The Food & Environment Reporting Network, Inc., is an independent, non-profit news organization founded in 2010 that produces in-depth and investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health. FERN’s stories fall under the classic mandate of investigative “watchdog” reporting-to reveal corruption, abuse of power, and exploitation wherever it happens; to expose activities and subjects that the powerful work to keep hidden or which are simply overlooked by major media; and to give a voice to the voiceless. FERN has produced reports for television and radio; engages photojournalists for its projects and produces infographics. All of its reports are produced in collaboration with other media outlets, from mainstream mass market publications to smaller and more specialized media. Since its founding, the non-profit investigative news organization has won two James Beard journalism awards and a journalism award from IACP.

Samuel Fromartz is a Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Food & Environment Reporting Network. He is a veteran journalist who focuses on the intersection of the environment, food and agriculture. He began his career at Reuters news agency in the mid-1980s, working as a correspondent in Washington and as deputy editor for the Reuters Business Report in New York. Since leaving the news agency, his articles have appeared in Inc., Fortune, Business Week, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. He is the author of Organic Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew (Harcourt, 2006) about the evolution of the organic foods industry. His most recent book is In Search of the Perfect Loaf: A Home Baker’s Odyssey (Viking, 2014), a memoir that explores bakers, grains and bread. It won the Literary Food Writing award from the IACP in 2015 and was short-listed for the Art of Eating book prize that same year.