Back in April, I wrote an opinion piece that got published in the Los Angeles Times. In that article, I argued that if Americans reduced their consumption of beef by a third—eating the equivalent of two hamburgers per week, on average, instead of three—it could help solve the water supply crisis on the Colorado River.
In July, Erin Stone, a climate reporter for the L.A. National Public Radio (NPR) station, LAist, reached out to me. She was working on a story about whether changing our diet could help address the Colorado River crisis. She had read my article and wondered if I'd be open to an interview. I agreed, and a few days later a photographer was snapping photos of me and my home (like the one above), and the reporter sat in my living room with a big fuzzy microphone, asking me questions.
Last week, her audio story finally ran on the NPR news program, Morning Edition, and her article posted on the NPR and LAist websites. None of my interview made it into her article, but she did mention my opinion piece in her audio segment. Unfortunately, in that audio, she called me "Andrew Mead." (Sigh.) However, she corrected the mistake in the LAist version of the audio, and NPR updated their website with a correction (though their audio is still wrong...).
Despite the mishaps, I'm gratified that my article got national media coverage, and, more importantly, that my idea sparked a conversation about the link between beef and the Colorado River—a critically important natural resource issue.
I heard the NPR story and figured your editorial was behind it. Too bad that the NPR reporter did not acknowledge you being the source of this important thought piece. I have had similar experiences with reporters and have heard others with the same complaint. Glad to see you publishing the "back story" here - you deserve to get credit for beginning this critical conversation.