an overflowing trash can

Food Waste: A Persistent Problem

Even when people think wasting food is bad, they tend to toss out as much (or more) food than they eat. Can that behavior be changed?
Uber Eats delivery people

COVID-19 and Justice for Food Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic put food workers in danger of contracting infections, with few, if any, consequences for the industries' failures to protect them.
A cafeteria in Reeves County Detention Complex, Pecos, Texas

The Surprising Answer to Who Eats Kosher in Prison

24,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. eat kosher meals. Even some neonazis. Why?
A bodega in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx

A Food Desert in an Urban Neighborhood

Food deserts have complex causes, and require multiple solutions.
Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities

Deforestation in areas where residents hunt and gather food can lead to malnutrition, food insecurity, and greater forest loss.
Illustration of Cassava

Plant of the Month: Cassava

Cassava can grow in hot climates with little rainfall. It may be the "root crop of the century."
Pavlova cake on a white background

Food and Culture

Food is complicated. That creation you love from The Great British Baking Show? It's been the subject of arguments over culture, identity, and copyright.
Garlic Mustard

Plant of the Month: Garlic Mustard

As garlic mustard naturalized in North America, it became a popular plant to forage for impoverished and rural communities.
Astronaut Loren J. Shriver, Mission Commander of STS-46, attempts to eat floating sweets on the flight deck of the shuttle Atlantis during its orbit of the earth, August 1992.

Food…in…Space!

A brief history of astronaut food, from nutrition cubes to space salads.
Painting of a woman's hand holding a pomegranate

The Paradoxical Pomegranate

Aphrodisiac and contraceptive, enflaming and cooling, the pomegranate was a balancing act, mediating between opposing states.