The Social Cost of Carbon Credits | Hakai Magazine
Multinational companies funded a US $4.4-million carbon offset project. Senegalese locals did much of the work—and saw almost none of the money.
Indepedent food writer and journalist
An award-winning writer specialising in food, farming and climate. Based in Senegal, West Africa.
The global food system is complex, as well as fascinating. As a farmer’s son with a master’s in food policy and 10 years across the sector, there are few better qualified to report, analyse and communicate its importance to the public. He believes that bringing the stories behind our food to life, from the wondrous to the alarming, will spark the engagement and collective understanding needed to improve our food system.
Writes, reports and shoots for global media outlets, such as the Financial Times, the Associated Press, the BBC and more. He is the editor of a food
systems newsletter and podcast for TABLE, and writes for think tanks, NGOs and philanthropy on food systems. Fluent in French and Spanish, gets by in Wolof.
My Most Read Work
My Latest Work
The Sophie Coe Prize
The winner of this year’s Sophie Coe Prize was announced at the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery on Saturday 12th July. Jack Thompson was awarded the £1,500 Prize for his article ‘Separating Weetabix from the Chaff’, which highlights the difficulties faced by farmers who are increasingly obliged to deal with international corporations in a style described by the judges as “very well written, lively, informative and accessible.”
'I bought their dream': How a US company's huge land deal in Senegal went bust
In interviews with company officials and residents, The Associated Press explored one of the growing number of foreign investment projects targeting Africa, home to about 60% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land.
Rural Romania’s in turmoil — and foreign farmers get the blame
A British expat is one of many in physical and financial peril because of a rising tide of nationalism and a scramble for land and water in the age of climate change.
'We fall and we rise': Some amputees in Sierra Leone turn to farming to combat discrimination
The Farming on Crutches initiative offers a rare refuge for Sierra Leone's some 28,000 amputees from its brutal civil war. It aims to restore amputees’ confidence and independence by teaching them skills to start a farm business.
Sierra Leone loves rice and wants to free itself from imports. But how to do it?
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Rice borders on the sacred in Sierra Leone. Unless a meal includes rice, people say, you haven’t eaten at all.
A fool’s mission: Trying to track the impact of EU migration funding in Senegal
Last year, I set out to investigate the on-the-ground impact of the tens of millions of euros the EU has spent trying to address the root causes of migration in Senegal.
Fuel to Fork
Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of our food system. This brand new podcast series exposes their hidden role in the food we eat– revealing how food accounts for 15% of global fossil fuel use. If we want to tackle climate change, we can't leave food off the plate.
Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Large: SEJ 23rd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment
Through comprehensive on-the-ground reporting in West Africa and painstaking gathering and assessment of shipping and other supply-chain data, The Financial Times showed how some half a million metric tons of fish from the waters off Mauritania were turned into fish meal used in Norwegian salmon farms. This FT investigation used data visualization, motion graphics and photography to great effect, literally connecting the dots between crisis-level food shortages in West Africa — driven by the near-collapse of the region's fish stocks that Norway's salmon farming operations had caused — and the salmon marketed on UK supermarket shelves."
The European boats fishing under a veil of secrecy
EU vessels are registering with African fleets and exploiting local fishing laws
The Social Cost of Carbon Credits | Hakai Magazine
Multinational companies funded a US $4.4-million carbon offset project. Senegalese locals did much of the work—and saw almost none of the money.
They had never seen the ocean. Then climate change made them fishermen.
Climate change is expected to uproot more than a billion people by 2050, forcing many to radically change their ways of life. The experience of Mauritania’s herders-turned-fishermen offers a window into what this transition could be like.
Separating the Weetabix from the Chaff
Jack Thompson traces the supply chain of his family farm's wheat to Weetabix, the country’s favourite cereal, taking in colonialism, seed monopoly, and the future of British farming.
World Bank climate funds green hotels while fishermen sink
Climate Home reveals that the World Bank Group has counted support for luxury hotels as climate finance, which experts say fails the most vulnerable
'Women farmers are invisible': A West African project helps them claim their rights — and land
Mariama Sonko, president of115,000-strong rural women’s rights movement in West Africa is training female farmers from cultures where women are often excluded from ownership of the land they work so closely.
From sketch to sea: diving into Wales’ underwater farming revolution
With its ‘underwater gardens’ echoing a tradition of sustainably harvesting the local waters, we go beneath the waves at a community-owned, regenerative Welsh seafood farm
The beekeepers of Sine Saloum: How all-women team tends to Senegal mangrove
Experts say the management model can be adopted by communities across Senegal and elsewhere in the world.
Joal-Fadiouth, Senegal – Clutching a purse and clad from head to toe in white protective gear, Bintou Sonko removes a small metal kettle from her purse and releases smoke into one of the 50 beehives nestled in the dense mangrove outside her town in Senegal. Pacifying the bees, the 53-year-old extracts a dark golden liquid from within.
Joal-Fadiouth, Senegal – Clutching a purse and clad from head to toe in white protective gear, Bintou Sonko removes a small metal kettle from her purse and releases smoke into one of the 50 beehives nestled in the dense mangrove outside her town in Senegal. Pacifying the bees, the 53-year-old extracts a dark golden liquid from within.
The hidden cost of your supermarket salmon
A visual investigation by the FT. Fish sold by major supermarkets in Europe is harming food security in West Africa. Locals say it's hard to watch the export of basic resources "while we are suffering with poverty."
BBC World Service - Farming revolution powered by WhatsApp voicenotes
Journalist Jack Thompson guides us through the farming revolution in Senegal, being powered by WhatsApp voicenotes.
Returning to a Climate-Changed Home
Millimeter by millimeter the sea has been creeping up. These Senegalese villagers—allowed home for the first time in 30 years—are feeling the change all at once.
A fairer way to rewild?
As the pressure of food security sharpens, where does that leave the question of rewilding and biodiversity? Jack Thompson reports.
Listeria: how dairy can beat the bug
Listeria is both deadly and difficult to eradicate from the food chain. What steps can be taken to prevent further outbreaks?
Regenerative Food Certification: Gold Standard or Greenwashing?
https://modernfarmer.com/2023/08/regenerative-food-certification/
The Fervent Fight Over Fish Meal
A Senegalese fish-meal factory is drawing local ire as the fight for protein heats up.
In West Africa, a 'bokashi revolution’ takes root
Farmers in West Africa adapt to soaring fertiliser prices from the Ukraine War with an unlikely solution from Japan.
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Contact
You can get in touch via email at:
jackthompsonjournalist@ gmail.com