Michael Grunwald
Journalist; wrote We Are Eating the Earth on food and climate, and writes the newsletter Emissions.
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Where they publish
Newsletter Emissions His newsletter on food, land and climate. Has a feed.
Open michaelgrunwald.substack.com
Recent
- Reflecting on the Reflecting Pool, and Whether Our Government Can Manage a Two-Car Funeral 25 Aug 2026 Corruption, weaponization, and politicization are all bad. But don't forget incompetence!
- I Am Emitting Because We Are Emitting 21 Jul 2026 My first blog post is about how climate change is a threat to our children's future. It's become uncool to harp on that Captain Obvious truth, but it's still true.
- Emissions, Coming Soon 25 Jun 2026 Here are some more things I wrote in other places. But I'm going to start writing here!
Show 17 more
- Here Is a Signal of My Virtue 24 Mar 2026 Plus an attack on RFK Jr.'s
- I Haven't Changed. You Just Didn't Get Me. 20 Jan 2026 My new NYT essay is pleasantly surprising enviros who thought I was a factory farm shill
- A Failure to Communicate 7 Nov 2025 A few inconvenient truths about climate communication and climate action. Starting with the awkward fact that they're not as inextricably linked as climate people think.
- Soybean Trumpism 23 Oct 2025 For his friends, everything; for everyone else, the bill.
- I Welcome Their Hatred 1 Oct 2025 MAHA influencers and lefty foodies are pissed at me
- Stop Sucking Up to Farmers 13 Jul 2025 My good advice that Democrats probably won't take
- WE ARE EATING THE EARTH 30 Jun 2025 My book launches today. Plus a hot take.
- Just a Taste 3 Jun 2025 The Atlantic published an essay excerpted from WE ARE EATING THE EARTH
- A Big Beautiful Scandal 27 May 2025 Using corn ethanol as a jet fuel doesn't pencil out for the climate, so the Republican Party's Big Beautiful Bill will take away the government's pencils.
- It's Hard to Change Our Behaviors 24 Apr 2025 But it's possible. I wrote about one success story and one perplexing national failure, around the two most important changes we'll need to make to stop eating the earth.
- A Better Candidate for the Wood-Chipper 13 Mar 2025 My good advice that Elon just didn't take
- Is Lab-Grown Meat Cooked Under Trump? 7 Jan 2025 The MAHA all-natural bros and MAGA Big Ag water-carriers all hate innovation
- I'm Back, And I've Got News! 14 Dec 2024 My book is done. I've got an essay in the Times. And I'm ready to start emitting.
- When Harry Met Celery 29 Sept 2023 Food waste is a ginormous problem. My high-tech garbage bin is helping to fix it.
- Farming Needs to Suck Less 30 Aug 2023 Fertilizer isn't sexy but it's a worse climate problem than aviation. Here's a way to fix it.
- The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettuce 3 Jul 2023 That's why vertical farms wouldn't solve it even if they weren't imploding
- A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution 6 Jun 2023 Renewable Fuels Are Bad
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 17 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
It is false that the world needs no more food and only better distribution of the food it has.
The main argument they trotted out in that article was that we don’t need more high-yield agriculture because we don’t need more food, just better distribution of the food we already have. That’s wrong
Stop Sucking Up to Farmers Said 13 Jul 2025
Grass-fed organic beef is worse for the climate and the planet than beef finished in a feedlot.
We need better beef - which means more efficient beef, not organic grass-fed beef, which is even worse for the climate and the planet than conventional feedlot-finished beef - but in the rich world we also need to eat less beef.
WE ARE EATING THE EARTH Said 30 Jun 2025
The two individual changes that matter most for the climate are eating less beef and wasting less food, and both are proving extremely hard to make.
Unfortunately, making those simple changes is infuriatingly difficult. Global meat consumption keeps rising every year. The world still wastes at least one fourth of its food.
It's Hard to Change Our Behaviors Said 24 Apr 2025
Show 14 more
Synthetic fertiliser is a serious climate and pollution problem and also the reason half the people alive are alive.
They suck! But they also feed the world. Half the people alive today would be very not alive if fertilizers manufactured from natural gas weren’t super-sizing our harvests.
Farming Needs to Suck Less Said 30 Aug 2023
Fixing food and climate needs solutions that scale absurdly fast, and the ones we have do not scale nearly fast enough yet.
the solutions to our food and climate problems need to scale up absurdly quickly.
Farming Needs to Suck Less Said 30 Aug 2023
Vertical farming swaps a land problem for an energy problem, and the energy cost is what stops it feeding the world.
I explain why in the essay; the TLDR is that they’re energy hogs. The sun is a really awesome source of calories, and it’s kind of dumb not to take advantage of it.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettuce Said 3 Jul 2023
The central problem of the food system is producing much more food on much less land.
it’s going to be incredibly difficult, but also incredibly necessary, for the world to produce much more food with much less land.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettuce Said 3 Jul 2023
Vertical farms were valued as technology companies when they are in fact farms, which is why those valuations collapsed.
But vertical farms are not technologies. They’re farms.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettuce Said 3 Jul 2023
Biofuels have probably raised greenhouse gas emissions rather than lowered them, once the land they take is counted.
But I think it’s important to tell the whole story, so I have a new piece in the New York Times pointing out that biofuels are also a catastrophe for the climate and the environment.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
An acre of solar panels powering electric cars carries you orders of magnitude further than an acre of crops grown for fuel.
an acre of solar panels generates as much energy as 100 acres of corn grown for ethanol.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
Land is good at growing food and storing carbon and bad at growing energy, and we have better ways to grow energy.
Land is really good at growing food and storing carbon, but it sucks at growing energy—and fortunately, we have better ways to grow energy.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
The world spends an area larger than California growing under four per cent of its transport fuel.
The world now uses a land mass larger than California to grow less than 4 percent of our transportation fuel.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
Support for biofuels raises food prices and worsens global hunger.
It’s not exactly news that the American government’s support for biofuels increases food prices, intensifies global hunger and wastes taxpayer dollars.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
Since people are not going to give up beef, the way to cut its damage is to make cattle far more productive on the land they already use.
Our species isn’t going to quit beef anytime soon, so we’re going to have to fix beef.
Beef Sucks Said 17 Apr 2023
We know how to make cattle much less destructive; what nobody has solved is how to pay for it.
Give me a degraded pasture and a bunch of money, and even I can probably increase its beef yields 400 percent. I’m just not sure how to make the bunch-of-money part happen.
Beef Sucks Said 17 Apr 2023
Feeding humanity without wrecking the climate will take engineered food, and squeamishness about technology in food is the thing to get over.
My column is about how we’re going to need plant-based meat, cultivated meat, and all kinds of futuristic genetic engineering to grow enough food to feed humanity without frying the planet.
Get Over Your All-Natural Self Said 17 Jan 2023
Changing what food is made of will work better than changing people's minds about what to eat.
The food and climate stuff I write about would be simple if everyone just went vegan, but it turns out to be hard to change hearts and minds, so we’re going to have to change our food.
Get Over Your All-Natural Self Said 17 Jan 2023
Beliefs others hold too
Vertical farming swaps a land problem for an energy problem, and the energy cost is what stops it feeding the world. 2 hold this
I explain why in the essay; the TLDR is that they’re energy hogs. The sun is a really awesome source of calories, and it’s kind of dumb not to take advantage of it.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettuce Said 3 Jul 2023
Biofuels have probably raised greenhouse gas emissions rather than lowered them, once the land they take is counted. 2 hold this
But I think it’s important to tell the whole story, so I have a new piece in the New York Times pointing out that biofuels are also a catastrophe for the climate and the environment.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
An acre of solar panels powering electric cars carries you orders of magnitude further than an acre of crops grown for fuel. 2 hold this
an acre of solar panels generates as much energy as 100 acres of corn grown for ethanol.
A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solution Said 6 Jun 2023
What is a korrent?
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Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
25 August
21 July
25 June
24 March
20 January
7 November 2025
23 October 2025
1 October 2025
13 July 2025
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korrents.com
It is false that the world needs no more food and only better distribution of the food it has.Their words
The main argument they trotted out in that article was that we don’t need more high-yield agriculture because we don’t need more food, just better distribution of the food we already have. That’s wrong
30 June 2025
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korrents.com
Grass-fed organic beef is worse for the climate and the planet than beef finished in a feedlot.Their words
We need better beef - which means more efficient beef, not organic grass-fed beef, which is even worse for the climate and the planet than conventional feedlot-finished beef - but in the rich world we also need to eat less beef.
3 June 2025
27 May 2025
24 April 2025
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Their words
Unfortunately, making those simple changes is infuriatingly difficult. Global meat consumption keeps rising every year. The world still wastes at least one fourth of its food.
It's Hard to Change Our Behaviorsmichaelgrunwald.substack.com
13 March 2025
7 January 2025
14 December 2024
29 September 2023
30 August 2023
From one piece Farming Needs to Suck Less 2 beliefs · michaelgrunwald.substack.com
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Their words
the solutions to our food and climate problems need to scale up absurdly quickly.
-
korrents.com
Synthetic fertiliser is a serious climate and pollution problem and also the reason half the people alive are alive.Their words
They suck! But they also feed the world. Half the people alive today would be very not alive if fertilizers manufactured from natural gas weren’t super-sizing our harvests.
3 July 2023
From one piece The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettuce 3 beliefs · michaelgrunwald.substack.com
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Their words
But vertical farms are not technologies. They’re farms.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettucemichaelgrunwald.substack.com
-
Their words
it’s going to be incredibly difficult, but also incredibly necessary, for the world to produce much more food with much less land.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettucemichaelgrunwald.substack.com
-
korrents.com
Vertical farming swaps a land problem for an energy problem, and the energy cost is what stops it feeding the world.Their words
I explain why in the essay; the TLDR is that they’re energy hogs. The sun is a really awesome source of calories, and it’s kind of dumb not to take advantage of it.
The Food Problem Is Bigger Than Lettucemichaelgrunwald.substack.com
6 June 2023
Nothing matches.
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