• About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Meet our Donors
    • News
  • Issues
    • Safety
    • Opportunity
    • Reporting
    • Recognition
    • Equity
  • Programs
    • Reporting Fellowships
      • Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship
      • ¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ Reporting Initiative
      • Gender Justice Reporting Initiative
      • Global Health Reporting Initiative
      • Round Earth Media
    • Grants & Funds
      • Fund For Women Journalists
      • Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on MMIWG2T
      • Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism
      • Kim Wall Memorial Fund
      • Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund
      • Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the Americas
    • Physical & Digital Safety
      • Online Abuse and Harassment
      • Hostile Environment Training
      • Next Gen Safety Trainers
      • Women in Politics and Media
    • Mentorship & Professional Development
      • Gwen Ifill Mentorship Program
      • Fellowship Program for Afghan Women Journalists in Exile
    • Emergency Assistance
      • Emergency Fund for Women Journalists
      • Black Journalists Therapy Relief Fund
      • Alex Duval Smith Memorial Fund
    • Past Programs
  • Reporting
  • Community
  • Awards
    • Anja Niedringhaus Award
    • Courage in Journalism Award
    • Gwen Ifill Award
    • Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award
  • Resources
    • Self Care & Trauma
    • Research
    • Impact Reports
    • Webinars
  • Search
Search Donate
Reporting

A Moment On The Farm

May 29, 2020 | Valeria Fernández & Karen Coates | LatinoUSA

South Texas is known for commercial agriculture, with its vast fields of sugarcane, citrus, and vegetables. And most of that food goes far beyond the Rio Grande Valley. But one immigrant family from El Salvador is doing something different: Everything they grow stays near home.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a moment in which our broader food supply chains have been challenged—dairy farmers dumping unused milk, farmers plowing over produce, meatpacking plants closing, and grocery store shelves running empty.

In some communities, that means people are now turning to smaller, local farms for their produce. One of those farms is run by the Hernández family in Edinburg, Texas. Their farm, Nature’s Heartland has a mission to sustain its community with healthy pesticide-free produce, and has been a regular at local farmers’ markets for years.

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, 26-year-old daughter Civia Hernández has been working to adapt and bring the farm online, to survive in this new world. In this dispatch, Civia brings us on the ground to her family’s farm, which has become a place of peaceful sanctuary for her in these difficult times.

You can find the accompanying podcast here.

This story was produced with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation.

About the Authors

Valeria Fernández

Valeria Fernández is an independent investigative journalist focused on amplifying voices of immigrant communities. She recently received a Nieman Visiting Fellowship at Harvard University to develop Comadres al Aire. Her… Read More.


Karen Coates

Karen Coates is an independent journalist who reports primarily on issues involving the environment, science, food, health, and human rights. She is a contributing editor for Archaeology Magazine, and she… Read More.

Original Publication
LatinoUSA
Related Topics
Business
More From These Authors
Comadres al Aire – S2:E17 Los Senos
Maritza L. Félix, Valeria Fernández
Comadres al Aire – S2:E16 La Belleza
Maritza L. Félix, Valeria Fernández
Comadres al Aire – S2:E15 La Impostora
Maritza L. Félix, Valeria Fernández
The Migrant Student Club
Karen Coates, Valeria Fernández
Las manos jóvenes que nos dan de comer
Karen Coates, Valeria Fernández

Sign Up For Our Mailing List

Mission

We unleash the potential of women journalists as champions of press freedom to transform the global news media.

Address

1625 K Street NW, Suite 1275
Washington, DC 20006, USA

Contact Us

info@iwmf.org
(+1) 202-496-1992

Connect
Privacy Terms of Service

Copyright © 2023 International Women's Media Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Nonprofit Web Design by NMC.