Supported projects

BRAKEN - The Belgian town of Braken, on the Dutch border, is home to 1.2 million chickens. They divide the town: residents are tired of the smell, the fine dust and the heavy traffic in their village. To objectify the discussion, the local government ordered an air quality study.

LODWAR - In northern Kenya, drought caused by climate change brought also a surge in cash transfers to farmers. Millions have been invested, but locals claim they haven't received the promised financial support. The auditor general in Kenya claims billions of shillings are being lost at the ...

BOURBON-LANCY - On the 1st of August Tom Ysewijn leaves Ghent with his bicycle to Lisbon. His route runs along the "outlying areas", places in the countryside in France, Spain and Portugal that are becoming more and more depopulated. During this tour, which can be followed via MO*, he goes in search ...

MANOKWARI - This investigation examines a $22 million 'consultancy fee' paid by one of the world's largest palm oil conglomerates, the Korindo Group, to acquire of a shell company that held permits to establish an oil palm plantation in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua.

AMSTERDAM, NAIROBI - Dutch flower growers in Kenya avoid corporate taxation, using transfer pricing and offshore constructions. The loss of tax revenue due to these practices is substantial and has large consequences for Kenyan society.

MUMBAI - This story focuses on the suicide epidemic of Indian farmers related to over-indebtedness. For the first time the names of the lenders and their donors involved in the farmers' suicides due to overindebeteness are uncovered.

BOGOTA - Belgium is a banana republic, as far as trade is concerned. There are only three countries in the world that import more bananas than we do: the United States, Russia and China. But we export 87 percent, or 1.17 tons, of those bananas. Most bananas come from Colombia. 

BRUSSELS - Residues of Chlorpyrifos, a dangerous insecticide, have been found in fruit baskets and samples of human urine across Europe. This large, cross-border investigation unveils its risks for the public. 

PRAGUE - When the state-owned company Czech Forests, the largest owner of forestlands in the Czech Republic, began to experiment with a new commercial policy back in 2010, it was met with a significant public outcry.

MAPUTO - “Land of plenty, land of but a few” is a web documentary and a data journalism investigation that tells the story of how the peasants who live in the Nacala Corridor, one of the most fertile and populated areas of Mozambique, have been heavily affected by the arrival of large agricultural ...

WINGENE - Pigs have had a close connection to humans since prehistoric times. Over the centuries, stories, rules and legends have given the animal a profound meaning. It is a symbol of uncleanness, for the 'beast' hidden inside of us, a source of food, a bone of contention in discussions. This ...

ANTWERP - In a time of growing polarization, geo-political instability and a reduced confidence in institutions, there are people who want real change. Bottom-up seems to be a major shift in the political landscape. Citizens solve problems without waiting for decision-making. This can be the start ...

OUAGADOUGOU - Early 2016 Burkina Faso announced its withdrawal from the genetically modified cotton introduced by multinational Monsanto eight years before. The Cotton Connection investigation shows that the American company made huge mistakes, but is not the only actor to be criticised.

WIERINGERMEER - The Netherlands is one of the world's largest exporters of tomatoes and tomato seeds. Journalist Annemieke Hendriks follows the life of the tomato, from birth to the plate, in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Romania, Hungary and other European countries.

LILONGWE - Development aid is not as straightforward a way to bring about change as it seems. The countries that need it most, are often suffering from corruption and a lack of good infrastructure. Malawi is a case in point. 40% of its economy depends on development aid.

DODOMA - Some of the G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition projects aiming to combat hunger and poverty in Africa go directly against the interests of the smallholder farmers they're supposed to benefit.

MAASTRICHT - What are all those E numbers doing in the kitchens of our restaurants? An investigation into molecular gastronomy and the food additives industry in our modernist cuisine.

CAPE TOWN - The world behind a glass of South-African wine. Emma Lesuis went back to the winery where she made the documentary "Vir 'n glasie wyn" (For a glass of wine) and saw that little had changed. That's why she went looking for solutions and discovered the world of Fairtrade. 

THE HAGUE - More than 60,000 people in the Netherlands are infected with salmonella every year. The resistant ESBL bacterium has been found on three-quarters of the chicken meat there. Is our food as safe as manufacturers and ministers claim?

HANOI - Last year's publication of a scientific paper announcing Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier had succeeded in growing an airborne avian influenza virus in his lab in Rotterdam caused a big stir. Though inherently risky, such research was necessary, he argued, because it would teach us which ...

SALERNO - A great amount of capital is invested in agriculture and gains juicy but illegal returns. Nearly one in three 'Made in Italy'-labeled goods sold in Italy or exported elsewhere are produced with non-Italian products.

JAEN - The farms in Jaen in Spain provide a substantial amount of the total vegetable produce consumed across Europe and receive large farm subsidies from the EU. However, very often the people working on the farms are exploited and the environment is neglected.

STELLENBOSCH - South African winegrowers produce more than seven thousand different wines and are among the wealthy elite in the country. Millions of consumers around the world taste the high quality of South African wine, but the workers who pick and process the grapes barely enjoy the added value ...

SALVADOR - NGOs, city administrations and publishers worldwide switch to FSC-certified paper. Ordinary consumers can buy copy and printing paper as well as paper towels and even wallpaper bearing the tree logo. But is the paper's green image justified?

BUCHAREST - 'The New Slave Trade in the Heart of Europe': poor people are being lured from Eastern Europe to the Czech Republic for forced labour. Some of the worst gangsters are now on trial but there is no sign of this evil trade coming to an end.