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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Is food the oldest instrument of diplomacy? The U.S. State Department just sent award-winning chef Tim Byres to Kyrgyzstan, where he ate a sheep's eye and wowed his hosts with Texan spices.
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Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture say they cannot figure out how genetically modified wheat got into an Oregon field. Now GM wheat has been found growing in Montana, too. -
What does it take to get chickens off antibiotics? According to Perdue Farms, an added dose of the "good bacteria" known as probiotics can help crowd out the harmful microbes that make a chicken sick. -
For 25 years, DC Central Kitchen has been a place for the hungry to feed themselves and learn new skills. Now a bustling social enterprise, it's inspired similar programs across the nation.
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Nutella, launched 50 years ago, has turned into a global phenomenon, boosting demand for hazelnuts. Now producers are looking beyond Turkey's north coast, where most of these nuts are grown. -
More young people are trying their hand at farming, hoping to make a living out of it. But, as it turns out, passion and grit are just a few of the prerequisites for success.
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Global food prices are at a four-year low because of good harvests in the U.S., Europe and China. But food still costs more than it did in the 1990s, even accounting for inflation. -
Ever seen a pawpaw in the supermarket? Didn't think so. Chris Chmiel wants to change that by growing and promoting the mangolike fruit. He also helped organize the upcoming Ohio Pawpaw Festival.
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Perdue Farms, one of the country's largest suppliers of chicken meat, says its hatcheries are working better now without antibiotics. Public health advocates call it "a big step" forward. -
Oxfam is scoring the 10 biggest food companies on a scale of 1 to 10 on a host of issues, from worker rights to climate change. But will promises translate into concrete changes?
