Jill Richardson
Jill Richardson is the founder of the blog La Vida Locavore and a member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board. She is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, February 20, 2020 Trump Wants to Cancel Student Loan Forgiveness for Public Servants Before sharing my opinions about Trump’s recent proposal to cut student loan forgiveness , let me explain my own situation. In my 20s, I was fresh out of college with a business degree and worked in software for a few years. In my 30s, I went to graduate school for sociology. I’m single and I had... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 15, 2020 Why Do We Have School Lunch Debt at All? A Google search for “paying school lunch debt” reveals a long list of recent news stories about good Samaritans paying off the school lunch debt of children whose families cannot afford it. A Fredonia, New York man paid off $2,000 in school lunch debt in his area, helping 140 families. A Rigby,... Read more |
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Views Thursday, December 05, 2019 Is Marijuana a Gateway Drug? Like nearly all Americans of a certain age, I was told in school that tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana are gateway drugs—and that is why marijuana should remain illegal. First of all, even if you accept that these three substances are “gateways” to something worse, why is it that adults can use... Read more |
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Views Thursday, November 21, 2019 Explaining Trump’s Racism “Is Trump a racist?” I have two answers to that question. First, most white Americans misunderstand racism solely as intentional beliefs held by individual racists who hate people on the basis of race. For example, at times the media has focused on whether or not they could prove Trump had ever... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, November 13, 2019 The EPA’s War on Science Continues The Trump EPA wants to introduce a new rule : Its scientists can only use studies that make all of their data public. The new proposal is crafted to sound like a win for transparency, which is supposed to be a good thing. In reality, the rule will significantly harm public health — and loosen the... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, October 30, 2019 We Need Publicly Owned Utilities Right now, thousands of Californians are fleeing raging wildfires, while millions sit in the dark. And for-profit utilities may be to blame. Pacific Gas & Electric—a private, for-profit utility in the state—has admitted that its equipment likely caused 10 wildfires this year alone . To avoid... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, October 16, 2019 Why Are LGBTQ Rights Even a Debate? As a newly out lesbian, I couldn’t help but watch the recent Supreme Court hearings on employment rights for LGBTQ people , and a recent Democratic presidential candidate town hall on LTBTQ issues, and think: “I’m sorry, what?” How are my rights and my humanity a debate? And why is a personal,... Read more |
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Views Saturday, October 12, 2019 What Life on the Margins Feels Like My campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is in an uproar over a video to promote the school's homecoming that features no students of color. When marginalized people are represented, it's often to serve a purpose for the dominant group, without challenging their default status as the norm... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, September 11, 2019 It’s Not About Your Straws or Your Light Bulbs A few years ago, I had a cupcake problem. I’d go to the cupcake store almost daily and I’d eat at least one cupcake, sometimes more. At the same time, I wanted to lose weight, or at least stop gaining it. So I kept looking up information about diets and superfoods, just looking for some magical... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, September 04, 2019 Get Ready for Unnatural Disasters This Hurricane Season Donald Trump discusses immigration as if the benefits of residence in the U.S. are a pie. When immigrants get more, the people who were already here get less. In general, that’s not true. When immigrants come here, they don’t just take some jobs (often low-wage jobs U.S. citizens don’t want), they... Read more |