We Need This

A new organization dedicated to food and environmental reporting. 

Let's face it, food, health and environmental issues are seriously under-reported in our current system of "news reporting." 

I mean, do you ever watch those "morning news" shows on the major networks?   Between celebrity gossip, advice on what to wear to office parties, and arranging weddings on-air, the closest thing you get to actual news reporting is when they briefly mention that a bunch of Republican talking heads debated in Iowa the previous night (but don't bother with you with informing you with what they actually said.)    

And, cable news is no better.   They'll tell you about the debate, and even show you video clips of what the debaters said before the commentators launch into their own tirades about it all means, and why candidate X is never going to win the nomination (and let's not forget Fox News extrapolating on endlessly as to why the Muppets are communists!!)



(I swear to god, you have to be seriously brain dead to take Fox News seriously.   What got me about this rant, was not just that they did it, but every time you thought the rant was finally ending, they brought out another "commentator.")

When you do get any food or health news in the "news" it's usually just some cursory report about some new study saying that peas are good for you (without bothering to tell you that the funding for the report came from the National Pea Producers' Association.).

So when I read about a start up which is going to do good-old-fashioned investigating reporting I immediately "liked" it on Facebook.  

Here's what they say their mission will be:

“Over the past four decades, coverage of food and agriculture has waned in the mainstream press at the same time as the impact of a more industrialized food system on public health has become increasingly severe,” said Ruth Reichl, editorial board member of the Food & Environment Reporting Network, Editorial Advisor to Gilt Taste, Editor-at-Large at Random House, and former Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet magazine. “Without detailed investigations into food and agriculture, our understanding of humanity’s impacts on the environment is incomplete and related policy changes ineffective.” 

I can't wait to see future reports.