Ezra David Romero
Ezra David Romero is an award-winning radio reporter and producer. His stories have run on Morning Edition, Morning Edition Saturday, Morning Edition Sunday, All Things Considered, Here & Now, The Salt, Latino USA, KQED, KALW, Harvest Public Radio, etc.
Romero worked with Valley Public Radio from 2012-2017. He landed at KVPR after interning with Al Jazeera English during the 2012 presidential election. His series ‘Voices of the Drought’ using the hashtag #droughtvoices has garnered over 1 million impressions on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. It's also resulted in two photography exhibits and a touring pop-up gallery traveling across California. Stories affiliated with #droughtvoices have run locally, statewide and on national air. In January he was awarded a Golden Mike Award from the Radio & Television News Association for Southern California for this series. He beat out some of the largest radio stations in the state.
In 2015 he was awarded a first place radio award by the Fresno County Farm Bureau for a piece on the nation’s first agricultural hackathon.
In early 2015, he was awarded two prestigious Golden Mike Awards through the RTNA of Southern California for a piece on budding tech in Central California and a story on Spanish theater. Valley Edition, the show Romero produces, was named for the best Public Affairs Program for 2013 by the RTNDA of Northern California.
He’s a graduate of California State University Fresno, where he studied journalism (digital media) and geography. He has worked for the Fresno Bee covering police, elections, government and higher education. In 2012 he was a Gruner Award finalist for his 13-part Sanger Herald series on obesity in Sanger, Calif.
In his spare time, Romero hikes the Sierra Nevada, takes road trips to the Pacific Coast and frequently visits ice cream shops.
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This year authorities uncovered a "beehive chop shop:" nearly $1 million in stolen hives in a field in Fresno County. There's money to be made by renting out bees to orchards, and thefts are rising. -
Americans ate 2 billion pounds of avocados last year; many came from Mexico. That's because avocados grow year-round in Mexico's climate, but not California's. Researchers are working to change that. -
Speeding cars have become the biggest threat for bears in Yosemite. But rangers hope tracking tools, like the website where the public can track bears, will help keep both humans and bears safe. -
The pioneers of organic farming are starting to retire. While some are passing on their farms to family to preserve their legacy, others are getting help finding like-minded strangers. -
Tree crops like pistachios, peaches and almonds need a certain amount of cold weather every year. But scientists say that California's climate may become too warm for them to grow there. -
Rural places can be difficult for LGBT people, and retiring there can sometimes mean going back into the closet. The problem is even true in states with strong legal protections such as California.
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The extended drought in California has farmers looking for ways to use less water. Among them, growing feed indoors using hydroponics. The new diet is making some Central Valley sheep very happy. -
Tomato plants grown in large scale outdoors are often selected for hardiness more than taste. What if you could boost disease resistance, flavor and yield? Researchers think they can — by grafting. -
A relatively new variety of almond tree called Independence has some beekeepers nervous. These trees are self-fertile — meaning they technically don't need bees to pollinate their flowers. -
Iran is historically known for its pistachios. With sanctions against Iran lifted, its growers are free to sell in the U.S. Iranian nuts haven't flooded the U.S. yet — but that could soon change.
