Editor’s Desk: A busy end to 2024
By Theodore Ross
We were lucky enough to have an abundance of stories come out as we approached the holidays. I hope they provide you with some compelling reading (and food for thought) as we kick off the new year.
“Transforming the Delta,” by Robert Kunzig, tells the story of the future of agriculture in the Mississippi Delta, and how a shift away from commodity-crop monoculture and toward regenerative practices is both a response to climate change and a chance to rewrite the region’s troubled history. This story will also appear in the latest issue of Switchyard magazine, the biannual literary magazine at the University of Tulsa, which is edited by FERN senior editor Ted Genoways. It is a lyrical work of narrative reporting, tracing the intersections among food, environment, race, class, and the past and the future.
“Power Failure,” by Mya Frazier, also is a collaboration with Switchyard, which is rapidly earning the title of Best Little Magazine in the country. It focuses on what we at FERN believe is a growing issue in food and the environment: the swift expansion of data centers in rural areas and on land once used for agriculture. Told from Ohio, Frazier’s home state, the story asks why we are doing “the most destructive thing imaginable: transforming the landscape irrevocably, adding at an astonishing clip to the estimated 11,000 energy-and-water-hungry data centers already in operation globally.” With the AI expansion gripping the major technology companies, there is an ongoing arms race for places to put these data centers, and rural farmland is at risk.
In “How the railroad shaped agriculture and civil rights in California,” the latest piece in her California Foodways audio series for KQED, in which she is reporting from all 58 counties in the state, Lisa Morehouse explains how the arrival of the railroad shaped agriculture, food, and the broader culture in California and beyond. Railroads determined where farms were located, which crops were grown where, and spurred the creation of irrigation systems and water districts. Refrigeration cars changed agribusiness, allowing California fruits, vegetables, and dairy to ship across the country. Restaurants, called Harvey Houses, that were built along the lines were the precursors to fast food, and the Pullman dining cars, staffed exclusively by African American porters and waiters, also employed African American cooks who developed methods to produce fine dining in small spaces. Those methods were replicated across the country. A fascinating listen.
Finally, we have “A palm oil company, a group of U.S, venture capitalists, and the destruction of Peru’s rainforest,” by Brendan Borell, in FERN’s first partnership with Business Insider. This story is a deep investigation of Ocho Sur, whose backers, primarily venture capitalists and private equity funds, have spent $160 million on its operations, which represents the largest foreign investment in agriculture in the history of the Peruvian Amazon. Ocho Sur, Brendan reports, sold “deforestation-free” palm oil to the makers of Cheetos, Colgate, and Pepsi. Reported from Peru, and using exclusive documents that reveal ties between U.S. investors and entities that cleared Amazonian rainforest, the story is a case study in how threats to the forest, land, Indigenous cultures, and biodiversity play out.
These stories span regions, countries, modes and formats of reporting, and different subjects. They share a reverence for reporting and narrative; a commitment to our mission to make the food system more sustainable and equitable through powerful journalism and storytelling; and to the quality of the work itself. At FERN, we can only do work like this with help from people who share our passion for our mission. Please consider making a donation so that we can continue with this powerful work.