A couple of positive pieces of news came our way in March and they show how far FERN has come in a little more than a year.
First, Tracie McMillan’s story, “As Common As Dirt,” about wage theft suffered by California farmworkers, was nominated for a James Beard Award (PDF)–the Oscars of the food world. We produced this story in partnership with The American Prospect magazine in September 2012, offering an in-depth look at the chronic exploitation of farm workers. McMillan is one of three finalists for the politics, policy, and environment award, which will be announced by the James Beard Foundation in May.
While we were digesting that news, we got another accolade from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. In their “State of the News Media 2013,” Pew drew attention to a number of recently launched non-profit journalism ventures, including FERN.
While traditional newsrooms have shrunk…there are other new players producing content that could advance citizens’ knowledge about public issues. They are covering subject areas that would have once been covered more regularly and deeply by beat reporters at traditional news outlets—areas such as health, science and education. The Kaiser Family Foundation was an early entrant with Kaiser Health News. Now others, such as Insidescience.org, supported by the American Institute of Physics and others, and the Food and Environment Reporting Network with funding from nonprofit foundations are beginning to emerge.
These two exciting developments came just ahead of a FERN fundraiser in San Francisco, where author Michael Pollan gave his first public reading from his soon-to-be-released book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. Pollan also spoke of the importance of FERN and its work to an audience of more than 60 people.
While we were gratified to get recognition on all these fronts, we’re not standing still. We have many hard-hitting stories underway this year, which will shine a light on important issues in food, agriculture, and environmental health.
In the meantime, I congratulate Tracie, our team, and our partner The American Prospect on a job well done.