Editor’s Desk: FERN partners with Switchyard on special food issue

By Theodore Ross

Yesterday at FERN, we published the fifth and final article in our partnership with Switchyard, the new literary magazine from the University of Tulsa. These stories show the great range of subject and style that FERN’s mission to support journalism at the intersection of food and the environment allows:

• Tom Colicchio, James-Beard-Award-winning chef and star of Top Chef, embarks on A chef’s journey, telling the story of his life in food.

• Siddhartha Deb’s What good is beef? chronicles the rise of intolerant Hindu nationalism in India through his decision to eat the “Mother cow.” 

• Jori Lewis reckons with how the watermelon, the “primordial symbol of solidarity, generosity, and abundance,” has been used as a racist weapon against African Americans in Tell me why the watermelon grows.

• In Buzzkill, Dan Charles investigates why a Nebraska researcher’s bee colonies kept dying, and uncovers a story about toxic pesticides and how this country’s industrialized agriculture system is threatening pollinators and contributing to a biodiversity crisis.

• A conversation with The Sioux Chef is my interview with Sean Sherman about his restaurant, Owamni, and how he blends politics and fine dining in pursuit of a decolonized cuisine.

Switchyard’s food issue marks first time that FERN has co-published an entire issue of a magazine. It represents a rare opportunity to highlight the work that we do at FERN. Rarer still is the occasion to see so much care and attention given to writing, reporting, and thought about food.

The print edition of Switchyard includes an opening essay by its editor, Ted Genoways, a longtime FERN contributor and a fitting partner for this project. It is worth quoting, to describe the ambitions of this issue and because it articulates so much of what we hope to do at FERN:

“[T]o gather a diverse group of writers … who could collectively look back at the effects of recent years but also look forward, imagining how we might rethink our relationship to food, the environment, to our collective health, and to the future of our warming planet.”

FERN can only do these kinds of partnerships with support from committed readers like you. We hope you will read and share these stories, and consider making a contribution to help us keep doing this ambitious, important journalism.