I'm Back, And I've Got News!
My book is done. I've got an essay in the Times. And I'm ready to start emitting.
My book is finally done! It’s called WE ARE EATING THE EARTH: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate. Simon & Schuster plans to publish it July 1. That means I’m going to be committing more acts of journalism. For starters, I wrote the lead essay in this Sunday’s NYT Opinion section, and because I’ve always wanted to be popular, it’s about how industrial agriculture is Actually Good.
You can read it here before you join the angry hordes trashing me on social media.
I’m also planning to start using this platform more regularly in 2025. I won’t swamp your inboxes, but I do have some longer-than-a-tweet (or skeet - you can follow me on Bluesky - mikegrunwald.bsky.social) thoughts and reporting that I’ll start sharing here. Let me know what kind of emissions you want! I’m still focused on climate these days, but after a couple decades writing about US policy and politics, I’ll probably sound off about other topics as well. We live in interesting times, right?
I’m excited to do this, and I hope you’ll let me know what you want me to write about. I also hope you’ll tell your friends. Of course, I especially hope you’ll read my book.
Hi Michael, I appreciate your tackling this sensitive and timely climate topic. I've sent an invitation for pre-launch book activities to your Substack email address. Thanks for considering, and thanks for bringing awareness to the issues. /Haven Bourque
Dear Michael,
In your recent NYT article, you state that the world will need to produce 50% more calories by 2050. However, setting aside the discussion on population growth, the USDA article you reference in the footnotes doesn’t appear to support this claim.
The authors indicate that calorie production would need to grow by 47% from 2011 to 2050. When accounting for the 2011–2024 period, the required increase from now to 2050 drops to approximately 30%. While 30% is still a significant figure, it’s not 50%. Additionally, with slowing population growth and aging demographics, even the 30% estimate may be an overstatement.
Best regards,
Ivo