Food Stories

  • Farm Fresh

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    Work starts early on White Gate Farm in East Lyme, Connecticut, and on a recent fall morning it involved more than putting on gloves and preparing for a day of harvesting acres of vegetables.
    Woman opening box of vegetables
  • WWF's Julia Kurnik on working with communities to reform food systems

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    Learning about so many places was eye-opening, but my biggest takeaway was how broken our food system was for so many people.
    Julia Kurnik dressed as beekeeper, inspecting hive
  • Moving the farm indoors

    Indoor soilless farming aims to reduce many of the more harmful effects of conventional field farming, including decreasing pressures on land, biodiversity, natural habitat, and climate. We've invited some of the people leading the charge for indoor, soilless agriculture in St. Louis and beyond to share their thoughts on its significance.

    Plants growing indoors on racks
  • WWF works with the US Postal Service to bring food from farm to table

    Farmers Post uses the US Postal Service to make same-day or next-day delivery of orders of fresh-picked vegetables. The program can help eliminate food waste and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    A woman in a pink shirt smiles on a porch holding a box of vegetables to mail
  • Nearly 1.8 million acres of grassland destroyed in US and Canada in 2020

    October 24, 2022

    Nearly 1.8 million acres of grasslands were destroyed across the US and Canadian Great Plains in 2020 alone, according to WWF’s seventh-annual Plowprint Report. Each year, the report analyzes plow-up that occurred two years prior to the report's release.

    A single tree stands in a pool of water in a large dirt field
  • How the next Farm Bill can reduce food loss and waste across the US

    April 26, 2022

    By prioritizing food waste reduction and prevention alongside other interventions, the 2023 Farm Bill offers a critical opportunity for Congress to help us transition to a regenerative, equitable, and circular food system.

    An oasis for wildlife, Spin and Mindy's homestead perches atop rolling hills flanked by corn fields
  • What farmers found when they measured fresh produce left in the field

    March 15, 2022

    To target and help prevent food waste at the start of the supply chain, WWF supported seven growers and companies to assess the amount of food left behind in their fields and operations during the 2021 growing season.

    Man bending over in field of cabbages
  • The science of soil, the language of the land

    January 11, 2022

    Rice and rubber farmers in Thailand come together to produce organic fertilizer to replace chemical fertilizer. The results pay off in more ways than one.

    Close-up of a hand holding a pile of dirt
  • We’re losing 40% of the food we produce. Here’s how to stop food waste.

    August 19, 2021

    Today, 40% of food grown never gets eaten—1 billion more tonnes (1.1 billion tons) of food than previously estimated. The causes of food waste are complex in any region. Luckily, there are solutions.

    A man stands on the back of a blue tractor that's hauling harvested sugarcane
  • Agroecologist Alexa White connects the dots between biodiversity, food, and climate

    WWF Magazine: Fall 2021
    Growing up, Alexa White spent time in the backyard with her grandfather experimenting with different seeds to see what would grow. Today, she is an agroecologist with a passion for food security.
    Wild growth along a mountainside
  • Why seaweed farming matters in Maine

    April 22, 2021

    Fisher-farmers on the coast of Maine have recognized the opportunity seaweed offers. With much of their community reliant on a single industry—lobstering—and with climate change warming the waters of the Gulf of Maine faster than most other waters across the globe, seaweed farming offers an avenue for self-employed fishers to diversify their income, support the ecosystem on which they rely, and use equipment they already own.

    Matt Moretti on board ship harvests kelp off coast of Maine
  • How produce delivered by mail could help both people and nature

    February 24, 2021

    What if you could get fresh fruit and vegetables from local farmers delivered along with your mail? In a 2021 analysis, WWF looked at how the United States Postal Service—your daily mail carrier—could bridge the gap between farmers and food shoppers, in a proposed program we call Farmers Post.

    A woman with brown hair in a plaid shirt picks a cucumber growing in a greenhouse
  • Supercharge your soil with kitchen food scraps

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2021
    Composting may sound like hard, messy work. But done right, it can be a simple (and even tidy) way to benefit your garden and the planet.
    Illustration of apple tree with compost beneath
  • Eating for our planet

    October 09, 2020

    The way in which we produce and consume food is pushing our planet to the brink. Learn five changes that we can all make to our diets to help improve the health of our planet through our daily eating habits.

    A female farmer with a box of fresh vegetables walks along her field
  • Blazhka Dimitrova wants to inspire a zero-waste world

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2020
    In 2020, Dimitrova had transformed her catering company into Blagichka-Zero Waste, the first zero-waste restaurant in Bulgaria.
    Bulgaria restaurant window with hanging plants
  • Small steps to reduce food waste

    April 01, 2020

    Right now, reducing waste is ever more important and we can all look at how to do that in our own kitchens.

    a refrigerator shelf
  • Food security in an uncertain time

    As the world is facing a global health crisis, the foundations of our food system are also called into question, along with the interactions between people and the natural resources we all depend on.

    Picking tomatoes
  • Last Call for Food combats food waste and food insecurity

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2020
    What if there was a way to combat both food waste and food insecurity with a single solution? From this, Last Call was born.
    Erin McGeoy
  • 5 ways harmful fisheries subsidies impact coastal communities

    November 21, 2019

    Our planet’s health—and our own well-being—is dependent on a vibrant ocean rich with nature, like fish! While sustainable fishing can be an effective way to keep our oceans healthy, one big barrier is standing in the way: taxpayer-funded support for unsustainable fishing operations.

    Fishermen on artisanal fishing boats, out at sea, Tema, Ghana.
  • Food Waste Warriors

    In the spring of 2019, WWF, with support from The Kroger Co. Foundation and the US EPA, looked at post-service food waste in 46 schools in nine US cities across eight states. This is what they found.

    Food Waste Education Program by the World Wildlife Fund at Seaton Public Elementary School in Washington, DC, United States of America
  • The food-climate connection

    October 16, 2019

    It seems obvious, but sometimes we need a reminder. Food comes from nature. So everything we eat has an impact on the planet—from how it's grown, to how its packaged, to how it gets where it’s going, how it's cooked, and at the end of the meal, where it winds up (say, your tummy, the trash or a compost pile).

    Food at market
  • Milk's impact on the environment

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2019
    Today milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and other dairy products are ubiquitous, consumed by more than 6 billion people worldwide. WWF is working to limit its impact on the environment.
    Cow
  • A wake-up call on agriculture’s role in climate change

    August 08, 2019

    The connection between food and land use and global climate change is the subject of a special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body that assesses the science of climate change for the benefit of global policymakers. IPCC’s August 2019 report focuses especially on the impact of agriculture—with good reason.

    Iowa agricultural land.
  • July 4th and food waste: Some tips from our Founding Fathers

    George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson wrote passionately about the value of using food scraps and other waste items to fertilize soil. Here are a few tips to lower your food footprint during the summer holidays.

    Family at backyard cookout