In Detroit, the grocery landscape is a story of struggle. In 2020, the number of Detroit residents identifying as food insecure reached 69 percent. This was further exacerbated by the decline in the number of grocery stores—from 74 in 2017 to just 64 by 2021. None of the remaining grocery stores, in a city where more than three-quarters of the population...

“My concern is that climate change is impacting agriculture and could well disrupt supply chains,” wrote Modern Farmer reader Taera Shuldberg. Shuldberg’s town of Sierra Vista, Arizona is working on a 10-year city plan—but Shuldberg had read the drafted plan and found it lacking. “I was surprised and dismayed to find that climate change was barely...

In 2014, during a short stay on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, walking along a dirt road, I came across a poster for an upcoming event stapled to a telephone pole. It read of a “cacao ceremony” that same weekend. Being a card-carrying member of the ceremonially starved and ceremonially hungry, I immediately signed up. Alongside some 30 other,...

Ismail Samad is no stranger to hospitality. The East Cleveland, Ohio, native began his first foray into restaurant co-ownership at the age of 23, and in 20 years, he has worked his way through ground-breaking restaurant openings and community programs. Working at the intersection of food and community crystallized a realization for Samad: Black and...

Mercy for Animals president and CEO Leah Garcés has been an animal rights advocate fighting the factory farming system for more than two decades. But her approach to advocacy changed the day she met Craig Watts. Watts, a former contract poultry farmer, represented everything Garcés was against.  What she didn’t realize was that he was also against...

This excerpt has been edited for length. Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us From Factory Farming, is available for purchase now. In the spring of 2014, I found myself sitting across from a man who was by every definition my enemy. His name was Craig Watts and he was a chicken factory farmer, raising chickens for slaughter. My career is devoted...