Marina Bolotnikova
@mbolotnikova.bsky.social
Senior reporter for Vox thinking about factory farming & animal rights, agriculture & the future of food, science & its discontents, cities, housing, transit and ✨ideas✨. marina@vox.com. Skeptical of epistemic authority~
Some ppl in my intellectual community don't agree with me but I believe it's important to have a prosperous economy. & one of my master theories about the world is that we squander SO much of our natural resource base on animal agriculture, which is not economically important. 1/
Rare, amazing opportunities for someone based in the UK to report or edit factory farming stories at the Guardian: workwithus.theguardian.com/job-search/e... workwithus.theguardian.com/job-search/e...
Reporter, Animals Farmed
Join our team at the Guardian and be a part of a diverse and inclusive global organisation that delivers fearless, investigative journalism, and holds power to account. Our team of award-winning journ...
workwithus.theguardian.com
Cartoonishly malicious administration
Joel Rose@joelrose.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW from me: Transportation officials have removed a growing list of safety measures that reference bikes from federal websites. The push began after DOT Secretary Duffy’s social media post vowing to end funding for “DEI bike lanes” earlier this month. www.npr.org/2026/07/23/n...
Today, in violations of the rule of law that would be sufficient for impeachment in any other American presidency but aren't in this one because pathological partisan loyalty has rotted the constitutional order:
tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
Really good explanation of the indirect land use effects (i.e., deforestation and other ecosystem loss) related to crop-based biofuels by @mbolotnikova.bsky.social:
This renewable energy source is actually terrible for the planet
America’s biofuels policy is helping destroy the world’s rainforests
vox.com
"The modern soybean is one of the world’s miracle technologies, capable of cheaply, efficiently, and healthfully feeding billions of people. But, unfortunately, we’ve mostly chosen to squander it on the most destructive purposes possible." ~ @mbolotnikova.bsky.social 🎁 www.vox.com/future-perfe...
You could put solar panels on something like a quarter of the land we use to grow biofuel corn and power the entire United States. AND we wouldn’t need fertilizers made from fossil fuels! You can even grow shade crops around the panels! This is so dumb I can’t help using all the exclamation marks!
Marina Bolotnikova@mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 3w agoWe're destroying what remains of the world's rainforests for biofuels that aren't benefitting the climate at all, & the Trump admin's unprecedented expansion of the state-manufactured market for soybean oil-based diesel will make it all the worse. It really be that bad :(
Almost as bad as feeding 78% of the global soy crop to brutally exploited, emissions generating farmed animals, thereby destroying ~90% of its nutritional value. ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
If the world adopted a plant-based diet, we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares
We could reduce the amount of land used for grazing and croplands used to grow animal feed.
ourworldindata.org
Marina Bolotnikova@mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 3w agoWe're destroying what remains of the world's rainforests for biofuels that aren't benefitting the climate at all, & the Trump admin's unprecedented expansion of the state-manufactured market for soybean oil-based diesel will make it all the worse. It really be that bad :(
We're destroying what remains of the world's rainforests for biofuels that aren't benefitting the climate at all, & the Trump admin's unprecedented expansion of the state-manufactured market for soybean oil-based diesel will make it all the worse. It really be that bad :(
Why the Trump administration loves the stupidest renewable energy
America’s biofuels policy is helping destroy the world’s rainforests
vox.com
What will the American city look like in 2076? Among many other predictions in this great @mbolotnikova.bsky.social piece, I predict that (a) a mixture of housing types (e.g. ADUs, townhouses) will more common and (b) unpriced off-street parking will be less common. www.vox.com/the-highligh...
What housing in America could look like in 50 years
Abundant, affordable, and...fun? Here’s how to get there.
vox.com
It was fun to talk to @mbolotnikova.bsky.social from @vox.com about the future of housing in America -- and make the case that in addition to zoning reform we need PLANNING to create communities with high quality of life for their residents. www.vox.com/the-highligh...
What housing in America could look like in 50 years
Abundant, affordable, and...fun? Here’s how to get there.
vox.com
Biofuels are so bad. And the Trump EPA’s latest biodiesel requirements are going to have catastrophic implications for the world’s rainforests, & so many horrors are coming from this admin at all times that few people have the time to pay attention. Piece on this tk!
Carbon footprint of leather vs. vegan leathers, per the new meta-analysis 4/4
🧵The first peer-reviewed meta-analysis of leather's carbon footprint, by Mikaila Roncevich & @matthewhayek.bsky.social, finds that leather's emissions are about 70% higher than previously thought & WAYY higher than vegan leather (both synthetic & bio-based). Gift link: www.vox.com/future-perfe...
Leather is not an innocent byproduct of the meat industry
Your leather purse might put out as much carbon as 35 hamburgers. But the alternative doesn’t have to be junky pleather!
vox.com
My take on UPFs continues to be: - there is a need for understanding attributes of foods that influence health beyond classical nutrients, creating metrics around them, and incorporating them into dietary guidance, labeling and regulations.
Marina Bolotnikova@mbolotnikova.bsky.social · last mo.It is hardly news that the noisy correlation-based data on ultra-processed foods is very low-quality, but it turns out that the UPF randomized controlled trials probably don't offer strong evidence of the harms of "ultra-processing," either. Gift link: www.vox.com/future-perfe...
I do feel vindicated here, since I've been yelling "calorie-density" from the rooftops since @kevinh-phd.bsky.social's UPF study came out 7 years ago. www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/fo...
Perspective | How processed food makes us fat
UNEARTHED | There’s finally good evidence.
washingtonpost.com
Excellent @mbolotnikova.bsky.social piece in @vox.com about why "ultra-processed" isn't very useful when we talk about nutrition - and might even be detrimental. www.vox.com/future-perfe...
The evidence against “ultra-processed” foods is weaker than you think
New analysis suggests other factors may explain the harms blamed on “ultra-processing”
vox.com
It is hardly news that the noisy correlation-based data on ultra-processed foods is very low-quality, but it turns out that the UPF randomized controlled trials probably don't offer strong evidence of the harms of "ultra-processing," either. Gift link: www.vox.com/future-perfe...
The evidence against “ultra-processed” foods is weaker than you think
New analysis suggests other factors may explain the harms blamed on “ultra-processing”
vox.com
Celebrated America's 250th with the best possible use of our amber waves of grain: my* famous† BBQ ribs‡ *Miyoko Schinner's recipe; link down-thread †Praised in national news site vox dot com ‡ #vegan (made of seitan) 🎁 www.vox.com/future-perfe...
Seitan (which I make at home with vital wheat gluten) is slandered as an "ultra-processed food" which as @mbolotnikova.bsky.social writes is a silly dietary paradigm that deserves to die. You should care much more about what's in your food than what's been done to it! www.vox.com/future-perfe...
The evidence against “ultra-processed” foods is weaker than you think
New analysis suggests other factors may explain the harms blamed on “ultra-processing”
vox.com
"The way we’ve organized housing for the last century has given us not only pervasive unaffordability, but also too few versions of the American dream." @mbolotnikova.bsky.social on the last hundred years — and next fifty — of housing in America 🎁 www.vox.com/the-highligh...
America’s housing was built for a world we no longer live in
The United States is turning 250. Everything we want for the next 50 years starts with fixing housing.
vox.com
A SIDEWALK REPRESENTS PUBLIC SAFETY and don't you forget it
gamera obscura@ohrobin.bsky.social · last mo.This Danville, VA city council candidate made a very dramatic video about sidewalks and public safety, and I love it and him. Worrying about a possible milkshake duck situation, I looked at his FB page, but he seems ok. Juneteenth celebrations, community outreach, Methodists. A solid old gent.
As long as people are allowed to leverage seemingly “woke” or “progressive” language to make the argument for the stagnation of infrastructure, it puts those who want to invest in upgrading roads and amenities in a real optics bind. See: resistance in Seattle to weekend closures of LWB for cycling.
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · last mo.What makes me furious is how people love to go hog-wild about how gentrification ruins lives, but you have large swathes of urban America festering in miserable poverty for decades, segregated, with no jobs, predatory businesses, appalling schools, and that’s, like, just local color or something?
pandering to the utilitarian vote by showing he will jump into a pool while wearing a nice suit (drowning child not required)
Spectrum News NY1@spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social · last mo.New York City residents are celebrating the reopening of public pools — including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who jumped into the water while wearing a suit at an East Harlem pool on Saturday. Outdoor public pools will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day through Sept. 13.
NYT investigates US car bloat: “About 200 to 400 pedestrians a year would not have died if vehicles had remained approximately the same size over the past quarter-century. That represents about 10 percent of the recent increase in pedestrian deaths.”
The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s
The vehicles on American roads have grown larger — and they are killing thousands more pedestrians, a Times investigation found.
nytimes.com
Changing our cityscapes so that 44% of Americans lived in walkable areas would be the greatest sea change in American urbanism since the automotive revolution.
Marina Bolotnikova@mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 2mo agoI'm very struck by the research asking Americans if they prefer to live in a walkable area even it means having a smaller home. Pew has lowest percentage I've seen, with 44% of Americans preferring walkability, & even that is way higher than the share who actually have access to such housing
I'm very struck by the research asking Americans if they prefer to live in a walkable area even it means having a smaller home. Pew has lowest percentage I've seen, with 44% of Americans preferring walkability, & even that is way higher than the share who actually have access to such housing
“What matters to me is that those of us purporting to stand for gender equality reject the kind of cruel, juvenile misogyny on display from Kulinski, Klippenstein, and others.” @aselrod.bsky.social www.liberalcurrents.com/the-men-defe...
The Men Defending Graham Platner In All The Wrong Ways
You cannot defeat misogyny by behaving like a misogynist.
liberalcurrents.com
