Ten Features to Revisit This Holiday Season

As we look back and reflect on the year that was, we here at Modern Farmer want to take this opportunity to highlight a few of our favorite features and long-read stories. These stories include personal essays and reported articles; they are pensive and exploratory, at times funny or sweet. They are also stories that you shared and commented on, helping to propel the conversation around these topics forward even further. 

We hope you can revisit some of our favorite features of the year, and catch up on the stories you missed.

What’s In a (Food) Name?

From oat milk to vegan burgers, plant-based dairy and meat products are gaining traction—and sparking debate over their names. But are consumers actually confused about what they’re buying?

The Legacy of Campbell Soup’s Tomato Breeding Program

How the canned food company helped the Garden State become synonymous with luscious red tomatoes.

A Meditation on Slaughter

What raising and harvesting chickens taught me about killing in the service of living.

Yes, the Government Really Does Stash Billions of Pounds of Cheese in Missouri Caves

The USDA has kept cheese and other dairy products in cold-storage caves for decades. But their purpose has shifted over the years.

In U.S. Prisons, Seeds Are Prized Contraband for Prisoners Looking to Grow Their Own Food

With food inside prisons often dreary and repetitive, some incarcerated people are taking their diets into their own hands.

Could Edible Cactus Be the Next Big Specialty Crop?

Often treated as a weed, prickly pear cactus has a ton of potential. But first, producers need to create a market for the versatile crop in the US.\

Turn Your Backyard Into a Snack Yard With Edible Landscapes

Landscapers are making private and public spaces more useful and planting edible alternatives to traditional plants.

Keeping Chickens Taught Me How to Give a Cluck

Our family’s backyard chickens, acquired in the early days of the pandemic, have shown me how to slow down and rethink my moral principles.

Can Dryland Farming Help Growers Endure Increasing Heatwaves and Drought?

Indigenous practitioners around the world have farmed with only rainwater for millennia. But it’s unclear whether conventional agriculture, which relies heavily on irrigation, will learn any of their lessons.

In Awe of the Pawpaw

Meet the bartender-botanist committed to reviving this humble native fruit.