Civil Eats

Baldemar Velasquez has presided over the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, the nation’s second-largest farmworker union, for its entire 55-year history. This year, he faced a challenger in a contested election for the first time. Chaos ensued.

The worker-owned, Black-led food cooperative quickly shifted their operation to provide emergency food during the height of the pandemic.

Only a third of factory farms have permits to discharge waste into water, soil, and air. A new legal effort from environmental groups seeks enforcement of the Clean Water Act.

“I’ve often said, ‘You bulldoze a community garden, you bulldoze a community,’” said Raymond Figueroa, Jr., a Bronx-based community organizer.

The pandemic-fueled land rush has brought wealthier buyers to rural areas, making land even harder to access—a crisis that has become especially acute in the Northeast.

We read, reviewed, and recommend more than 40 food and farming books for your gift-giving pleasure.

In the face of climate change and persistent droughts, a growing number of people from Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico and elsewhere are adopting the traditional farming practice.

Only a third of factory farms have permits to discharge waste into water, soil, and air. A new legal effort from environmental groups seeks enforcement of the Clean Water Act.

As the Colorado River drops to new lows, the future of the water-intensive cattle feed crop in the state—and the dairy industry it makes possible—are in question.

A majority migrant and undocumented workforce, farmworkers are especially vulnerable to extreme heat, not only because of their direct exposure, but also because of a lack of other social and labor protections.

Big questions remain about the future of food waste disposal in a city of 8 million that committed to sending zero waste to the landfill by 2030.

Advocates and experts point to a long-standing pattern of corporate influence on the nation’s ‘go-to source of nutrition advice.’

“After the caucuses, I feel like there was definitely a consensus that we need to rally together to defeat Donald Trump,” said Jeanina Messerly, a district field director for the Progressive Turnout Project, a PAC working to drive Democratic voter turnout with field offices across the U.S. “So much has …

On a frigid mid-February Saturday, a small crowd gathers in a silent, snow-covered clearing in the woods. The atmosphere was more reminiscent of a far-off forest in northern Michigan than urban Detroit’s Rouge Park.

About a decade ago, Chris Grotegut realized that he had to start pumping much less groundwater out of his wells. It dawned on the cattle rancher and grain farmer that if he didn’t act soon, there may not be enough water to sustain his 11,000-acre farm in Hereford, Texas—much less …

In late fall, the parched hills of Northern California are wilting hot, but relief can be found in the dark patches of shade cast by towering native oaks. Some are hundreds of years old, with spreading limbs as thick as human torsos. This is the season Indigenous people once harvested …

When armed gold miners in military uniforms last week invaded protected land in Northern Brazil and murdered Emyra Wajãpi, a 68-year-old activist and leader of the Wajãpi indigenous community, it was not an isolated incident.