Teresa Cotsirilos

Laura Beth Resnick was delivering snapdragons and anemones to clients near the White House when she got the news: In his first wave of executive orders, President Donald Trump had frozen all projects…

FERN editor-in-chief Theodore Ross talks to Genoways about his new book, Tequila Wars, which is an extraordinary exploration of the little-known – and often bloody history – of Jose Cuervo.

Americans increasingly rely on processed food products as key parts of their everyday meals, even as scientists are just starting to scratch the surface in understanding how these food products…

Forked is an insider’s look at the politics and policy turning the American food system upside down. Hosts Theodore Ross (FERN) and Helena Bottemiller Evich (Food Fix) round up current events on food…

Taped live during the Buzzkill celebration in New York City on March 3, 2025, this is an engaging conversation on urban pollinators moderated by Sewell Chan, executive editor of the Columbia…

The Golden State’s annual almond harvest shows what happens when biodiversity collapses and bees become a commodity valuable enough to steal. EPISODE 6 TRANSCRIPT Teresa Cotsirilos: Hey…

Nearly all tequila is made from cloned plants that are vulnerable to species collapse. In Mexico, a small group of people is trying to change that – and protect an endangered, nectar-slurping…

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…

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. EPISODE 2 TRANSCRIPT Teresa Cotsirilos: Hey, you’…

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…

The U.S. food system is propped up by low-wage immigrant workers from farm to table. From California’s strawberry fields to Florida’s orange orchards, at least 70 percent of the agricultural workers…

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…

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…

When Noah Williams was about a year old, his parents took him on a fateful drive through the endless desert sagebrush of the Owens Valley—which the Nüümü call Payahuunadü—in California’s Eastern…

Independent. Investigative. Non-profit.

Independent. Investigative. Non-profit.

Independent. Investigative. Non-profit.

Independent. Investigative. Non-profit.

Back Forty will bring you periodic reviews, interviews, and reporter insights about the stories they wrote. We hope you enjoy it as a companion to our content on TheFERN.org and our Ag Insider policy…

Listen to this story on The California Report The Food and Environment Reporting Network · Facing the floodwaters in California’s San Joaquin Valley Allensworth, a farmworker town of about 500 people…