Agribusiness/Meat Industry Reporter

Description:

Investigate Midwest is hiring!

Position: Agribusiness/Meat Industry Reporter

Experience level: Minimum 2-3 years investigative, data-driven journalism

Education level: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in journalism with investigative, data-reporting emphasis or equivalent experience

Position overview: Full-time, 40 hours a week; medical, dental, vision benefits available

Location: Oklahoma

Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom, and our mission is to serve the public as a watchdog over influential corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. We’re establishing a footprint in Oklahoma with an agribusiness/meat industry reporting position.

This reporter will thrive on reporting and telling stories with data and documents in a remote newsroom of experienced and dedicated journalists. This reporter will find, explore, clean and analyze datasets, file documents requests (e.g., FOIA), and write articles for publication online and shared across our partners that align with Investigate Midwest’s audience. We value team players with a willingness to learn, teach and experiment.

In the Midwest, livestock operations have grown in size and number, resulting in greater environmental damage and health concerns to surrounding communities. Meanwhile, state governments have stripped the ability of local governments to regulate the giant farms. Industrial agribusiness has had similar impacts on communities, the environment and consumer pocketbooks, while exercising considerable influence on local, state and federal levels.

This reporter will write about the economic, environmental, regulatory and labor issues in industrial agribusiness and the meat industry, specifically in Oklahoma. This includes concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, the large livestock facilities that produce the majority of American meat, as well as other aspects of the meat supply chain. 

You will report to the Investigate Midwest managing editor and interact daily with the team and award-winning journalists in a highly collaborative newsroom. The stories you work on may appear locally, regionally or nationally or may be adapted into another idea someone wants to try. 

This is a full-time, salaried position. The reporter can work remotely but must be based in Oklahoma.

As a member of Investigate Midwest’s team, you are expected to 

• Write 2 stories/month

• Contribute 1 major project every 3 months 

• Fact-check and produce reference/citation lists

• Conduct at least one records request/week

• Write the Graphic of the Week once a month

• Generate original story ideas and regularly pitch to your editor

Preferred qualities:

• Familiarity with the meat and livestock industry and industrial agribusiness

• Experience covering complex environmental issues

• Ability to submit and negotiate public records requests with a variety of government agencies

• Fluency in Spanish

• Proficiency in data journalism using programs like Excel, Python, R, SQL, GIS, etc. 

To apply, please send a resume, a 1-page cover letter, 3 of your best clips (or projects you've worked on), and at least 2 references to the Executive Director Erin Orr at  erin.orr@investigatemidwest.org.

Investigate Midwest is an equal employment opportunity employer and we seek to increase diversity in our own operation and in the news media. We encourage individuals from communities traditionally underrepresented in this field to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin.