Lisa Held | Civil Eats

Authors

Lisa Held is Civil Eats’ senior staff reporter and contributing editor. Since 2015, she has reported on agriculture and the food system with an eye toward sustainability, equality, and health, and her stories have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones. In the past, she covered health and wellness and was an editor at Well+Good. She is based in Baltimore and has a master's degree from Columbia University's School of Journalism.

EPA Approves Four New Pesticides That Qualify as PFAS

LAMONT, CA - AUGUST 12: Farm workers spray chemicals at the edge of a field bordering homes on August 12, 2004 near the town of Lamont, southeast of Bakersfield, California. California's Central Valley is one of the nation's most important agricultural and oil producing areas. Mass food production has brought heavy use of chemicals, including pesticides that have sickened hundreds of area workers and residents. In 2002, the last year for which numbers are available, 172 million pounds of pesticides were used on California fields sickening 478 people as airborne chemicals drifted 39 times, according to the state Department of Pesticide Regulation. On May 2, a crew of 100 workers was caught in a drift of pesticide at nearby Arvin that made 19 of them sick, including a woman who was five months pregnant. This spring, state Sen. Dean Florez introduced a bill, the Pesticide Drift Exposure Response Act, to help pay for field workers' medical care. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Should Regenerative Farmers Pin Hopes on RFK Jr.’s MAHA?

While the Make America Health Again movement supports alternative farming, few of Trump’s policies promote healthy agricultural landscapes. The latest version of the new MAHA Commission Report underscores these concerns.

The MAHA Movement’s Climate Conundrum

Elisa Lane in her 200-tree pawpaw orchard. “I’ve heard people say that farmers are on the frontlines of climate change,” she said. “Someone smarter than me said that, but it’s true.”

Amid SNAP Debate, Are Lawmakers Ending Waste and Abuse—or Dismantling a Safety Net?

A warehouse staff moves through rows of food at the Capital Area Food Bank. (Photo: Capital Area Food Bank)

Conservation Work on Farms and Ranches Could Take a Hit as USDA Cuts Staff

Ranchers herd cattle across open range in the Sangre de Christo Mountains, New Mexico.

Everything You Know About the Dietary Guidelines Is Wrong

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Label Man character was seen at the Department of Agriculture celebration of the introduction of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, an informational event in the Whitten Café in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 2, 2011. (Photo credit: USDA)

Livestock Producers Seek to Defend Packers and Stockyards Rules from Industry Attack

Portrait of a woman working on Montana ranch

MAHA Supporters Form New Organization to Boost RFK’s Goals in D.C.

Calley Means speaks during a news conference at the Health and Human Services Department on April 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Andrew Harnik, Getty Images)

The Pork Industry Asks Congress to Overturn Prop. 12, a Divisive Animal Welfare Law, Yet Again

Customer selecting packaged meat slices at a supermarket counter. Dressed casually in jeans, she carries a shoulder bag while browsing the meat section. Real-life shopping moment. More than a year after the animal welfare law went into effect, evidence of the pork industry’s ‘crisis’ is hard to find. But another push to overturn the law is in the works.

USDA’s Regional Food Business Centers Caught in Federal Funding Freeze

A Native American man stands in a field with a herd of bison, with the light shining behind him and blue skies above