Starkman and Crossfield met in 2008 at Slow Food Nation, a San Francisco event organized by Slow Food USA that many see as a pivotal moment in the food movement. An estimated 60,000 people gathered at Slow Food Nation, including food leaders such as Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Wes Jackson, and Vandana Shiva. In an effort to facilitate more discussion about the event, Starkman started a blog, to which Crossfield contributed. The success of the blog inspired the pair to maintain it under a new name: Civil Eats. They recognized the need for a platform on which untold stories from activists on the front lines of the growing food movement could be shared. Civil Eats has since published thousands of articles by hundreds of writers and become a dependable primary source for food policy news.
For five years, Starkman, Crossfield, and their contributors worked without pay. In October 2013, with the goal of shifting from an all-volunteer effort to a sustainable, professional enterprise, Civil Eats launched a Kickstarter campaign and raised $100,000 in 30 days–the highest amount raised on Kickstarter at that time for an online daily news site. Authors and activists Anna Lappé, Raj Patel, and Michael Pollan appeared in their pitch video, and chefs Tom Colicchio, Alice Waters, Deborah Madison, and José Andrés were instrumental in spreading the word about the campaign. With the money they raised, Civil Eats was able to start paying its contributors and hire a full-time Managing Editor, Twilight Greenaway. Their future goals include paying a full staff, hiring a reporter based in Washington, D.C. to cover food policy, and producing more in-depth reporting and visually engaging content.
Masthead
Its staff includes Adrien Meier-Schless, who is the Deputy Managing Editor; Stacy Slate was the site's first Deputy Managing Editor. Early contributors include Jen Dalton, Sarah Rich, Katrina Heron, among others. Its regular contributors include Barry Estabrook, Sarah Henry, Anna Lappé, Kim O’Donnel, Raj Patel, Kerry Trueman, Hannah Wallace, among many others. Civil Eats was an early proponent of sharing content with other sites including Grist, TakePart, The Huffington Post, and others.
Achievements
In May 2014, Civil Eats was named the James Beard Foundation 2014 Publication of the Year for demonstrating “fresh direction, worthy ambition, and a forward-thinking approach to food journalism.” Starkman and Crossfield accepted the award in New York City. Additionally, two Civil Eats stories appeared in the 2014 issue of Best Food Writing, a collection of the finest in culinary prose from the previous year's books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs. One of those stories also won the 2014 M. F. K. Fisher prize for excellence in culinary reporting. In 2014, Civil Eats formed a media partnership with TIME.com and Harvest Public Media and assembled an advisory board of leading thinkers, voices, and connectors in the food movement to assist in its next development phrase. The advisory board includes Chef Tom Colicchio, author Anna Lappé, Marion Nestle, writer and activist Raj Patel, Dan Pullman, author Ruth Reichl, scientist Ricardo Salvador of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Chef Alice Waters.
