BBC • 14th November 2025

BBC Radio 4 - The Food Programme, Why Is Africa Feeding Us?

Dan Saladino and reporter Jack Thompson investigate the UK's growing dependence on farms in northern Senegal for food such as sweetcorn, radishes and beans. Is this a good thing?

The Guardian • 11th November 2025

Why ‘mob grazing’ may help protect drought-hit Senegal’s vast grasslands

A regenerative scheme has shown early promise, with herders hopeful it can restore degraded pastures.

The Sophie Coe Prize • 8th August 2025

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.”

AP News • 13th May 2025

Foreign overfishing in Senegal fuels migration to Spain, a report finds

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Overfishing by foreign vessels is decimating fish stocks in the West African country of Senegal, which is in turn fueling migration to Spain.

AP News • 1st April 2025

'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.

The Sunday Times • 30th March 2025

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.

AP News • 27th December 2024

'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.

AP News • 21st November 2024

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.

The New Humanitarian • 17th October 2024

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.

10th October 2024

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.

SEJ • 23rd September 2024

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."

Financial Times • 15th August 2024

The European boats fishing under a veil of secrecy

EU vessels are registering with African fleets and exploiting local fishing laws

Hakai Magazine • 17th July 2024

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.

The Christian Science Monitor • 4th June 2024

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.

Vittles • 27th May 2024

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.

Climate Home News • 16th April 2024

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

AP News • 27th March 2024

'Women farmers are invisible': A West African project helps them claim their rights — and land

Mariama Sonko, president of a 115,000-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.

Positive News • 19th February 2024

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

Al Jazeera • 15th February 2024

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.

Financial Times • 31st January 2024

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 • 18th January 2024

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.

Hakai Magazine • 18th January 2024

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.

Wicked Leeks • 3rd October 2023

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.

The Grocer • 25th September 2023

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?