Editor’s Desk: FERN stories catch media attention
I wanted to let you know about a spate of stories we’ve recently run, which are garnering attention from the media world. I’ve always thought that if FERN pursued original, in-depth, investigative stories, people would take notice, and they are.
Jane Black’s “Revenge of the Lunch Lady,” a must-read about a West Virginia town that defied the odds and improved its school lunch program, really struck a nerve with readers. Black was subsequently interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Kathleen Dunn Show, on Cheddar, a business-news show that broadcasts from the NYSE, and on The Huffington Post.
Barry Yeoman’s dramatic story, “Reclaiming Native Ground,” about Native Americans on Louisiana’s coastline, whose traditional lands are slowing succumbing to rising waters, also got a fair share of attention. He was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Consideredand also participated in a panel discussion in New Orleans about the story which was arranged by our partner, The Lens.
Ben Goldfarb’s look at a massive New England fish fraud, “The Codfather,” also earned a lot of accolades. Goldfarb was interviewed by Hartford’s WNCR and Heritage Public Radio, and several other appearances are planned.
We also published these recent items:
- “Pizza chains are making a desperate push to avoid calories on menus,” was another piece by Jane Black in partnership with the The Washington Post. This piece broke the news that a group called the National Pizza Community, which is actually just a lobbying coalition led by Domino’s, is trying an 11th-hour maneuver to scuttle the new federal rule that will require restaurants to post calories. Black was interviewed on KCUR, Kansas City public radio.
- “Is the United States ready for offshore aquaculture?” by Virginia Gewin, published with Ensia, an environmental magazine. As the demand for fish protein rises, wild fisheries have been depleted. Fish farming offers another answer but many foreign sources face lax regulation and employ questionable practices. This story explores a new and controversial effort to place aquaculture farms in deep ocean waters off the U.S., which may be a more effective solution than importing farmed seafood from other countries.
- “How a wild berry saved China’s Giant Pandas, and its countryside,” by FERN’s Kristina Johnson, published with NPR’s The Salt. This piece spotlights the work of FairWild, a nonprofit that is pioneering the harvesting of wild plants in order to save them. It shows that conservation isn’t a zero-sum game between saving endangered species and the economic interests of poor communities that depend on them.
We hope you have a chance to look at these items. Keep checking back, as more are coming in the very near future.
Sincerely,
Sam Fromartz
Editor-in-Chief
Food & Environment Reporting Network
@fromartz
@FERNNews
Photo of one of the Codfather’s fishing boats by Tristan Spinski