Dan Charles
Dan Charles is NPR's food and agriculture correspondent.
Primarily responsible for covering farming and the food industry, Charles focuses on the stories of culture, business, and the science behind what arrives on your dinner plate.
This is his second time working for NPR; from 1993 to 1999, Charles was a technology correspondent at NPR. He returned in 2011.
During his time away from NPR, Charles was an independent writer and radio producer and occasionally filled in at NPR on the Science and National desks, and at Weekend Edition. Over the course of his career Charles has reported on software engineers in India, fertilizer use in China, dengue fever in Peru, alternative medicine in Germany, and efforts to turn around a troubled school in Washington, DC.
In 2009-2010, he taught journalism in Ukraine through the Fulbright program. He has been guest researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a Knight Science Journalism fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
From 1990 to 1993, Charles was a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist, a major British science magazine.
The author of two books, Charles wrote Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, The Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (Ecco, 2005) and Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food (Perseus, 2001) about the making of genetically engineered crops.
Charles graduated magna cum laude from American University with a degree in economics and international affairs. After graduation Charles spent a year studying in Bonn, which was then part of West Germany, through the German Academic Exchange Service.
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Bayer, the maker of Aspirin and other pharmaceuticals and chemicals, is buying Monsanto in a deal valued at $66 billion. If approved, it would make one of the world's biggest agri-chemical companies.
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According to a new study, the nation's first soda tax succeeded in cutting consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. But there's uncertainty about whether the effect will be permanent. -
A new type of genetically engineered crop is tempting farmers to use a weedkiller illegally. The illicit chemical use has damaged nearby crops and provoked conflict among neighbors. -
The proposal will require food companies to disclose their GMO ingredients, but that information doesn't have to be on the packaging. It's a compromise, and neither side is all that enthused. -
Many farm workers call blueberries their favorite crop to pick. It pays well and the work is comfortable. But there's a catch: It's a short season, and workers and their families have to keep moving. -
The bill requires food companies to reveal whether their products contain GMOs. But those companies are pleased, because they won't have to print "GMO" on food packages. -
Perdue Farms, one of the largest poultry companies in the country, says it will change its slaughter methods and also some of its poultry houses. Animal welfare groups are cheering. -
Canada, despite its cold weather, ships more fresh tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to the U.S. than we send the other way. How? With the continent's largest cluster of greenhouses. -
The Food and Drug Administration has brushed aside industry objections and will require food labels to disclose how much sugar has been added to packaged food. -
The German-based company Bayer wants to buy Monsanto. It would be the latest in a wave of consolidation among companies that sell seeds and pesticides to farmers.
