A support group and a lab in the St. Louis area provide resources for people with the allergy to mammal products — and evidence that its effects can be reversed.
Coastal scientists use a tarp to keep from sliding into the silty new land created by Neptune Pass while collecting core samples to research the growing delta in Quarantine Bay. Credit: Alex Kolker
One of the hardest parts of the journalism business is saying goodbye, as our colleagues move on to new opportunities. In the coming weeks, we'll be graduating a few of our Report for America cohort members, including Delaney Dryfoos of The Lens. We asked her to share some thoughts on what they've gained working with the Desk these past few years, and what's next.
Here's Delaney:
Outgoing Desk reporter Delaney Dryfoos, The Lens
"I came to the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk in 2023 as an eager Report for America corps member, taking a position at The Lens in New Orleans when the Desk was just a year old. As I developed my local reporting beat, the Desk was coming into its own: publishing collaborative journalism series that connected reporting across the Mississippi River Basin. And as I get ready to move on from the Desk, I’m reflecting on how it’s grown, and how my work has as well.
The ability to tap into the expertise of other reporters has been a huge help. While investigating the environmental challenges in southern Louisiana, I devoured my colleagues' writing to learn about agriculture in the Midwest. Our reporting was connected by industry: 60% of grain exported from the U.S. travels through the Port of New Orleans. I built my beat by asking environmental advocates and stakeholders which stories weren’t receiving enough attention. Then I followed those local stories, reporting on how parish zoning meetings and court hearings impacted small communities in the River Parishes, an area along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans known as “Cancer Alley” for its proliferation of oil and gas refinery pollution.
Through reporting these local stories, I came to connect the local environmental impacts of fertilizer production to the over-application of nutrients on Midwest farms. From this work, the Desk published “Farm to Trouble,” where I examined Louisiana’s ability to interrupt this cycle which leads to an annual summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, driven by excess nitrogen and phosphorus running off fields into the Mississippi River.
Reporter Delaney Dryfoos on a field reporting trip. Credit: La'Shance Perry/The Lens
I became intrigued with how the river connected these distant environments and sought out experts to explain the impact of human flood-control on the rapid disappearance of land in coastal Louisiana. That’s when I discovered a new section of land emerging from the depths of Quarantine Bay. When I traveled to the bay with researchers, I slipped my toes into the newly settled silt and asked all of the questions I could.
This trip led to conversations with many different experts: river geologists, coastal scientists and the people who have spent their lives fishing along the coast, watching their land disappear. By following the river’s story over the past two years, I developed the expertise to ask the questions demanded by recent local news: that the country’s largest coastal restoration project was indefinitely suspended. Now, community members are looking for assurance that the state will not allow Louisiana’s coast to disappear.
The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk is well equipped to cover this story as it unfolds, with journalists who spend their days thinking about how the river built and shapes the land we now report from. The river will continue to dictate major aspects of the country’s economy, and residents along the entire basin will benefit from journalists who are dedicated to explaining the latest research and events. And as the federal government moves away from critical research such as the National Climate Assessment, it has become increasingly imperative to support the reporters who investigate and explain the science behind the news.
As I move on to a new part-time role with The Lens as Partnerships Editor, I will continue to promote the work of the Desk. I look forward to seeing new journalists develop expertise in the abundance supported by the Mississippi River, and sharing what I've learned."
Michael here again. We're very glad Delaney will still be working at The Lens in a new capacity, and sharing their experience with new folks in our orbit!
And one more quick note before we go: our partners at WWNO in New Orleans are working on a new reporting project we'd like to share. August will mark 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, and they're collecting love letters to the city, whether you left after the storm, or stayed in town. Read more about the project here.
Thanks for reading. More next week from across the Basin.
