Our Global Economy

In the US, food is often thrown out simply because it doesn’t look good enough. Recently, a crop of companies has popped up with an entrepreneurial solution to food waste: they sell less-than-perfect produce straight to consumers.

Plastic junk from the US is often sent to Southeast Asia, where illegal "recycling" centers are causing an environmental emergency with the fumes from burning trash. And many people believe that America, above all, has the power to make this stop.

Home-delivered meal kits are booming across the globe. They send us the raw ingredients and a recipe; we cook it up. But is our lust for convenience hurting or helping the planet?

When a palm oil development project tried to cut down the last major swath of tropical rainforest in Liberia, lawyer Alfred Brownell jumped into action — and almost lost his life.

When he was a real estate mogul, Trump earned some national recognition by taking aim at Japan back in the 1980s.

When a major export terminal project threatened to bring 360,000 gallons of crude oil per day through the Fruit Valley neighborhood of Vancouver, Washington, along the Columbia River, Linda Garcia led a long fight against the project.

Throughout California, many of the workers in elderly care facilities face inhumane conditions, wage theft, and abuse form their employers. Despite efforts from the state, many of these crimes go unpunished and workers are left with few options.

This is hardly what Americans envision when they drop off glitchy laptops or broken printers at their local recycling drop-off center. Yet, what fuels these Southeast Asian scrapyards is junk from afar — typically more affluent places such as Europe, Australia and the US.

In the spring of 1969, 19-year-old Terry Tickhill Terrell walked into the Institute of Polar Studies at OSU and told the secretary, “Hi, I want a job in Antarctica.”

It looked like Washington and Beijing were close to a deal. But discussions fell apart and US President Donald Trump is increasing the rate for tariffs on Chinese imports.