by Loka Ashwood and Danielle Diamond | April 11, 2019 Our recent analysis of all 50 states found right-to-farm laws increasingly constrain crucial dimensions of property rights, favoring large-scale, industrial operations American’s love their land, especially rural Americans. Access to land and property ownership shapes people’s identity, economic security, and social mobility, things commonly talked…

The quality-control line at a Pennsylvania chicken plant in 2018. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) by Kimberly Kindy | April 17 at 6:00 AM A group of doctors has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, pushing for new rules to prohibit the sale of raw poultry, pork and beef that contain traces…

A world of difference: Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Bill Clinton signed. by Beth Baltzan The alternative to Trumpism lies in the forgotten postwar liberal vision. Heading into 2020, liberals are at a crossroads on trade. Most abhor Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric. And…

The last thing Pueblo and the Arkansas Valley needs is more of the same extraction economy that has forced such dire decline in the communities along Highway 50. Whole Foods, and the companies Mark Retzloff has been associated with, represent the kind of industrial food system structure that has concentrated wealth at the top and…

by Faith Miller | April 10, 2019 FoodMaven’s certainly done well for itself, but it has a long way to go before it reaches the scale of Sysco or US Foods, two massive publicly traded companies that make billions of dollars in annual sales. Here’s some perspective: Dustin Glatz FoodMaven’s experienced explosive growth FoodMaven has…

by Faith Miller | April 10, 2019 Courtesy FoodMaven | Patrick Bultema, right, chats with Elin Parker of Sangres Best Beef. FoodMaven was founded, as many startups are, to challenge the status quo. The U.S. food system’s chronic oversupply means billions of pounds of produce, meat and other goods get discarded each year. Though perfectly…

April 15, 2019 “With this acquisition, we become the largest beef company in the world.” With these words, JBS President Joesley Batista set in motion what today has become an invasion of the U.S. beef market by Brazilian corporations. Batista uttered these words in 2007 during JBS S.A.’s announcement that it had just purchased the…

An Amazon Go store in Chicago. Cashless retail stores like Amazon Go help enrich companies like Visa and Mastercard with credit card transaction fees. Interim Archives/Getty Images by Charlie Thaxton |April 3, 2019 Your money’s no good here. At least, that’s true at a growing number of stores and restaurants that are ditching cash and…

Illustration courtesy of JBG Smith Big government and big companies have always been separate—and the fathers of our country wanted it that way. by DAVID FONTANA | April 13, 2019 Walk down a busy street in Washington during the week and you could run into a number of powerful people—but only certain types of powerful…

Photo by Jason Morrison | Freeimages.com Court determines company was not being deceptive with use of the word ‘natural,’ but public is learning that such a label doesn’t mean much by Roy Graber | April 15, 2019 The overuse of labels on meat and poultry products has been the topic of many discussions, and the…