REAP/SOW

A suburban couple was passionate about pollinators, native plants, and living in harmony with nature. Their neighbors were not impressed. This “battle of the backyard” turned out to have national implications.

White settlers viewed farmland as a resource to be exploited, while Indigenous people saw it as a partnership for mutual benefit. Now, a Native American tribe is solving today’s environmental problems and helping pollinators with ancient techniques.

In Nebraska, a researcher’s bee colonies kept dying, and the evidence pointed to the ethanol plant next door – and a food system built on pesticides.

Americans stepped up to do something about dying bees. But what if all those backyard colonies are making the problem worse? In Buzzkill’s premiere episode, we take an in-depth look at whether raising domesticated bees, especially in cities, is harming the wild species we need to preserve biodiversity.

We’re in the middle of a full-blown biodiversity crisis: American honeybee populations have declined by 90 percent in the last two decades. It's not rocket science. How we produce our food is killing off the very pollinators that food relies on. But don't panic, because it is not too late to fix this – and Buzzkill will show you how. Premiering January 28. 2025.

Here’s a thing you may not know about the Transcontinental Railroad: It helped turn California into an agricultural powerhouse – transforming the food system – and it also galvanized a series of Civil Rights victories. This episode, reported by FERN contributor Lisa Morehouse, was produced in partnership with “California Foodways” and KQED’s alifornia Report” podcast.

Nic Theisen and his wife, Sara, operate a small but bustling farm in northern Michigan, growing flowers and vegetables with the help of a large team of farmworkers. It's backbreaking work, the farm hardly makes a profit… and Nic's a little surprised he’s doing this at all. It’s real life on a small farm. This episode, originally entitled “Labor of Mixed Emotions” is courtesy of the “Points North”...

California transports water to Central Valley farmers through a complex network of reservoirs, aqueducts, and canals. This water system is controversial… and without constant maintenance, it might collapse. For REAP/SOW, reporter Lisa Morehouse, host of the “California Foodways” podcast, profiles California’s irrigation canal divers. This episode was produced in partnership with “California Foodwa...

Boyce Upholt's report on the environmental threat to redfish on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana anchors this episode of REAP/SOW. It dives deep into the cultural history of this fish that was made globally famous by Paul Prudhomme’s blackened redfish dish, while also engaging with the modern-day politics driving how much – if at all – it should be taken from the water. This episode was produced in par...

Los Angeles was running out of water in the early 1900s, and Payahuunadü, "land of flowing water" in the Nüümü language, had lots of it. City officials hatched a plan to take the water from what white settlers had renamed the Owens Valley. Today, about a third of L.A.'s water comes from Payahuunadü and other parts of the Eastern Sierra, and many of its streams and lakes are mostly gone. FERN staff...

This episode, courtesy of the podcast “ What you’re eating ,” heads to Maine to investigate PFAS, a category of chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down over time. Found in everything from pizza boxes to rain jackets, PFAS is now being discovered in our farms, our food, and in our bodies. Originally released in September 2023, we hear from family farmers Fred and Laura...

David “Mas” Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. This episode of REAP/SOW is a FERN/ KQED California Report partnership, telling the story of a Japanese-American farming family that’s survived generations of discrimination. Masumoto’s small organic farm just south of Fresno, California is on land that’s been in his family for decades. In 2012, he uncovered a secret about his family that showed him...

In a small fishing village in Mexico, Belen Delgado made a discovery that would change his life: a massive cache of callo de hacha , a large black scallop that’s one of the most prized species in the Gulf of California. Years of overfishing had depleted the area’s fish and seafood, and Belen knew his discovery could change his village’s economic future. But reaching the scallops was only the first...

FERN contributor Ted Genoways interviews Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb, two writers taking on popular foods and their fraught cultural history – the racist cultural history of the watermelon, and the Hindu nationalist politics of beef in India. The final installment of a collaboration between FERN and Switchyard , a magazine and podcast from the University of Tulsa and Public Radio Tulsa.

FERN Editor-in-chief Theodore Ross interviews Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef, co-owner of Owamni, a James-Beard-Award winning restaurant in Minneapolis that is decolonizing food by using only indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques. Part 2 of a collaboration between FERN and Switchyard , a magazine and podcast from the University of Tulsa and Public Radio Tulsa.

Top Chef star Tom Colicchio sits down with longtime FERN contributor Ted Genoways for an in-depth conversation with the acclaimed celebrity chef. Part 1 of a collaboration between FERN and Switchyard , a magazine and podcast from the University of Tulsa and Public Radio Tulsa.

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...