The Fertile Crescent
A day of food in the world's original bread basket.
A person’s labor is deeply intertwined with their economic status, quality of life and access to basic resources like food and clothing. Pulitzer Center stories tagged with “Labor” feature reporting that covers the rights of workers, efforts to organize labor unions and worker advocacy groups, modern slavery, and other forms of worker exploitation. Use the Pulitzer Center Lesson Builder to find and create lesson plans on labor.
A day of food in the world's original bread basket.
One of a series of interviews with women studying computer science in Turkey: Here Shirin Alrhoob speaks with a student in Istanbul, who aspires to be a data scientist for Microsoft or Google.
A passing tradition at a farm in Connecticut on Father's day signifies so much for the men who leave their families to work.
Auctioneers have an up-close view of the pain behind the dairy crisis. They see no sign of better times to come.
The Great Depression exacerbated conditions for farmers in Wisconsin, causing dairy prices to soar and leading to a period of social unrest that led to the death of one farmer.
The Panama Canal Authority completed a $5 billion expansion in 2016, but instead of hiring extra personnel needed to meet the increased workload, the Panama Canal simply doubled-down on the workload for existing employees.
Once living under a strict patriarchal society, Rwandan women are emerging as business leaders in male-dominated professions such as agriculture—defying the status quo of gender in a post-genocide era.
The story of Wisconsin farmers' struggle to survive as dairy prices continue to deflate.
Palm oil is a multibillion-dollar industry for Indonesia. But the people responsible for its production are not the ones reaping the riches.
As efforts to get farmers to stop growing coca in favor of legal crops falter, some farmers feel abandoned. But one man says he'll stand by them, helping farmers shift to cacao for high-end chocolate.
The former Yugoslav republic, slow to reform and mired in squabbles with Greece, struggles each winter with some of the worst air pollution in Europe.
Climate change is forcing people in rural Indonesia to move abroad to Malaysia, a top destination for Indonesian migrant workers. However, global warming is causing another problem for Indonesia — human trafficking.
The Rana Plaza tragedy exposed the hidden cost of Bangladesh’s $20 billion-a-year export garment industry. Jason Motlagh returns to investigate the systemic problems that led to the deadly collapse.
Global warming is happening faster around the Arctic Ocean than anywhere else. To adjust to this new climate, local communities must change the way they live and work – for better and for worse.
Tajikistan is chronically unstable and corrupt—and now bracing for more chaos from Afghanistan. Its president is staking his country's future on the biggest dam in the world.
China's investment in Zambia holds promise: billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. But after violent conflict between Zambian miners and their Chinese supervisors, does it also pose a threat?
In just a quarter century, one of the world's poorest countries has transformed itself into Africa's fourth-largest producer of gold. But at what cost to the children who labor in the mines?
Faced with the devastating twin threats of digital and China, can a critical Wisconsin industry survive?
Profitable as it is for multi-national companies, palm oil is extracted at a heavy social and environmental cost, making it one of the most controversial commodities in the world.
Tiny children and teens toil in the gold mines of the Philippines and Indonesia. A risky, often deadly, business, child labor is growing as families rush to exploit the worldwide demand for gold.
After 20 years of fading industry, rampant corruption, and no clear ideology, Russia is now on the move. Its young people are finding new homes in—and out—of the country.
Shiho Fukada documents the lives of disposable workers in Japan in stories that illustrate the global unemployment crisis and the growing gap between rich and poor that has provoked much turmoil.
In Ivory Coast—the world’s top cocoa producer—cocoa farmers bore the brunt of a civil war that killed thousands and displaced more than a million. A year after a power transfer, has anything changed?
Popular demonstrations against the rule of Vladimir Putin are sweeping across Russia. Will the demands of the middle class protesters force Putin to liberalize—or keep him from returning to power?
Explore Russia's nearly 300 single industry monotowns with a new interactive map.
Grantees Jack Shenker and Jason Larkin report from Marikana, South Africa where 34 striking mineworkers were killed two years ago this week.
How do you protect sex workers from the hazards of their trade? Sweden has a controversial answer.
Sean Gallagher's short documentary chosen from more than 10,000 entries focused on environmental photography and film.
Thailand's downgrade to "Tier 3" highlights rampant exploitation in the shrimp industry and lack of intervention by the government.
Last week Turkey began burying the dead from the country’s worst-ever coal mining disaster. The toll is expected to exceed 300.
Millions of women from poor countries work as caregivers in America, part of a massive but largely invisible workforce.
The 1,000-day period from the beginning of pregnancy to a child’s second birthday influences an individual’s ability to grow, learn, and work.
How can you tell if your clothes were manufactured in reputable factories? You can't. But two groups are trying to make a difference.
Pulitzer Center grantee Jason Motlagh reconstructs the Rana Plaza garment factory disaster.
It has been nearly a year since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh left more than 1,100 workers dead.
Pulitzer Center grantee Michael Edison Hayden first became interested in India's government hospitals after his wife gave birth to their son last May at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai.