In 2008, farmers grew more than enough to feed the world, yet more people starved than ever before—and most of them were farmers. Harper’s magazine contributing editor Frederick Kaufman investigates the connection between the global food system and why the food on our tables is getting less healthy and less delicious even as the world's biggest food companies and food scientists say things are better than ever. In Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food, he moves down the supply chain like a detective solving a mystery, revealing the forces undermining our food system.

Not long ago, writer Mary Roach got a real hands-on lesson on the gut: she got to stick her hand inside a real live cow stomach, and experience digestion from the inside. When we heard about her adventure, we had to try it ourselves—so producer Tim Howard headed to Rutgers ...

How do you square the idea of a bad person who does great good? Or a good person who does terrible harm? Sam Kean introduces us to the confusing life story of Fritz Haber. Around 1900, Haber was a young chemist in Germany, intent on solving the biggest problem facing ...

We track the journey of human excrement, from the toilet to the treatment tanks. Also: what does the future of waste treatment look like? Frederick Kaufman’s article in the February issue of Harper’s Magazine is "Wasteland: A Journey Through the American Cloaca."