If you're interested in writing, farming and food in general, UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism is offering $10,000 postgraduate Food and Farming Journalism Fellowships, eight of them, in a new program established by Berkeley professor, author and food guru Michael Pollan. Applications are due the first of March. 

Geared towards early and mid-career journalists, the fellowships provide opportunities for writers to work on long-form stories (they still exist!!) in the field of what Berkeley calls “food systems.” Which is a lovely Ben Marcus-like term for “agricultural and nutritional policy, the food industry, food science, technology and culture, rural and urban farming, agriculture and the environment (including climate change), global trade and supply chains, consolidation and securitization of the food system and public health as it relates to food and farming.”

]The fellowships are a project of the Knight Center in Science and Environmental Journalism and are supported by a grant from The 11th Hour Project, a program of The Schmidt Family Foundation. This year, the fellowships are open to print and radio journalists; next year, they'll open it up to include video and multi-media people. This being the future and all. 

To apply, submit online a one-page pitch including a “clearly defined story idea.” Thus don't just email “I want to write about people eating bugs!” or “I love farmers!” but instead maybe cover the people and places and information your piece will cover and some indication of early research. You are a reporter, after all. Include with your application: your vita, two letters of recommendation and some published clips. Fellowships will be announced May 1, 2014.

For more information, check out UC Berkeley's description of the fellowships.

And if you're wanting to write about food systems in Los Angeles and have already done some reporting and don't want to head to Berkeley to hang out with Michael Pollan (really??), you can always consider writing for this food section. Email the food editor (that's me). We like clearly defined story ideas too. With or without bugs and farmers. 

Want more Squid Ink? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.