The Food & Environment Reporting Network

Read the full story, a collaboration with The Guardian, at https://thefern.org/2026/02/big-four-beef-processors-under-fire-as-prices-for-steaks-and-hamburgers-soar/

FERN's Teresa Cotsirilos gives insight into what she's learned through her reporting on the H-2A visa program, which could dramatically expand under the Trump administration.

Read it here:https://thefern.org/2026/02/everyone-in-washington-wants-to-reform-agricultures-main-visa-program/

FERN's editor-in-chief talks about how the story came together about Haitian meatpackers striking at a JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado.

We hope you’ll read it, as well as the rest of the reporting from our "Trouble on the Line" series. https://thefern.org/special-series/trouble-on-the-line/

Reporter Jane Black, who's been covering food policy in D.C. for the last 15 years, talks about how that history is what informed her recent story on food reform.

Read the story here: https://thefern.org/2026/02/food-reform-was-always-democrats-territory-then-rfk-jr-and-maha-hijacked-it/

Big news: FERN is a finalist for a National Magazine Award, aka the "Ellie." Reporter Elliott Woods spent over two years reporting on the 2022 migrant tragedy in Texas. We're so honored and proud!

https://thefern.org/blog_posts/editors-desk-understanding-why-beef-prices-are-so-high/

“In response to what they allege is years of price-gouging and collusion, many of the Big Four’s business partners have filed lawsuits,” writes Ted Genoways. ⬇️

https://thefern.org/blog_posts/ferns-friday-feed-the-beef-over-beef-prices/

Theodore Ross, FERN's editor-in-chief, talks about Elliott Woods' recent win of the prestigious Polk award for magazine reporting for his stories about an immigration disaster, written for FERN and Texas Monthly. We hope you'll read them, and learn more about the award, at www.thefern.org.

Watch the full interview for this episode here: https://youtu.be/wNukz5W2NUE

And subscribe to our YouTube channel for future episodes.

Watch the full interview for this episode here: https://youtu.be/wNukz5W2NUE

And subscribe to our YouTube channel for future episodes.

Ted Genoways, in his story for FERN and The Guardian, reports on why food giants like McDonald’s and other food industry players are accusing beef packers of collusion and price-gouging. ⬇️

https://thefern.org/2026/02/big-four-beef-processors-under-fire-as-prices-for-steaks-and-hamburgers-soar/

Watch the full interview for this episode here: https://youtu.be/wNukz5W2NUE

And subscribe to our YouTube channel for future episodes.

Watch the episode on our FERNnews YouTube channel: youtu.be/wNukz5W2NUE

Listen to the episode on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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RFK Jr. tag-teaming with David Kessler on 60 Minutes, and why Kennedy’s remarks about doing cocaine off a toilet seat actually kinda sorta make sense maybe a little.

Helena and Theodore talk about Iron Mike Tyson’s mama-said-knock-you-out vibes on ultraprocessed foods, RFK Jr. tag-teaming with David Kessler.

Reporter Ted Genoways spent more than a year reporting on Haitian migrants working at a beef packing plant in Greeley, Colorado. Recently he went back there to cover a strike vote by those workers, which passed almost unanimously.

Details at https://thefern.org/special-series/trouble-on-the-line/

Read the full story, a collaboration with The New Republic at https://thefern.org/2026/02/food-reform-was-always-democrats-territory-then-rfk-jr-and-maha-hijacked-it/

Story links here:
thefern.org/2025/02/a-de...

thefern.org/2025/12/insi...

@texasmonthly.bsky.social

And we are pleased to announce that both have won the 2025 Polk Award for magazine writing! The Polk is among the most prestigious awards for journalism, honoring investigative and enterprising reporting that commands attention and achieves results.

This story, “Inside the Deadliest Immigration-related Disaster in U.S. History,” was published in December 2025, and his previous reporting on this issue, “A Deadly Passage,” was published in February 2025.

Fifty-three passengers perished, including 26 Mexicans, 21 Guatemalans, and 6 Hondurans. The incident briefly captured international headlines, but Elliott's story—based on more than two years of reporting—is the first full account of that awful event and its wrenching aftermath.

The catastrophe that unfolded on June 27, 2022 would result in the deadliest immigration-related disaster in modern American history, explains Elliott Woods, in his investigative piece for FERN and Texas Monthly.

“Once upon a time, though, healthy food wasn’t a Republican talking point. In fact, “eat food”—the ‘real’ was implied—has long been a progressive message,” writes Jane Black. ⬇️

https://thefern.org/blog_posts/ferns-friday-feed-paging-michael-pollan/

The Polk is among the most prestigious awards for journalism, honoring investigative and enterprising reporting that commands attention and gets results. We’re honored to be a part of this powerful, deeply reported work. Congrats, Elliott!

thefern.org/blog_posts/e...

@texasmonthly.bsky.social

This week those stories, “A Deadly Passage” and “Inside the Deadliest Immigration-related Disaster in U.S. History,” both collaborations with Texas Monthly, won the Polk Award for magazine writing.

Elliott Woods, a longtime FERN contributor, spent nearly two and a half years reporting and writing two stories on the death of 53 migrant workers who suffocated in the back of a tractor-trailer in Texas, in 2022, as they were being smuggled into the U.S.

Our latest REAP/SOW episode, produced in partnership with Second Nature, explores how everyday habits and larger food systems shape food waste — and the solutions already underway. Watch the full episode on our FERNnews YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/ofw873zcQME

It's also available on our YouTube channel at FERNNews. Subscribe to all of FERN’s audio and video reporting. youtu.be/ofw873zcQME

In this episode, which comes to REAP/SOW courtesy of Second Nature, reporter Katelan Cunnigham talks to plastic-free, low-waste chef Anne-Marie Bonneau about how she limits food waste. Surprise: food delivery isn’t as bad as you thought when it comes to waste.
Listen: thefern.org/podcasts/rea...