Click here for “In North Carolina, pandemic prompts farmer cooperation,” Food and Environment Reporting Network, March 2020.
The Hidden Resilience of “Food Desert” Neighborhoods
Anthropologists and other scholars are delving into the plight of urban communities where people struggle to meet their nutritional needs. In the process, these researchers are discovering the power, and limits, of self-reliance. Originally published in Sapiens and reprinted in Civil Eats. EVEN BEFORE ASHANTÉ REESE AND I REACH THE FRONT GATE, retired schoolteacher Alice […]
The Uncounted
On India’s coast, a power plant backed by the World Bank Group threatens a way of life. This was originally published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and HuffPost. It was part of a larger series called “Evicted & Abandoned,” about how the World Bank broke its promise to protect the poor. Photos by […]
Coverage of the World Bank Group in Gujarat, India
Click here for “The Uncounted,” part of the Evicted & Abanadoned series, HuffPost and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, May 2015. Click here for a follow-up (with a shared byline), “World Bank Fails To Stop Attacks, Arrests Of Villagers Protesting Big Projects,”HuffPost and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, September 2015. Click here for another follow-up, “Is the World […]
Wealth for Everyone
Immigrants in Durham, N.C. had become easy targets for robbers. The community’s response: start its own wildly successful credit union. Originally published by One Nation Indivisible. NOT LONG AFTER HE ARRIVED in Durham, North Carolina in 1996, Marcelino Varela learned a lesson that would prove valuable in his adopted city: Always be ready to sprint. He […]
The Organic Food Paradox
As consumers increasingly demand organic produce, and as massive industrial farms rise to meet their needs, will it spell the end of the family-run, lovingly tended, earth-friendly farm? Originally published in The Saturday Evening Post. THE TERRAIN SWOOPS AND RISES AS I DRIVE up North Carolina Route 86 toward the rural crossroads of Cedar Grove. […]
Charter Boat Captain to GCCF: “I’m Not Settling”
The Gulf Coast Claims Facility has predicted that most businesses will recover from the BP oil spill by the end of 2012. Like many others, Bryce Michel isn’t so sure. Business at his company, Topwater Charters in Cocodrie, Louisiana, is down 50 percent this year. Michel worries it may never fully recuperate. Told entirely in […]
The High Price of For-Profit Colleges
The media and policy makers are taking notice of the low graduation rates, high debt loads, and deceptive recruiting practices at many for-profit colleges. Originally published in Academe. AFTER JOSHUA PRUYN EARNED HIS UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE, he looked for a job as a college admissions officer. “I was captain of my hockey team, so I had […]
School of Hard Knocks
Record numbers of women are enrolling in for-profit career colleges, hoping for better lives and high-paying jobs. Instead, too many are ending up with useless diplomas and staggering debt. Originally published in Good Housekeeping. AFTER HER DIVORCE FIVE YEARS AGO, Yasmine Issa realized she could no longer afford to be a stay-at-home mom. She’d taken two […]
Work Plan
Maytag’s departure left a small Iowa town’s economy reeling. Today, however, workers are building wind machines instead of washing machines, and validating studies about the enormous potential of green-collar jobs. Originally published in Audubon. AT THE EDGE OF A CORNFIELD, inside a sprawling, low-slung brown building, a Midwestern town’s dying economy is humming back to life. Newton, […]
