Food journalism

Food journalism is a field of journalism that focuses on news and current events related to food, its production, and the cultures of producing and consuming that food. Typically, food journalism includes a scope broader than the work of food critics, who analyze restaurants and their products, and is similar to a sub-genre of "food writing", which documents the experience and history of food.

Food journalism often explores the impact of current events on food, such as how the Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry, or larger issues, such as impacts of climate change on food production. Increasingly, these themes overlap with public health journalism, political journalism, and economic journalism. Food journalism can inform the public about how public policy influences America's food system and the importance of immigrant labor in industry. Food journalism also covers topics such as the importance of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant workers' roles in society and expand on the cultural importance of truck drivers. This expands on themes traditional to food criticism, which has tended to focus on fine dining and other kinds of food writing, like cookbook writing. These themes are similar to the themes covered in agricultural journalism, which focuses on the agriculture industry for agricultural audiences.

The NYT Cooking provides relevant information about the history and cultural relevance of food recipes, allowing for the diffusion of cuisines from around the world, often different from one's own culture. Food journalism requires care and understanding through speaking to experts about the cuisines and conducting careful research about culture and diet. Cooking at-home recipes and sharing recipe advice and construction contribute to food sovereignty by enforcing less dependences on pre-packaged and commercial food.

Food journalism expands further by informing the public about news and current events related to food, by discussing the importance of food sovereignty. Food sovereignty refers to the control people have over the production and distribution of their food. It helps the public understand the food systems around them as well as influencing personal diet choices.