The art of adaptation

My wife and I both voted for the five-year moratorium on fracking in Fort Collins, Colorado, which was subsequently, disappointingly, overturned by the Colorado court system. We have watched as this issue has evolved, and we come down on the side of Jared Polis, a Democrat whose district includes Fort Collins (“Fracking politicians,” HCN, 4/18/14). The old-fashioned […]

Your graphic story on the Snake River (HCN, 8/4/14) provides a chilling overview of the impacts of industrial agriculture on one of America’s most important river systems. While well written, Manning’s article left me wondering whether the goal was to inform or inflame. The dominant ag systems in southern Idaho are surely not sustainable in […]

Richard Manning’s “Idaho’s Sewer System” (HCN, 8/4/14) is the perfect sequel to Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert. Our hell-bent determination to dam every river in the West, even in high-desert landscapes where no one previously imagined farming, was simply the result of hubris. We did it because we could! Now, Big Ag, not content with reaping the rewards […]

I believe it is important to consider the term “consumptive water use” in this context (“How much water goes into your food?” HCN, 4/18/14). This short piece by Sarah Tory provides some insightful information, but perhaps casts a shadow on an industry that constantly must explain and defend itself, often to no avail. Irrigated agriculture […]