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National Magazine Award finalist: Switchyard Food Issue
The Switchyard Food Issue is a finalist for a 2024 National Magazine Award in the category of Single-Topic Issue. This is one of two National Magazine Awards for which FERN is a finalist in 2024. Read More
FERN Explains Why Federal Crop Insurance is Currently Flawed
In "Why are we paying for crop failures in the desert?," Stephen Robert Miller explains to readers that, although extreme heat is not going anywhere, year after year, Southwest farmers keep planting thirsty crops on parched land. Why? Because the …
Why a Climate-Smart Ag Program is Complicated
In "Can Biden’s climate-smart agriculture program live up to the hype?," Gabriel Popkin looks at the reasons why there are both supporters and skeptics of a USDA program that plans to pay growers more than $3 billion to adopt practices …
Using Fungi to Mitigate Forest Fires
In his story, "How mushrooms can prevent megafires," Stephen Rober Miller describes how thinning forests to prevent fires produces a lot of sticks and other debris, which in turn produces a fire risk. So scientists are using fungi to turn …
Alaska Community Faced with Snow Crab Fallout
Over the last few years, 10 billion snow crabs have unexpectedly vanished from the Bering Sea. For her story, "A remote Alaska village depended on the snow crab harvest for survival. Then billions of crabs died.," Julia O’Malley traveled there …
FERN Looks at Dark Side of Seaweed Farming
In "Climate savior or ‘Monsanto of the sea’?," Bridget Huber digs deep into seaweed farming, which is being hyped as a major weapon in the fight against climate change. But skeptics say the rush to build industrial-scale operations risks unintended …
Louisiana Tribal Community Faces Climate Change
In "As climate change erodes land and health, one Louisiana tribe fights back," Barry Yeoman brings us to Dulac, Louisiana, where Devon Parfait, the new chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, is getting reacquainted with a community …
California Town Aims to Remove Racist Water Policies
In "Facing the floodwaters in California’s San Joaquin Valley," a collaboration with KQED's The California Report, Teresa Cotsirilos digs into the deep-rooted struggles of the historically Black town of Allensworth. The residents there are trying to overcome a legacy of …
Microclimates Could Help Pollinators Survive
In the FERN exclusive, "A chilling effect: How farms can help pollinators survive the stress of climate change," Lela Nargi explains that refugia are viewed as “relatively buffered” from climate change and a haven for vulnerable species. A refugium might …
Midwest Tribe Partners with Historical Nemesis to Halt Sacred Plant’s Decline
In "The future of wild rice may depend on an unlikely alliance," published in collaboration with The Nation, Nancy Averett explains that when University of Minnesota researcher Crystal Ng won a grant to study wild rice in Ojibwe waters, tribal …
Why California’s Farmworkers are in a Food Crisis
In "Extreme weather means less food for California's farmworkers," published in collaboration with WBUR's Here and Now, Teresa Cotsirilos explains that farmworkers who harvest the nation’s food are paid so little that they can’t always afford to eat. Now extreme …
The Case of the Shrinking Salmon
In "Trouble at sea," a story published in partnership with bioGraphic, Miranda Weiss explores the reasons why Pacific salmon are shrinking in size. Hatchery salmon, from the booming aquaculture industry, routinely escape into the ocean, where they compete with wild …
A California Water District Changes Course
In "How California’s drought upended a powerful farming district," a collaboration with KQED's The California Report, Dan Charles explains that for years, Westlands Water District fought for endless supplies of water — until the water started running out. Farmers instead …
Research Raises Questions About Cover Crops
Cover crops have gained elite status as a way for farmers to fight climate change. But as Gabriel Popkin explains in "A pillar of the climate-smart agriculture movement is on shaky ground," a closer look at the growing body of …
FERN Looks at Importance of Seed-Saving
In "What seed-saving can tell us about the end of the world," a collaboration with Orion, Kea Krause explores the ancient practice of seed-saving, which appeared to become popular once again during the pandemic. Kea explains that as climate change …
Drought-Stricken Indian Village Serves as Farming Model
In "The resurrection of Hiware Bazar," published with Grist, Puja Changoiwala explains how in the 1980s, the Indian village of Hiware Bazar had collapsed—ecologically, economically and spiritually. But today it is seen as a model for solving the nation’s farmer …
Long-Standing Water Access Issues Linked to Decades of Racist Policies
Teresa Cotsirilos' story, "For one historically Black California town, a century of water access denied," published with California Report, describes how drought has exacerbated long-standing water access issues that in many Central Valley communities can be traced back to decades …
Changing Climate Causing Concern for a Citrus-Growing Icon
In “Is the Ojai Pixie dust?,” published with KQED's California Report, Lisa Morehouse explains that an ideal climate is what made California's Ojai Valley known for its Ojai Pixie tangerine. But now that climate is changing, and farmers are worried …
How Carbon Pipelines are Provoking Complicated Conversations
In “The great carbon-capture debate,” a FERN exclusive, Nancy Averett details the anger and fear felt by farmers and environmentalists because of Iowa's proposed carbon dioxide pipelines. And explains that even beyond that, a central question looms: Are the pipelines …
FERN Explains How Climate Adaptation in Bangladesh Went Bad
In "When climate adaptation goes wrong," published with The Guardian, Stephen Rober Miller details how in Bangladesh, rising waters ruined farmers' rice fields, so they switched to shrimp — and that's when troubles mounted. Read More
We Investigate How Feds are Failing to Protect Farmworkers From Heat
In “As heat rises, who will protect farmworkers?,” a FERN exclusive, Bridget Huber, Nancy Averett and Teresa Cotsirilos explain that though heat-related illness and death are a growing problem in U.S. agriculture, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration still hasn't …
A Look at What’s Behind the Great Pollen Meltdown
In “The great pollen meltdown,” published with Yale Environment 360, Carolyn Beans explains how heat is a pollen killer. Even with adequate water, heat can damage pollen and prevent fertilization in canola and many other crops, including corn, peanuts, and …
Controlled Burns Creating Critical Solutions
In “The return of ‘good fire’ to eastern U.S. forests and grasslands,” published with Yale Environment 360, Gabriel Popkin describes how advocates support controlled burns as part of a critical solution to a range of problems, from biodiversity loss to …
We Look at How a Tire Company Hopes To Help Arizona Farmers Thrive
In, “What should desert farmers grow?,” published with Mother Jones, Stephen Robert Miller describes how a Japanese rubber company plans to persuade Arizona farmers to grow a latex-producing crop that’s adapted to desert conditions. That wonder plant is called guayale …
FERN Digs into a Long Running-Dispute on Water Management
In “Epic floods in Pacific Northwest revive long-running dispute over how to manage a river,” published with Mother Jones, Teresa Cotsirilos, details how climate change has caused the water levels of rivers like the Nooksack to become erratic and less …
We Look At Why a Bioenergy Build-Out Is Stirring Controversy in the Chesapeake Bay Region
In “Biogas from America’s favorite meat: pollution solution or a prop for poultry?,” Leanna First-Arai takes us to the top chicken-cultivating county in the United States. On the Delmarva Peninsula — which stretches down the eastern side of the Chesapeake …
How Climate Change is Behind Bristol Bay’s Salmon Boom
In “One Alaska bay is booming with salmon, for now,” published with The Atlantic, Miranda Weiss describes how scientists believe that climate change is boosting salmon numbers in Bristol Bay, even as warming temperatures and other factors seem to be …
Spiking Soybean Prices Lead to Less Carbon Storage
In “Farming boom threatens Biden’s climate and conservation ambitions,” published with National Geographic, Gabriel Popkin explains that high prices for corn and soybeans are driving farmers in the Great Plains to plow up vital grasslands at the expense of carbon …
Ag Scientists Seek Out Rock Dust For Carbon Capture
In “Can rock dust be a climate fix for agriculture?,” published with Yale Environment 360, Susan Cosier describes how scientists are dusting crop fields with pulverized rocks to supercharge the chemical process that grabs carbon from the air and sequesters …
FERN Decodes the Water Wars of California’s Drought
In March 2015, we published a profile of Cannon Michael, a Central Valley farmer who devised a water-sharing scheme to help his struggling neighbors cope with the epic drought. “How One California Farmer Is Battling the Worst Drought in 1,200 …
FERN Put Food Distribution on the Policy Radar
Elizabeth Grossman’s groundbreaking piece, “Climate Change Poses Serious Threats to Food Distribution,” introduced a new and troubling frame to the conversation about climate change, agriculture, and access to good food. Published March 2015, by Earth Island Journal, it was shared on …
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