vehicles are business as usual. But what about our fragile food system, which has all but crumbled under the pandemic’s weight? Does the way the climate movement eats line up with its own sustainable values?
(This piece was published by the Royal Examiner on November 25, 2020.) For a holiday grounded in tradition, this Thanksgiving is going to feel unsettling: face masks, socially distanced gatherings around an outdoor fire pit, and even Zoom calls with relatives from afar. In the midst of such a shakeup, perhaps the most grounding step Read More
(This piece was originally featured on Happy Eco News on September 14, 2020.) Hello, Happy Eco News readers! My name is Laura, and I’m writing to you from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where I’ve recently made a home for my pitbull mix, potbellied big, and myself, nestled between the trees and the Read More
Originally published by One Green Planet. It’s tough, in the midst of a global pandemic, to find a cause for celebration this World Rainforest Day. And the smoke still lingers from the Amazonian fires that lit up the headlines nearly a year ago. From their ashes have crystallized the realization: There is no just or sustainable return to life Read More
This letter to the editor appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 6, 2020. As slaughterhouses shutter, meat cases may start looking quite different, with empty shelves and fewer options (May 5, “Region’s Grocery Stores Set Limits on Meat Sales”). Yet this impending “meat shortage” isn’t a crisis. It’s an open door for an important Read More
(This post originally appeared in HoneyColony’s Buzzworthy Blogs.)
In the summer after my first year of college, I was living it up, like many 19-year-olds do. I took an internship in Washington, D.C., where I could get lost in a maze of people and discover myself all at once. In those first few weeks, I made friends, navigated relationships, and even shared an almost magical moment with a 31-year-old painter who wooed me in a deep Spanish voice. It was a summer of whimsies—that is, until a flesh bacteria entered the picture.
(The below comment piece originally appeared on CounterPunch and was then picked up by the Ecologist.) When I was growing up, a popular show on television ventured into the unique backyards of kids across the country who lived adjacent to theme parks, chocolate factories, and any other imaginable delight under the sun. I wanted more than Read More
This month, temperatures plunged to record-breaking low levels in Virginia. During our 18-degree weather in the region’s “polar vortex” I joined a colleague of mine in a lettuce bikini to hand out free veggie burgers downtown in Norfolk. The Virginian-Pilot was nice enough to send out a shivering reporter to cover our adventure, although he did Read More