In 2011, three accidents related to shale gas extraction occurred on Bruce Kennedy's property, including a large diesel spill. “The story is always different at the kitchen table where they come to sign you on than it is out in the field,” says Kennedy, a long-time farmer whose family roots in Pennsylvania go back 200 years. Image by Dimiter Kenarov. United States, 2012.

Pulitzer Center student fellow Julia Rendleman and photojournalist Dominic Bracco II connect with SIU Carbondale for a series of events and workshops as part of the Pulitzer Center's Campus Consortium partnership with the University.

On October 3, Rendleman shares her experiences as an international reporting student fellow with the Pulitzer Center and as a photojournalist with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which includes her three-month series of investigative reports on water contamination in a small Pennsylvania town, The Woodlands. Rendleman and Bracco will then mentor students during an intensive weekend photography workshop organized by SIUC, Friday, October 4 through Sunday, October 6.

Rendleman's work "Fouled Waters" gives first-person narratives of individuals living in The Woodlands, including their living conditions without running water. For Pulitzer Center-supported reporting on related issues associated with shale gas extraction, please visit the project by Pulitzer Center grantees Dimiter Kenarov and Stephen Sapienza as they consider fracking and its impact on the environment and water in the U.S. and Eastern Europe.

Rendleman's Pulitzer Center reporting as a student fellow took her to Jamaica where she examined the paradox in the country's abundance of foods and poor conditions for rural farmers.

Rendleman's October 3 public talk is supported by SIUC's School of Journalism and University College, Imagining Geographies and the Pulitzer Center.

Thursday, October 3
12-1:15 pm
Guyon Auditorium, Morris Library
605 Agriculture Drive
Carbondale, IL 62901

Project

Agriculture and Jamaica’s Rural Poor

This project looks at the paradox of Jamaican agriculture: an abundant supply of fish, fruits and vegetables while farmers struggle to find financial success.

Recently

January 11, 2012 / Untold Stories

Food Security: On the Cusp of a Crisis in Jamaica

Julia Rendleman
Jamaica may be a land of abundance, but its reliance on cheap agricultural imports is driving local farmers out of business.
November 23, 2011 / Untold Stories

Jamaican Agriculture Paradox: Abundant Food, Cheaper Imports

Julia Rendleman
Nearly a fifth of working Jamaicans are employed in the country's agriculture sector, but farmers are struggling to make ends meet because cheap imported products are driving down local food costs.
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