Editor’s Desk: Ted Genoways joins FERN as a senior editor

By Theodore Ross

For the second time in two weeks, FERN co-published an article in the op-ed section of The New York Times. Both stories make persuasive arguments about how politics can influence the food and agriculture systems in the United States. The first was published on the day that Tim Walz accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination to be the vice-presidential candidate. It looked at the values the Minnesota governor was raised with in farming communities in rural Nebraska, and compared that to the go-it-alone worldview of J.D. Vance, his counterpart in the Republican Party. 

The second, published on Labor Day, examines the potential catastrophe for the meatpacking industry if Donald Trump is elected and enacts his mass-deportation policies. The story unpacks the history of how meat companies have used vulnerable workers as a source of pliable labor, and what it would mean if the latest exploited population — immigrants — were forced out of the country in large numbers. It is a rich and historically minded article, but its headline tells the story succinctly: “Trump Said Democrats Will Take Away Your Hamburgers. He’s the One Who Might.” 

Beyond their subject matter, these two articles share something else in common: Both were written by FERN contributor Ted Genoways. And as happy as I am to see FERN’s work appear in the “newspaper of record,” I am even more thrilled that Ted will be joining the FERN team as senior editor, starting on September 8th. 

Ted’s first article with FERN was published in 2015 and established a decade-long reporting collaboration that has produced incredible stories and investigations as well as numerous awards.

And I’ve known Ted since 2015, when we first worked together on a story for The New Republic, where I was an editor. We were trying to come up with a headline, which is often a source of tension between writer and editor. I told him I wanted to use “Fear in a handful of dust,” which is part of a line from T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.” I wasn’t sure Ted would get the reference, but before I could finish explaining, he cut me off: “Dude. Eliot. I love it.” We’ve been close colleagues and friends ever since. (Turns out Ted is an award-winning poet. I never told him this, but I got the headline in a different way: I googled “Shakespeare lines about drought” and this came up.)

Ted is a uniquely accomplished writer and journalist. He is a two-time James Beard Award winner (both with FERN) and the author of six books. He’s also won a National Press Club Award, an Association of Food Journalists Award (also with FERN), the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

His achievements as an editor are equally impressive. During his time as editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, the magazine won six National Magazine Awards. He is currently a President’s Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he also edits Switchyard, a twice-yearly journal of literature and ideas that received five National Magazine Award nominations in 2024. He’ll remain editor of Switchyard and will be based in Tulsa.

Ted starts officially next week. He will be writing and editing at FERN as well as playing a major role in our efforts to expand into multi-format storytelling — journalism that can be published in text, audio, video, and on social media. 

I hope you will all join me in welcoming him to FERN. Our mission here is to make the food system more sustainable and equitable through powerful journalism and storytelling. Bringing Ted on board feels like a big step in that direction.