Chris Malloy

Twila Cassadore rescues traditional Western Apache foods from the cusp of extinction. One morning in late winter 2019, I followed her on a traditional hunt and learned her great story.

(In 2020, this story won a first place award in food feature writing from the Society for Features Journalism.)

Agrivoltaics—putting solar panels on farmland—lead to astonishing productivity gains and improved energy efficiency. Except when they don’t.

For untold centuries, at the hottest time of the year in the hottest place in North America, the Tohono O’odham have ventured into the arid wilds to harvest bahidaj, elusive fruit of the saguaro, giant postcard cactus of the Sonoran Desert.

This story follows the activists Terrol Dew Johnson and Noland Johnson, as well as Noland’s daughter Isabella Johnson, on one day of reduced harvesting during a pandemic year.

PHOTO BY ASH PONDERS.

The animals that live and die for our meals will never, never, never in the infinite march of time be alive again. If I’m going to be responsible for this eternal erasure, I would rather look my animal in the eye than look away.

Photo by Ash Ponders.

There is a limited and shrinking supply, growing demand, and a long-run picture that looks, from many angles, hopelessly apocalyptic. Inside the elaborate, diverse, and ever-evolving effort to manage water in what some have called “America’s least sustainable city.”

PHOTO BY BOB MILLER.

This story follows an 11-hour foraging journey that passes from desert to mountains and covers 500 years of history to theorize the emergence of a new cuisine in Arizona.

(In 2019, this story won a first place award in feature writing from the Association of Food Journalists and a second place award from the Society for Features Journalism.)

In a Southwest that’s getting hotter and drier while its population steadily grows, ecologists and Indigenous food activists are increasingly touting mesquite’s potential as a widespread, sustainable drylands crop and food source.

“This is liquid magic at the speed of continental drift.”

(In 2020, my Sonoran Arcana column won a Best of the West award for special interest column writing.)

“Velvet now parks at a golden wheat field. Ramona Farms cultivates Pima, durum, and White Sonora wheat. The young wheat riffles and rustles in the wind with a colossal stirring sound, giving the field the peaceful magic of a golden ocean…”

(In 2020, my Sonoran Arcana column won a Best of the West award for special interest column writing.)

“We’re looking at a real crisis in Tucson with the heat. Rainwater is the cheapest, most accessible, highest-quality water you can get.”

He’s thinking about trees, but not the pines. He’s thinking about gold, but not the precious metal struck here in ages past, drawing a flood-tide of settlers to these wilds near Prescott in the late 19th century. What Kanin seeks is far more fleeting and beautiful: lost apples.

Arizona recently struggled through a summer that was the hottest ever recorded in some parts of the state. Animal farmers are now compelled to find ways to adapt to this climatic shift, exploring new ways of keeping chickens and cows cool, or importing more heat-resistant breeds. Lingering in the air is the question of whether the climate crisis is making animal agriculture in this part of the world impractical.