Exploring the challenge of keeping ourselves fed at a time of rapid social and environmental change.
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Serene Fang, Susanne Rust
Food for 9 Billion
California Looks to Milk China’s Dairy Demand
Serene Fang, Susanne Rust
Food for 9 Billion
California Looks to Milk China’s Dairy Demand
As U.S. demand falls, California dairies are finding new markets in China. That may make sense for the industry, at least for now. But what about the planet?
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Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Farmers in India Find Promise in Ancient Seeds
Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Farmers in India Find Promise in Ancient Seeds
In India, climate change is forcing farmers to adapt to saltwater intrusion, flooding, and droughts. Scientists are racing to breed a new generation of climate-resilient crops that can survive these changes. But many farmers are turning to the seeds that sustained their ancestors.
Researcher Debal Deb has been collecting traditional seed varieties and testing them with farmers in northeastern India. He says some of the ancient rice plants will survive in 12 feet of water for up to three months. Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute and elsewhere are trying to breed traits like this into modern, high-yielding varieties. Photo by Sam Eaton. When a cyclone hits India, the sea-drenched soil can remain salty for years. You can see the evidence in the Ganges River delta, packed with more than 4 million people, four years after Cyclone Aila hit the region.
Farmers are finding that new high-yielding rice varieties are not withstanding the salty onslaught. Vegetables are also nearly impossible to grow.
The problem is expected to get worse as climate change brings higher sea levels, stronger storms, and more frequent droughts.
Scientists are racing to breed a new generation of climate-resilient crops that can survive these changes. But many farmers are turning to the seeds that sustained their ancestors.
This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Producer, Reporter, Camera: Sam Eaton
Editor: Linda Peckham
Additional Editing: Adithya Sambamurthy
Transcription: Karishma Suri
Archival Footage: Oxfam International
Thanks to: Soma Saha, WWF-India Sundarbans Program
Senior Producer: Stephen Talbot
Executive Producer: Sharon Tiller -
Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
In Search for Food, Singapore Looks Skyward
Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
In Search for Food, Singapore Looks Skyward
In Singapore, the challenge of feeding a growing population is pushing the concept of urban farming to new heights.
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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Could Agriculture Bloom in the Desert?
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Could Agriculture Bloom in the Desert?
Petroleum-rich Qatar has welcomed innovators seeking solutions to the challenges facing desert areas worldwide, from renewable energy to fresh water to food production.
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Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Costa Rica Farmers See Value in Biodiversity
Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Costa Rica Farmers See Value in Biodiversity
Scientists in Costa Rica are finding that biodiversity on and around farms can increase yields, lower input needs, and provide protection against environmental stresses.
Gretchen Daily (right) of Stanford University’s Center for Conservation Biology tags a bird caught in a drift net. Daily and her colleagues have been studying the contribution of birds to pest control on Costa Rican farms. Photo by Sam Eaton. Scientists in Costa Rica are finding that biodiversity on and around farms can increase yields, lower input needs, and provide protection against environmental stresses.
This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Producer, Reporter, Camera: Sam Eaton
Co-Producer: Cassandra Herrman
Editor: Linda Peckham
Additional Editing: Adithya Sambamurthy
Translation: Ambar Espinoza
Transcription: Karishma Suri
Senior Producer: Stephen Talbot
Executive Producer: Sharon Tiller -
Mary Kay Magistad
Food for 9 Billion
China Strains to Satisfy Demand for Meat
Mary Kay Magistad
Food for 9 Billion
China Strains to Satisfy Demand for Meat
China’s growing appetite for meat and dairy is driving big changes in everything from farming to food safety. For the country’s increasingly wary consumers, those changes can’t happen quickly enough.
Over the past three decades in China, meat consumption per capita has quadrupled. This rapid change in diets has paralleled the massive migration from the countryside to the cities. City dwellers eat twice as much meat on average as those back in the villages.
This has put a strain on the country’s land and water resources. Agricultural runoff, mostly manure from large-scale farms, is causing water pollution within the country. Because of water shortages, China imports 70 percent of its soybeans and increasing amounts of its corn from the United States, Brazil, and Argentina to feed its cows and pigs.
Toxic blue-green algae blooms populate Anhui province’s Chao Lake. Photo by Cassandra Herrman. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set up an office in Beijing to help train hundreds of Chinese companies, government inspectors and officials in food safety.
But some say the Chinese government is relying too heavily on inspections and needs to focus more on prevention.
Chinese fed up with waiting for government action have started to find other ways to access safer food – like buying imported, processed, or organic food.
With the increasing calls for more safe, affordable and environmentally friendly food, China’s leaders will need to show creativity and balance to meet those needs.
This video was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Reporter: Mary Kay Magistad
Producer: Cassandra Herrman
Camera: Serene Fang
Editor: Stephanie Mechura
Field Translation: Yufan Zhang
Additional Translation: Ah Ping
Series producer: Cassandra Herrman
Executive producer: Sharon Tiller -
Fred de Sam Lazaro
Food for 9 Billion
Re-Greening the Sahel
Fred de Sam Lazaro
Food for 9 Billion
Re-Greening the Sahel
In Niger, farmers race to reclaim the desert and break the link between drought and famine.
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Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Graying Farmers Force Japan to Rethink Food System
Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Graying Farmers Force Japan to Rethink Food System
As the average age of its farmers creeps into the 70s, Japan grapples with a question that many industrialized nations now face: Who will grow our food in the future?
A farmer in Japan prunes his fruit trees. Photo by Sam Eaton. The average age of a farmer in Japan is roughly 70 years old. That’s not a problem in its own right. Unfortunately, though, few younger people are showing an interest in taking over. And that is forcing officials, and the farmers themselves, to make some tough decisions.
This video was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Reporter/producer: Sam Eaton
Camera: Sam Eaton and Irene Herrera
Editor: Charlotte Buchen
Local fixer: Winifred Bird
Additional field translation: Toru Seno, Yuko Ota, Lindee Hoshikawa
Series producer: Cassandra Herrman
Executive producer: Sharon Tiller -
Cassandra Herrman, Beth Hoffman
Food for 9 Billion
In Ethiopia, a Battle for Land and Water
Cassandra Herrman, Beth Hoffman
Food for 9 Billion
In Ethiopia, a Battle for Land and Water
A controversial resettlement program in Ethiopia is the latest battleground in the global race to secure prized farmland and water.
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Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Turning the Population Tide
Sam Eaton
Food for 9 Billion
Turning the Population Tide
When Filipino fishing families got access to birth control, the effects were dramatic: more food, kids in school, and a new will to defend their reefs.
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Sandy Tolan
Food for 9 Billion
In Egypt, Food for a Revolution
Sandy Tolan
Food for 9 Billion
In Egypt, Food for a Revolution
Egyptians used to grow nearly all their own food. Today, the country relies on imports. The people on the street aren’t happy.