Civil Eats

For Climate Week, we’ve refreshed our Crash Course: Climate Solutions in Food & Farming, an email-based course that will explore how climate change is impacting the food system, and some of the solutions that can address those impacts. Sign up today! ➡️ buff.ly/GEDhTcO

As the midterms approach, the Trump administration’s push to detain and deport as many immigrants as possible, supercharged by hundreds of billions of new dollars, is hitting the food system and worker communities hard. @lisaelaineh.bsky.social reports. ⬇️

Ecologist Jonathan Lundgren launched the 1,000 Farms Initiative to compare regenerative and conventional farming. In a Q&A with Civil Eats, Lundgren discusses the project’s findings and what they mean for the future of farming on a warming planet.

A long-awaited proposal is a positive step forward, but could also push food assistant costs to states already facing new budgetary challenges due to the One Big Beautiful Bill.

According to a study published by ecologist Jonathan Lundgren, advanced regenerative farms stored nearly 40% more carbon in their soils compared to the conventional farm controls between 2022 and 2023. Senior Staff Reporter @lisaelaineh.bsky.social sat down with Lundgren to discuss the findings. ⬇️

In Chicago, Historic Hull House Shares Lessons on Urban Farming

Aly Nazarok, a housing counselor in West Virginia, says she regularly suggests food pantries, but since the government shutdown, the pantries have been struggling to keep their shelves stocked. "We still haven't fully recovered from that."

Farmers Tim and Rebecca Cooper strive to feed people who may otherwise struggle to eat well. But it hasn’t been easy. Like many people Civil Eats spoke to ahead of the midterm elections, some Trump administration policies have made it harder for them to succeed.

West Virginia has been quick to adopt many MAHA policies, but is it getting easier for residents to eat healthy? Ahead of the midterm election, the Civil Eats news team traveled across the state to find out. ➡️ buff.ly/ShZLunR

Since Republicans in Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill last July, 14,000 fewer West Virginians, including 4,000 children, are now on SNAP. “That number doesn’t share the need. That number shares the amount of people who now are unable to access that resource."

While MAHA leaders at the national level celebrate the action on SNAP and food dyes as a win, some West Virginians say they view the MAHA action as more rhetoric, leaving pressing issues—like aging infrastructure, lack of jobs, food insecurity, and water safety—unresolved.

Calley Means, a driving force behind the Trump administration’s nutrition efforts, resigned from the administration days ahead of midterm elections.

West Virginian farmers Tim and Rebecca Cooper have persisted in their efforts to feed their community despite recent cuts to federally funded programs. The state Department of Agriculture says farmers alike are being heavily impacted by the lack of funding.

With the midterm election day coming up, we asked how food and agriculture policy shifts are impacting West Virginian voters. “The fact that we have to call our politicians' attention to a crisis that [they] helped manufacture, I have an issue with that."

Calley Means, a key ally to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a vocal figure in the Make America Healthy Again movement, has resigned from his role in the Trump administration.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a proposed rule on Wednesday aimed at protecting recipients of federal food assistance from benefit theft, but without federal funds it could push more costs to states at an already precarious time.

The Trump administration has called recent drops in nationwide federal food assistance enrollment good news. Food access advocates and hungry recipients disagree. Read more from our series that examines how these issues, critical to the midterm elections, are playing out in West Virginia. ⬇️

West Virginia was an early adopter of the Make America Healthy Again movement, but those on the ground are disappointed and say food and clean water access is more pressing. Read more from our series that examines how these issues, critical to the midterm elections, are playing out in the state. ⬇️

The “Perennial City: Experiments in Urban Gardening” exhibit at the Hull House Museum at the University of Illinois Chicago asks a question that is proving especially relevant today: “What does it mean to cultivate a city rooted in care and access to land?”

After scrambling to replace lost federal dollars, West Virginia farmers Tim and Rebecca Cooper now face high input costs as they strive to support their community. “We're blessed to be a blessing to people. Until the Lord shows me otherwise, this is exactly what we're going to do.”

What can today’s urban growers learn from the once-lost history of the immigrant farmers of the Hull House era? “It changed people’s ideas of what the city should look like,” says @nateela.bsky.social, author and Temple University political science and law professor.

During a Republican campaign rally in Kansas last night, President Donald Trump announced an $8 billion diesel fuel program that will provide direct payments to farmers.

"'The Unsettling of America' is still completely relevant. It not only talks about problems, it talks about the history of what got us to this." Read the Q&A with Mary Berry, daughter of author Wendell Berry and executive director of the Berry Center. ⬇️

While the story of the Hull House-brokered farms was lost to history for most of the last century, it is currently the focus of “Perennial City: Experiments in Urban Gardening” exhibit at the Hull House Museum at the University of Illinois Chicago, which runs through December 20, 2026.

“It’s easy to feel as though local farming is doomed. However, there is reason to hope–and that hope can be found in conservation,” writes The Conservation Fund’s Kelly Larsen in an op-ed.

In the Right to Repair Revolt, Nebraska Leads With Farm-Data Ownership Law

According to a new analysis, ground beef prices at the grocery store have only come down by 2%, but prices paid to beef producers decreased more than 12%.

“What is important to me is that for those of us who care about the land and the people of rural America, that we begin to be able to articulate a vision of what we’re for, not just what we’re against,” says Mary Berry, daughter of the late Wendell Berry and executive director of The Berry Center.

"In growing cities like Chicago, questions remain as to how we balance the needs of economic development with the needs of conservation,” writes The Conservation Fund’s Kelly Larsen in an op-ed. "This implies that the two are in direct opposition to each other, when often they are not.”

“The law is finally catching up with the technology ag producers are using." The Nebraska Agricultural Data Privacy Act passed unanimously in April and took effect in July. Similar proposals emerging across the country reflect a wider fight about who controls and profits from agricultural data.

In a Q&A with Civil Eats, Mary Berry, the daughter of the late author and farmer Wendell Berry and executive director of The Berry Center, says that despite the challenges, she’s not pessimistic about the future of farming. “Hope comes pretty easily to me.”

"When we conserve farmland, we’re conserving economic opportunities for farmers and supporting local food systems that help communities thrive,” writes The Conservation Fund’s Kelly Larsen in an op-ed.

One month after President Donald Trump announced the country would import more ground beef to lower consumer costs, grocery store prices have only come down by 2%, while some beef producers are being paid 12% less, according to a new analysis.

Nebraska enacted the first U.S. law to establish data ownership rights for farmers, which took effect in July. Similar proposals emerging across the country reflect a broader fight about who controls and profits from agricultural data.

"Land conservation exists to meet the needs of people. In the face of a farming crisis, we must invest in work that supports farmers, addresses food insecurity, and ensures a future for local farming,” writes The Conservation Fund’s Kelly Larsen in an op-ed.

For decades, Willapa Bay kept native shrimp in check with pesticides that are now banned. New solutions have been hard to come by.

How Trump’s Canada Tariffs Hit a Sole Washington Grocer

Activist Robin Greenfield shares how (and why) he spent the past year living off the land.

The USDA says the $180 million in agricultural seed research will bolster seed sovereignty and food security, but advocates say it doesn’t adequately address corporate control of seeds.

What Happens When Farmers Help Neighbors Dine Together?

For decades, Willapa Bay kept ghost shrimp in check with pesticides that were banned in 2013. Since then, the state of Washington, the oyster industry, and scientists have tried multiple tactics to manage the native shrimp population, but solutions have been hard to come by.

In a Q&A with Civil Eats, activist Robin Greenfield shares how (and why) he spent the past year living off the land. “This is a way of seeing if it’s possible to live outside of this broken system, and provide for ourselves in a way that is harmonious with the Earth and beneficial to ecosystems.”

Willapa Bay is responsible for 10% to 20% of all U.S. oysters. But these numbers don’t come easy. For as long as oysters have been farmed in Willapa Bay, farmers have been wrestling with ghost shrimp, a species native to the West Coast.

“This is a way of seeing if it’s possible to live outside of this broken system." We spoke with author and activist Robin Greenfield about his project of foraging 100% of the food and medicine he consumes for one year, without buying or growing anything.

The Perilla People’s Garden at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art features more than a dozen perilla varieties and aims to bring people together to probe the deeper questions about colonization and the movement of people and plants. 🌿➡️ buff.ly/wEkLpBf

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont funded more than two dozen Long-Handled Spoon Dinners earlier this year. These meals bring together farmers and their neighbors, with the goal of decreasing isolation and building community around local and organic food.

Activist and author Robin Greenfield is wrapping up a yearlong project of foraging 100% of the food and medicine he consumes, without buying or growing anything. We spoke with Greenfield to learn what it’s like to forage this way and how it can reduce food insecurity.