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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It's the latest Obama-era agriculture regulation to go on the chopping block. This one governs the treatment of animals on organic farms. But most organic farmers actually support the rule. -
For the first time, government statistics show America's pigs, cattle, and poultry are getting fewer antibiotic drugs. Public health advocates call the new figures encouraging. -
Dozens of countries have government-recommended diets. That advice differs from country to country, but according to a new study, following it generally would help the environment. -
For the first time in history, soybeans are about to become America's most widely grown crop. Yet compared to corn or wheat, they remain curiously invisible in American culture. -
Archaeologists say early civilizations in North and Central America were more egalitarian than the societies of Eurasia — and they think it's because early Americans didn't have cattle or horses. -
Scientists have found evidence of ancient winemaking in Georgia, a country which prides itself on its vino. It's the earliest trace of viniculture using wild grapes similar to those used today.
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The World Health Organization is calling for strict limits on antibiotic use in animals raised for food. The guidelines could push many countries, including the U.S., to restrict drug use on farms. -
Many organic tomatoes or peppers are grown in greenhouses, where they get nutrients from water. Critics say that violates the spirit of "organic." A bid to strip them of the label failed this week. -
Scientists are accusing the seed and pesticide giant of denying the risks of its latest weedkilling technology. Monsanto has responded by attacking some of those critics. -
![Brent Henderson harvests soybeans on his farm near Weona, Ark. "If it's going to be legal to use and neighbors are planting it, I'm going to have to plant [dicamba-tolerant soybeans] to protect myself," he says. "It's very annoying. ... My neighbor should not dictate what I do on my farm."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e4e2445/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1671+0+163/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2017%2F10%2F13%2Fimg_6034_custom-1ff1b0eaf37498b6767c34bd47a25ce954eeb9ad.jpg)
The EPA says farmers can still spray dicamba on their crops next year — with some new restrictions. The weedkiller has been blamed for drifting into fields, damaging millions of acres of crops.
![Brent Henderson harvests soybeans on his farm near Weona, Ark. "If it's going to be legal to use and neighbors are planting it, I'm going to have to plant [dicamba-tolerant soybeans] to protect myself," he says. "It's very annoying. ... My neighbor should not dictate what I do on my farm."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/06efcde/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1671+0+163/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2017%2F10%2F13%2Fimg_6034_custom-1ff1b0eaf37498b6767c34bd47a25ce954eeb9ad.jpg)