Civil Eats is known for reporting on the food and agriculture stories that other news sources miss, while digging deep on the issues our readers care about most. We have a lot to celebrate this year, and your support has made it possible. Here are a few highlights from 2022:

New Investigations. We launched a new investigative desk, which has produced some outstanding work to date. So far, we have published stories related to toxic waste and mining in farm communities, investment markets for Colorado River water, union-busting by Kimbal Musk’s vertical gardening company, the PFAS contamination spread by pesticides, and more. We just launched Injured and Invisible, a five-part investigation that deeply reports on an often unprotected, unseen workforce. The response to the series has been overwhelmingly positive, and the stories have been shared hundreds of times since we began publishing.

Awards. Civil Eats received the digital media award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals for best newsletter for our monthly members’ content The Deep Dish. In addition, Senior Editor Twilight Greenaway won an SPJ NorCal Honors 2022 Excellence in Journalism Award for her op-ed “The Flood of Climate Disasters Has the Food System Reeling. It’s Time to Act.” This story about race and gender at craft breweries won best commentary from the North American Guild of Beer Writers. Two stories from former Senior Reporter Nadra Nittle were finalists in the L.A. Press Club Southern California Journalism Awards: this story on Pine Ridge and this story on prison food. Finally, contributor Gabe Pietrorazio’s story on the Seneca Nation won honorable mention in the 2022 North American Agricultural Journalists writing contest for features.

This work can’t survive without your support. If you value our critical, award-winning reporting, please donate to Civil Eats on Giving Tuesday.

Your donation will go twice as far as Civil Eats is once again participating in NewsMatch, a national call to action to support journalism that strengthens democracy from the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN). Through December 31, 2022, NewsMatch will double every individual donation up to $1,000 (including memberships).

We aim to not just ask the hard questions, but also to report on the positive changes being made in the American food system. Our core mission has remained the same over the last 13 years: We aim to tell the stories behind our food with an eye toward exposing those in power and lifting up voices that would otherwise go unheard. With your support, Civil Eats can dig deeper, grow its audience, and continue to tell the stories behind our food.

We’re on track to publish more than 250 thought-provoking and breaking news articles about the food system by the end of this year. Below we list 22 of our best solutions stories, in chronological order and chosen to showcase the breadth and depth of our reporting. Thank you all from the entire Civil Eats team!

Can Small Seaweed Farms Help Kelp Scale Up?
While some farms plan to grow massive quantities of kelp, Atlantic Sea Farms is counting on Maine’s small-scale fishermen to expand the industry and distribute ownership.

A Regenerative Grazing Revolution Is Taking Root in the Mid-Atlantic
Farmers are scaling up the practice in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and beyond—and it could simultaneously help clean up the Chesapeake Bay, mitigate climate change, and save small family farms.

In the Battle Over the Right to Repair, Open-Source Tractors Offer an Alternative
Proponents say an open-source farm equipment ecosystem is key to a future of more innovative, repairable, and environmentally adapted tools.

As Dollar Stores Proliferate, Some Communities Push Back
Dollar store parent companies say they’re feeding people in ‘food deserts,’ but critics say they’re making food inequity worse. Now, 25 municipalities have some form of moratorium on new stores.