Page 6 - Environment Reporting Network News Today

By Lela Nargi for the Food and Environment Reporting Network.Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Wisconsin News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration In 2002, Deirdre Birmingham and her husband, John Biondi, bought a 166-acre farm in southwestern Wisconsin’s Driftless region. On a portion of that land — once used to raise cattle and grow feed crops like corn, soybeans, and alfalfa — they planted apple and pear tr...

A group of shareholders is asking McDonald's to look into child labor violations at restaurants.

A wave of startups say seaweed is a multi-pronged solution to climate change: It can absorb carbon, curb the effects of cattle's methane burps, and feed biofuels—not to mention the world.

In his more than a decade at the helm of the Food & Environment Reporting Network, Samuel Fromartz was instrumental in shaping a new way of covering food, agriculture and environmental issues. As he prepares to turn over the top editor’s job to his successor, Fromartz talks about FERN’s innovative business model and the power of narrative.

If you’ve eaten a burger and fries recently, there’s a chance that the potatoes were picked by middle schoolers, working through the school day in a field in Idaho.

Why the nation’s food sector has the most child-labor violations

Millions of dollars in SNAP benefits have been stolen by scammers. What to do if your benefits are stolen. Which states are offering reimbursements?

Rewilding landscapes on and around farms can create refugia to protect plants and pollinators in the face of a warming, drying climate.

In the Midwest, a sacred wild rice plant has slowly vanished. University scientists and indigenous resource managers have combined their expertise to try to save it. 

Female farmers represent an increasing share of Golden State cultivators – and grow a wider variety of ‘specialty crops’ than done in traditional monoculture