BUZZKILL, presented by REAP/SOW
FERNBUZZKILL, presented by REAP/SOW
Dispatches from the frontlines of food, farming, and the environment. From the Food & Environment Reporting Network, the producers of Hot Farm, REAP/SOW brings you narrative and investigative reporting that examines the consequences of what we choose to eat and why. Currently featuring BUZZKILL, a six-part series on the pollinator crisis
2024 FERN
Dispatches from the frontlines of food, farming, and the environment. From the Food & Environment Reporting Network, the producers of Hot Farm, REAP/SOW brings you narrative and investigative reporting that examines the consequences of what we choose to eat and why. Currently featuring BUZZKILL, a six-part series on the pollinator crisis
2024 FERN
Tequila is made from agave raised in an industrial monoculture at risk of collapse. The solution? Pollination by bats.
Haitians moved to Colorado to work for the world's largest meatpacker on the promise of good jobs and a place to stay—only to be mistreated. Now, Trump is trying to deport them.
Taped live during the Buzzkill celebration in New York City on March 3, 2025 this panel discussion looks at what citydwellers can do – and shouldn’t do – to protect pollinators.
Welcome to California’s “pollinator Super Bowl.”
Want to make your home a refuge for pollinators? You’re gonna have to fight for it.
A Native American tribe turned away from industrial ag, embraced their identity, and helped pollinators.
What was killing a scientist’s bees? The curious case of the toxic corn seeds.
A sustainable food system can’t just rely on domesticated pollinators. Go wild!
A new limited series about the pollinator crisis – and what can be done to solve it. Premiering January 28. 2025.
The expansion of railways in the United States did more than transport people – it helped change society and the food system.
Life on a small farm means hard work, and just enough joy – and hopefully enough profit – to keep going.
Inside the world of the commercial divers working the irrigation canals in California’s Central Valley.
Scientists have long predicted that land loss in Louisiana will harm fisheries. That finally seems to be happening—to one of the state’s most iconic fish.
In California, a study of centuries-old irrigation ditches suggests the Nüümü people could rightfully lay claim to the waters of Owens Lake.
Found in everything from pizza boxes to rain jackets, PFAS - aka "forever chemicals" - are now being discovered in our farms, our food, and in our bodies.
FERN contributor Lisa Morehouse reports on a Japanese-American farmer who uncovers a shocking family secret.
This FERN/Snap Judgment partnership tells the story of how a massive bed of callo de hacha, a prized scallop, could have saved a struggling Mexican fishing village – and why it didn’t.
Episode four of REAP/SOW is the final installment of our partnership with Switchyard, as host Ted Genoways interviews writers Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb.
FERN editor-in-chief Theodore Ross interviews Chef Sean Sherman about decolonized food, in an episode from the Switchyard podcast.
Top Chef star Tom Colicchio sits down with longtime FERN contributor Ted Genoways for an in-depth conversation with the acclaimed celebrity chef
Introducing the latest audio project from the Food & Environment Reporting Network
Buying local makes us feel good, but does it really help the planet?
A bonus episode about beef from a show called “How to Save a Planet"
Most of our food comes from California. But in the very near future, climate change will force us to grow more food in other parts of the country. Here’s what that might look like.
To fight climate change, we need new crops that consume less water, protect the soil and lock away more carbon. For twenty years, scientists have been breeding a grain that does all that. Will farmers grow it? Will people eat it?
Most American farmers don’t believe man-made climate change is real. But if we’re serious about fighting climate change, we need those farmers to be part of the solution. How can we convince them to change how they farm?
In the opening episode of Hot Farm, we visit with Dave Bishop, a farmer who shown a willingness to change.
A new podcast from the Food & Environment Reporting Network about what the people who grow our food are doing, or could be doing, to combat climate change coming April 12.
Buzzkill: Bats and the blue agave
February 25, 202531min
Nearly all tequila is made from cloned plants that are vulnerable to species collapse. In Mexico, a small group of people is trying to change that – and protect an endangered, nectar-slurping, agave-pollinating bat that’s only three inches long.