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On the front lines at a North Carolina food bank

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In her 11 years working for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Jennifer Caslin had never once made a food delivery. Her official job involves marketing the organization, which serves 34 of the state’s 100 counties. But on March 24, Caslin arrived before sunrise at the Food Bank’s Raleigh warehouse, where a… » Read More

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The coronavirus has laid bare restaurant workers’ ‘tip to mouth’ existence

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Cristan learned last month that the bustling Oakland restaurant where he made craft cocktails for 12 years was ceasing “non-essential” functions and shifting to takeout and delivery to help contain the coronavirus. The San Francisco Bay Area’s entertainment and cultural engines were grinding to a halt, prompting mass layoffs.  “It was Friday the thirteenth,” says… » Read More

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Is carbon farming a climate boon, or boondoggle?

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Trey Hill led a small group of fellow farmers to a field outside his office in Rock Hall on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It was a cloudy February day, but the ground was alive with color — purple and red turnip tops mixing exuberantly with green rye, vetch and clover, and beneath it all, rich brown… » Read More

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Food waste–and food insecurity–rising amid coronavirus panic

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In the best of times, the United States wastes 40 percent of its food annually, amounting to 63 million tons. The collective response to the coronavirus pandemic, from panic buying at grocery stores to restaurant closures, is bound to inflate that percentage, food loss experts say, at a time when food insecurity is on the… » Read More

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Migrant farmworkers feed America, and they’re at high risk for a coronavirus outbreak

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Every day, throughout California’s major agricultural regions, thousands of farmworkers are still piling into dusty vans and buses to be driven to fields and orchards. There, they move through rows of lettuce and onions, strawberries and spinach, often in dense groups, to tend and harvest the food that Americans depend on. In the coming weeks,… » Read More

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As the Salton Sea shrinks, it leaves behind a toxic reminder of the cost of making a desert bloom

By Photography by Lindsay Fendt

It’s just past noon on a Wednesday, but the bar at the Ski Inn in Bombay Beach, California, is already packed. The crowd is mostly Canadian, snowbirds escaping to the desert spas and country club communities that dominate this southeastern corner of the state, just 50 miles from Mexico. Bombay Beach is not their destination,… » Read More

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