How front groups posing as grassroots campaigns do the dirty work for Agribusiness – Martha Rosenberg

How did the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (Proposition 37), get defeated in 2012 despite the state’s high level of food awareness of activism? How did a ban on the sale of large soft drinks in New York City fail the same year despite such drinks’ complete lack of nutritional value and links to obesity? Welcome to the world of food …

Your Winter Vegetables: Brought to You by California’s Very Last Drops of Water – Tom Philpott

California’s drought-plagued Central Valley hogs the headlines, but two-thirds of your winter vegetables come from a different part of the state. Occupying a land mass a mere eighth the size of metro Los Angeles, the Imperial Valley churns out abouttwo-thirds of the vegetables eaten by Americans during the winter. Major crops include broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, and, most famously, lettuce and salad mix. And those aren’t even …

Why Scientology’s Cone of Silence Shattered

For decades, the controversial church was able to bat down unflattering media attention. But now the klieg lights are everywhere. For most of its existence the Church of Scientology grew and prospered by protecting its secrets. But it’s been tough holding on to that model in the 21st century, a notoriously bad era for powerful institutions in the secret-keeping business. …

How Psychedelics Might Transform the Human Mind and Lead Humanity Towards Intellectual and Artistic Heights

The idea of a Psychedelic Renaissance — as captured in the title of Ben Sessa’s book The Psychedelic Renaissance — is growing in the health professions, and as a Feb. 9, 2015, article in The New Yorker phrased it, current clinical research is “part of a renaissance of psychedelic research,” so we see the phrase is catching on in the general culture too. To …