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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A new report from the National Academy of Sciences knocked down some pro-GMO claims, such as that they've boosted crop yields, and urged federal agencies to change the way these foods are regulated. -
As companies shun genetically modified ingredients, they're buying more sugar extracted from sugar cane rather than beets. Sugar beet farmers are thinking of going back to conventional beets. -
Economists are working on ways to put a price on the environmental damage of growing food. Take sugar: Half of what we eat comes from beets, half from cane. Each has an impact, in very different ways. -
NPR explores whether one version is better for the environment than the other.
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March is a pivotal time in the world of strawberries. Production shifts westward, to California. In Florida, thousands of men and women who pick strawberries are moving on to other work. -
Chipotle has scorned some mainstream farming practices, like GMOs and antibiotics. Now the fast-casual chain is taking hits over food safety, and past targets of its attacks are taking revenge.
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The majority of American egg producers, when they order new chicken houses, are choosing cage-free systems. That's a sea change driven by consumer demand for cage-free eggs. -
Some food companies, hoping to gain consumer trust, are disclosing more information about what is in their products, and how they were made. But how much will they be willing to reveal? -
As lawmakers revealed a spending bill to keep the government running, they also took the time to weigh in on school lunch, GM salmon, calorie postings on menus and meat labels.
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Outbreaks of foodborne illness are ruining the holiday spirit for Chipotle. The latest cases erupted over the past few days among students at Boston College.
