Marc Fawcett-Atkinson

Reporter Vancouver English

food security, Agriculture, fishing, toxins, shell fish industry, farming, climate change

About Marc Fawcett-Atkinson

Marc Fawcett-Atkinson is a reporter and writer covering food, climate, plastics and the environment for Canada’s National Observer.

His ongoing investigations of the plastic industry in Canada won him a nomination from the Webster Awards this year in environmental reporting.

Marc has previously written for High Country News, the Literary Review of Canada, and other publications on topics exploring relationships between people and their social and physical environments.

He holds an M.A. in journalism from the University of British Columbia and a B.A. in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic.

Marc's reporting on food security and agriculture is highly valued by farmers and the academics who study agriculture as unique in Canada.

285 Articles

After plenty of hype, McDonald's last year ended its trial of plant-based burgers, raising doubts that plant-based proteins will overtake meat with market forces alone. Photo by Alison Boulier/National Observer

University chef holds firm for the climate on meatless Mondays

Tony Heesterman, the University of Victoria's executive chef, has zero patience for students who complain about campus-wide meatless Mondays.

News | January 30th 2023

Documents show that Canada's pesticide regulator repeatedly ignored red flags raised by its own scientists about the health risks posed by the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Photo by Shutterstock

Health Canada downplayed the risks of a toxic pesticide. Is that the ‘tip of the iceberg’?

Critics are calling for better oversight of Canada's pesticide regulator following revelations the agency repeatedly ignored red flags raised by its own scientists about the pesticide chlorpyrifos.

News | January 25th 2023

Health Canada downplayed scientific concerns about risks of toxic pesticide that causes birth defects

Canada's pesticide regulator repeatedly ignored red flags raised by its own scientists about the health risks posed by the pesticide chlorpyrifos, stalling a review of the pesticide for close to 20 years, documents obtained by the environmental group Ecojustice reveal.

News | January 23rd 2023

Feds announce funding for menstrual pads, textiles made from food waste

Canadians' food scraps and mouldy leftovers could soon find new life as bioplastics, solidified carbon — and even menstrual pads.

News | January 17th 2023

Meet the Ukrainian scientists making farms sustainable from space

Around midafternoon in Kyiv on Jan. 3, Oleksandr Dzhevaga watched from his computer as a rocket blasted through the sky. Although Dzhevaga lives in Ukraine, the rocket had nothing to do with Russia's war against the country. It was taking off from Florida, and onboard was a satellite custom-made to monitor the sustainability of millions of hectares of crops and forests worldwide.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | January 13th 2023

‘Better is always possible,’ Canada’s agriculture minister says, but there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to curbing climate pollution from farms

Several times last year, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau found herself stomping through fields talking to farmers dealing with unprecedented floods, drought and hurricanes. The disasters were an "eye-opener" for many, hinting at a future where the climate crisis will make similar disasters more common — and worse.

Farming for the future

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | January 6th 2023

B.C. needs fire. Meet the man bringing it back

Skeetchestn fire keeper Joe Gilchrist is on a mission to make the regenerative burning practices his grandfather taught him commonplace. At stake is an important practice for culture, food security and the future of B.C.'s forests.

Canada's forests in peril

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | January 5th 2023

Jesse MacDonald has spent the past four years investigating a wave of mysterious tree deaths in Canadian apple orchards. Photo provided by Jesse MacDonald

The mystery of the dead apple trees

Adrian Arts’ apple trees were dying. But despite Arts’ best efforts — extra watering and tender care — nearly half the trees in the Okanagan farmer's orchard died two weeks later, just as they were starting to fruit. He had no idea why.

News | January 3rd 2023

The top three things you can eat to save the planet — and your wallet

Replacing meat and dairy with plants can almost halve your environmental footprint and leave more money in your wallet. That's important when prices are on the rise: food costs grew more than 10 per cent in August, September and October of this year.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | December 30th 2022

Farmers are losing the ‘arms race’ against weeds

Intensive farming is creating new super weeds that are nearly impossible to kill with herbicides. Already infamous for their impact on everything from water quality to biodiversity, the intensive approach to agriculture is making it even harder for farmers to protect their crops — and bottom lines — from tsunamis of harmful weeds, a new study suggests.

News | December 29th 2022