Supported projects

TIMOSOARA / SZEGED - Industrial pig farms report clean environmental papers, but nearby residents complain of odours and pollution, while groundwater shows nitrate contamination, and monitoring relies on self-reported data.

ROME / MADRID / LONDON - In Italy, Spain and the UK, meat, eggs and dairy are increasingly produced by large corporations that use industrial farming methods and wield growing power over multibillion-euro supply chains. For animals, more industrial farming usually means more suffering.

BRUSSELS / BARCELONA / ROME / ZURICH – This investigation looks into the wave of political response that swept Europe during and in the aftermath of the 2024 tractors protest, and that dismantled key environmental policy under the guise of protecting farmers.

CLUJ-NAPOCA − This investigation revelas that small towns in the Transylvanian mountains are hubs for a chaotic mushroom trade, both in Hungary and Romania.

COSTACHE NEGRI - As floods caused by climate change get worse across Europe, thousands of farm animals are dying without being seen, counted or getting any money for it. The deaths of livestock remain a systematic blind spot in disaster data and emergency planning mainly focusing on human losses.

FLENSBURG - The Baltic Sea is under significant pressure, yet efforts to protect it are insufficient. Its decline is driven by two major forces: the accelerating impacts of climate change and eutrophication, the nutrient overload from agricultural runoff, sewage, and other waste that fuels massive ...

PO RIVER DELTA/ EBRO DELTA - This investigation documents how fertiliser runoff from the Ebro and Po river basins drains into the Mediterranean, fuelling harmful algal blooms and impacting the people and local economies in those deltas.

CAPE TOWN - The Fairtrade certification system arrived in South Africa in the mid-2000s with the promise of helping dismantle centuries-old inequalities. Yet, twenty years later, many farm workers feel its promises have largely remained so.

KOSICE / CALABRIA - Convicted trafficker Antonino Vadalà, long seen in Slovakia as a powerful businessman, re-emerges in a new investigation linking him and partner Diego Rodà to subsidy fraud, ’Ndrangheta ties, and a disrupted cocaine route — all amid fallout from the Kuciak murder case.

POPPEL - Dutch tractors cross the border day and night via small sandy roads to refuel more cheaply in Belgium. Since the Netherlands abolished the tax benefit for red diesel in 2013, cross-border trade has flourished with hardly any controls.

BRUSSELS / LONDON / PARIS - In this investigation, journalists investigated the role medals awarded by wine competitions play in misleading supermarket consumers over the supposed quality of wines.

MOYOBAMBA - This investigation traces the global supply chain of sacha inchi, an Amazonian seed also known as ‘the Inca’s gold’, to expose the mechanisms of modern-day biopiracy.

AALSMEER / NAIVASHA/ TABACUNDO – This cross-border investigation reveals the hidden economic, social and ecological asymmetries of roses, which symbolise love in the north but often represent exploitation in the south.

SARDINIA / TUSCANY / ARAGON - This investigation exposes systemic exploitation of migrant agricultural workers in the pastoral sector, with fieldwork conducted in Italy and in Spain.

BRUSSELS - This investigation revealed that farm owners who intimidate and exploit migrant workers are receiving millions in agricultural subsidies. Nearly thirty CAP payments were traced to farms that had breached workers’ rights, were under criminal investigation or had already been convicted of ...

CARINTHIA/HESSEN – Farmers in Europe are at significantly greater risk of suicide than the general population. However, as this investigation reveals, reliable data remains scarce.

PRAGUE / KYIV – Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that is climate-resilient, restoring soil health, increasing biodiversity and strengthening rural communities. The project examines farms that have successfully implemented new strategies to highlight what works in practice and why.

BRUSSELS - Agriculture in Flanders is facing challenges. Caught between expanding cities and ever-growing nature reserves, farmers are striving to produce food for a growing (global) population.

ZAGHOUAN – Across the fertile lands of Tunisia’s north-western region, a new form of agriculture has quietly taken root: the cultivation of genetically modified (GMO) soybeans.

HUELVA – This cross-border investigation exposes the hidden flaws in the European berry market. Tracing the path of the strawberry from field to supermarket, this team of journalists travelled from Huelva to Larache, via Toulouse, to reveal the real human and political origins of what we eat, as ...

OSLO / TEXAS – Yara, the biggest fertiliser producer in Europe, is promoting 'sustainable' products as climate-friendly solutions. Yet this investigation reveals that much of this product relies on fracked gas from U.S. shale fields.

KINSHASA - Following on from the first part of the dossier on why and how Congo's forests became the world's first lung, John Vandaele explores whether the country can effectively be the 'solution country' it claims to want to be.

BRUSSELS – Billions of “turbochickens” grow at record speed, suffering serious health problems in the process. This investigation exposes how the poultry industry manages these consequences to protect profits, while promoting itself as “responsible”. Hundreds of global food brands face mounting ...

AMSTERDAM / BUDAPEST / SIDNEY – This cross-border investigation examined how the world’s most controversial herbicide secured a ten-year re-approval in the European Union despite mounting scientific and legal concerns. 

BORDEAUX – In this investigation, two journalists followed the Spanish bulk wine route in Europe to analyse and provide an exclusive insight into how wine companies and industry insiders use wine to commit fraud.

LITOMYSL – Agrivoltaics offers farmers a way to adapt to economic challenges and the climate crisis while reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. The focus was both on companies that have been exploiting agrivoltaics for years and are now looking to switch panels, as well as new companies ...

ALICANTE / BARI – Southern Europe, especially Italy and Spain, is facing a growing environmental crisis — the rapid desiccation of olives as well as other kinds of trees. In Italy it has caused significant ecological and economic losses, but several scientific approaches show that the plants could ...

BRUSSELS – Today, the commercial seed market is dominated by five agricultural conglomerates: BASF, Bayer/Monsanto, DowDuPont/Corteva, Syngenta/ChemChina and Limagrain. In Europe alone, they dominate 95% of the vegetable seed supply. But why is this the case, and what does it have to do with ...

AGADIR - Grown mainly in the Souss region of Morocco, tomatoes have become one of the Kingdom's most widely grown and exported vegetables. What is wrong with the environment and agriculture if Europeans continue to import them - and eat them in winter?

KIAMBU - Across Europe - the world's largest coffee market - millions of people start their day with an espresso or cappuccino. But behind Europeans' ever-growing love affair with coffee lies a bitter truth about environmental degradation and human exploitation.