Out of the kitchen, onto the couch: Michael Pollan on how American cooking became a spectator sport, and what we lost along the way. Against the agri-intellectuals: Farming has always been messy and painful, and bloody and dirty; it still is — this is something the critics of industrial farming never seem to understand (and more). Look who's farming now: Agriculture is having a youth movement, thanks to their passion for organic farming and local produce. A review of The Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food—Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation's Food Was Seasonal by Mark Kurlansky (and more). How much food can you really grow in a city? You’d be surprised. A review of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart (and more and more and more). At the Thoughtful Bread Company everything but the kitchen sink is recycled; Julia Belluz heads to Bath for a delicious taste of eco-fundamentalism. Americans’ growing sophistication about food is bumping up against a troubled economy; foodies are applying their rarefied aesthetic to junk food. Death to Cupcakes: When will we finally be rid of the little bastards? In defense of ugly fruit: A new EU law finally allows for people to eat bad-looking produce.

From Resurgence, the core component of the Transition movement is to develop a bottom-up, participatory process in order to build resilient communities in response to climate change and peak oil. Geoscientists have cut the Gordian knot of geologic timekeeping: The Quaternary Period wins out. Our influential Anthropocene period: What humanity does has important consequences, so we must manage our global life-support system. What would Jesus say about the approaching environmental "End Times"? Paul Ehrlich believes in provocation and speculation: If not for the provocateurs, would we pay attention? To save the environment we will need unprecedented action — and a lot of luck. Climate-change calculus: Why it's even worse than we feared. How much energy do we consume, and does it matter? You're not an environmentalist if you're also a NIMBY. Five experts discuss paying countries to keep forests intact and how to protect the people whose lives depend on trees. Sued by the forest: Should nature be able to take you to court? Change has come to the Arctic: Jess Worth visits an Alaskan village and finds lives being turned inexorably upside down. Floating apartment complex takes the worry out of rising seas.

From NYRB, Michael Massing reviews books, blogs, Web sites, and essays on "the news about the Internet". Ever get the feeling the newspaper-Web war was fought before? Michael Hickins on how the Internet isn’t killing papers — we are. An interview with NYU professor, respected press blogger, and master-Twitterer Jay Rosen. An interview with Jonathan Glick: "There may be a future for the news business, but it’s going to be unrecognizable". Here are four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian's (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment. "Lipstick on a pig": An article on research tracking the life and death of news. Gawker reports on Matt Drudge's favorite personalities/targets, ranked by the number of times their names have appeared in his headlines since 2002. A review of Late Edition: A Love Story by Bob Greene. An article on questioning journalistic objectivity. Gillian Reagan on how the Times' home page gets made. A review of Jerelle Kraus' All the Art That's Fit to Print: Inside The New York Times Op-Ed Page. City of Niche News: Niche reporters and correspondents from overseas now dominate the Washington press corps. Privately owned alt-weeklies are quick to point out the failings of their big-corporate counterparts — but are the indies really a better alternative?

From The Atlantic Monthly, a cover story on how the incentives that drive our health care system have perverse (and sometimes fatal) consequences — it's time for a radical change. Like your health insurance? Maybe you shouldn't. What's so great about private health insurance? Sorry, Sarah Palin: "Death panels" rationing care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results (and more). Ezekiel Emanuel, Obama's "deadly doctor", strikes back (and more). Obama wants to kill your grandma: Five right-wing myths about healthcare reform. From TAP, Paul Waldman on the 10 dumbest arguments against health-care reform; on health care's public perception malady; and on how the ugliness of the opposition to health-care reform is a symptom of something much larger. Marc Ambinder on how Democrats and Republicans exploit emotion. Letting the people in: People want their voices heard in the making of policy, but how do politicians figure out which ones to listen to? Peter Daou on the Overton Window and why the national debate is still conducted on the right's terms. Is this 1994 all over again? An interview with Nancy-Ann DeParle. The doctor is in Bangkok: Why don’t we globalize American healthcare? FP looks at the world’s worst healthcare reforms.