Peter Whoriskey

Site of one of the former Marsh Supermarkets in Muncie, Indiana.

As a Midwestern grocery chain is dismantled, investors recover their money. Workers are left short $80 million.

August 22, 2019 at 3:11 p.m.

Once the Marsh Supermarkets chain began to falter a few years ago, its owner, a private-equity firm, began selling off the vast retail empire, piece by piece. The company sold...

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. He is concerned about imported food incorrectly labeled as organic.

‘Uncertainty and dysfunction’ have overtaken USDA program for organic foods, lawmaker says

June 3, 2018 at 12:10 p.m.

The far-reaching difficulties that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has in determining whether imported "organic" food meets standards or is fraudulent means that it's hard to know what products can...

A young Amish farmer tills a field on his steel-wheeled tractor in Kalona, Iowa. Amish farmers say they use steel wheels on their tractors so that they aren't tempted to drive them on paved roads.

Amish farmers square off against Big Organic in milk battle

June 3, 2018 at 3:04 p.m.

This small town has become a landmark in the organic-farm movement, and it has nothing to do with foodies or hippies. Instead it has been Amish farmers who, in their...

A carton of organic milk photographed in Washington on February 22, 2017.

How millions of cartons of ‘organic’ milk contain an oil brewed in industrial vats of algae

June 4, 2018 at 8:10 p.m.

Inside a South Carolina factory, in industrial vats that stand five stories high, batches of algae are carefully tended, kept warm and fed corn syrup. There the algae, known as...

How 36 million pounds of soybeans treated with pesticide became ‘organic’

June 5, 2018 at 1:59 a.m.

A shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans sailed late last year from Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, it underwent a remarkable transformation. The cargo began as...

Naomi Jaffe looks at the soups at the grand opening of Mrs. Green's in Winnetka on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Low-fat versus high-fat diets: Never-before-published data sheds light on what’s healthier

June 11, 2018 at 7:18 a.m.

It was one of the largest, most rigorous experiments ever conducted on an important diet question: How do fatty foods affect our health? Yet it took more than 40 years...

Herb Peterson, the creator of the Egg McMuffin, shows off his invention in this April 1997 file photo.

Skipping breakfast? Nutritionists may have gotten it wrong

August 19, 2019 at 8:10 a.m.

Researchers at a New York City hospital several years ago conducted a test of the widely-accepted notion that skipping breakfast can make you fat. For some nutritionists, this idea is...

Cancer charities bilked donors out of $187 million, government says

June 21, 2019 at 8:55 a.m.

A group of four cancer philanthropies bilked donors across the country out of $187 million, the Federal Trade Commission charged Tuesday in what the agency called one of the largest...

Nature's Path, a large family-run label, is one of the largest organic companies to continue to rebuff corporate investors. "We have witnessed the sale of numerous organic brands to Big Food and have also seen how many of those brands have struggled to retain their soul," said Arjan Stephens, the son of the company's founder.

A multinational food company likely owns your favorite organic brand

June 15, 2018 at 11:18 p.m.

One of the essential questions of the organic movement is, "What foods are worthy of the USDA 'organic' label?" The legal definition of the word is hammered down in semi-annual...

Fresh organic produce at Fresh Thyme Farmer's Market in East Lansing, Mich.

Is organic food safer, healthier? Guy in charge of U.S. organics won’t say

June 16, 2018 at 10:34 p.m.

Are consumers right to think that organic food is safer and healthier? It seems like a straightforward question, especially for Miles McEvoy, the chief of the National Organic Program at...

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