Pitches wanted (food, agriculture) | $400 for short interviews, $500+ for reported features

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: CIVIL EATS

New: Call for pitches!

Civil Eats is looking for pitches about all things food and agriculture. We are especially interested in hearing from writers with experience focusing on: policy, climate, school meals, race, and science. Rates start at $500 for reported features and $400 for shorter interviews, book and film reviews, profiles, and other short pieces.

I’M INTERESTED IN WRITING FOR CIVIL EATS. HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Start by spending some time reading the articles on our site. You might want to consider subscribing to our weekly newsletter to make it easy to stay on top of what we publish.

Write up a three-to-five paragraph pitch describing your story idea, noting where you intend to get your information, and why it might be a good fit for Civil Eats.

Include a few lines about why you are the best person to write the story. Include links to other posts and stories you’ve written when applicable.

Email everything to pitches(at)civileats.com.

WHAT KINDS OF STORIES DO YOU PUBLISH?

Civil Eats covers issues that span the U.S. food system, so almost anything that involves food, farming, and the people behind them could be of interest. More specifically, we are particularly interested in stories from diverse voices and featuring people whose stories don’t often make it into the news.

For the general types of articles we publish, see our list below.

News stories

These tend to be shorter pieces, reporting on new food or farm policy developments, noteworthy scientific studies, and other timely developments within the world of food. Our goal is to report news in the context of larger questions about how to make our food system more just, sustainable, humane, etc. The most important thing to know is we require a lot of linking out and citing in all of our stories.

Features

These are more in-depth pieces larger issues or questions related to food production, sustainability, food safety, animal welfare, or any of the other topics we regularly cover. These require multiple sources and some in-depth research. Ideally, our features take on some core challenge, tension, or conflict about food production, distribution, etc. The best feature stories have a clear and engaging lede, a clear nut graf, and include more than one perspective.

First-person commentary

Have something provocative or counter-intuitive to say about food production or the food movement? We want to hear it. And if it the idea is strong enough, we’ll be glad to help you strengthen your argument. Note: While we’re happy to look at pre-written op-eds, we will often have edits and require our commentators to work within our editorial standards. We rarely publish anything wholesale.

Interviews

We run occasional Q&As with food and farming leaders and authors of new books on the food system. Let us know who should be on our radar and we’ll share their stories.

Listicles

It’s true, we like a good list as much as the next person (and audiences seem to really like them), but we only want to create lists when there’s some deep content behind it, and not for the sake of creating clickbait. Here are a few good examples of what has worked for us.

Videos, infographics, and photo essays

We always love the chance to make Civil Eats a more visual place and we’d love to work with more contributors on these types of pieces. Photos, charts, maps, you name it, we’d love to see it!

Crossposts from other sites

Have you written something you want to reach a wider audience? We’re always glad to take a look.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

• Questions / submissions: pitches@civileats.com
• Website: https://civileats.com/

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. It publishes stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities. Civil Eats is a nonprofit news organization with more 150 contributors who report on the evolving food landscape. More information here.
• Read through its selection of recent articles/stories, categorized into: Food + Policy, Farming, Health, Environment
• Review the submission guidelines here.
• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook Database and at SuccessfulPitches.com.