REAP/SOW

REAP/SOW: dispatches from the front lines of food, farming, and the environment, is the latest audio project from the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, non-profit news organization. Learn about what you can expect and check out the trailer for our upcoming limited series, BUZZKILL!

From our friends at Climavores: The eat local movement is huge. Bumper stickers in liberal towns across the U.S. tell us to “Eat local” or ask “Who’s your farmer?” But eating local food may be wildly overrated when it comes to climate change.  When we look at how foods are produced, transportation accounts for less than 10% of carbon emissions . So should we abandon farmers’ markets for big grocer...

We have a bonus episode from a show called “How to Save a Planet,” a Spotify Original podcast produced by Gimlet Media. This show looks at climate change from the lens of — OK, so what do we do about it? The episode we’re running takes on one of the biggest climate issues in agriculture, Beef. And it asks whether adopting a plant-based diet would fight global warming. So should we all go vegetaria...

More than a fourth of our food, including most of our fruits and vegetables, comes from California. But what happens when drought parches the region we depend upon to eat? Producer Travis Lux travels into the Delta region of Arkansas to explore a vision of the future  — a new California.

Modern agriculture has been tweaking the same system for decades, but scientists think we need a new approach for a warmer world — one that involves novel crops. Producer Rachel Yang visits with researchers and explores the challenges of changing what we grow and what we eat.

Most American farmers don’t believe man-made climate change is real. Yet we need those farmers to be part of the climate change solution. So how can we get them on board? Producer Dana Cronin finds a surprising answer in Illinois. Hint: It starts with the soil.

In 1988, a drought made Dave Bishop a different farmer. Back then, he was a freak in farm country. Today, he is the model that we need all farmers to be if we are to have any chance of fighting climate change and continuing to eat.

Over four episodes, host Eve Abrams and her team travel the Midwest, engaging with farmers who are confronting the difficult reality of climate change—increasingly extreme floods and heat—including those who don’t believe they’re part of the problem. We also meet the scientists who are developing new crops that are better suited to an unpredictable climate, and the people who are trying to convinc...