Food journalism is a field of journalism that focuses on news and current events related to food, its production, and the cultures of producing and consuming that food. Typically, food journalism includes a scope broader than the work of food critics, who analyze restaurants and their products, and is similar to a sub-genre of "food writing", which documents the experience and history of food.[1]
Food journalism often explores the impact of current events on food, such as how the Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry, or larger issues, such as impacts of climate change on food production.[2] Increasingly, these themes overlap with public health journalism, political journalism, and economic journalism.[3] This expands on themes traditional to food criticism, which has tended to focus on fine dining and other kinds of food writing, like cookbook writing.[4] These themes are similar to the themes covered in agricultural journalism, which focuses on the agriculture industry for agricultural audiences.
The contemporary field of food journalism grew in the mid-20th century, especially as issues like food rationing during and after World War II.[5] In the United States, the Association of Food Journalists provides professional standards and a code of ethics.[6]