Cultivating crops led to permanent settlements, but also greed and exploitation. Was it all worth it?
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American Green
How did the plain green lawn become the central landscaping feature in America, and what is the ecological cost?
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Rahawa Haile; Hannah Dreier; Rukmini Callimachi; Mary Anne Mohanraj, Keah Brown, S. Bear Bergman, Matthew Salesses, and Kiese Laymon; and Molly Fitzpatrick.
“Beef and cheese are the most important ingredients… But really, cheese.”
Who’s moving America’s (1.3 billion pounds of) cheese? The Dairy Management Institute
The Unexpected Reemergence of an Elusive Strain of Rice
Hill rice was supposed to be extinct, until a South Carolina chef stumbled on it — in Trinidad.
Orwell’s Last Neighborhood
While envisioning the darkest of futures and grappling with mortality, the English writer retreated to an idyllic Scottish isle to write Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Deporting Billions of Tax Dollars, Farm Work, Good People, and Affordable Food Right Out of America
TheHudson Valley offers a glimpse of the ways deportations will effect America’s farm economy and food system.
These Law Enforcement Officers Wield Handguns and Vet Supplies
Nevada’s “cow cops” work a unique beat where crimes range from cattle rustling, bovine homicide, and animal abuse.
Following John McPhee’s Path to ‘Oranges’
Fifty years after he published Oranges, one writer traces McPhee’s story to Florida to assess the state of American citrus.
The Case Against Civilization
Hunter-gatherers seems so primitive to modern human beings, especially as we read about them on our smart phones while waiting for the subway and eating a microwaved breakfast sandwich. But what if agriculture gave us more problems than progress?

