Writer Cookson Beecher has won two first prizes in the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) annual competition for articles published by Food Safety News .
To be awarded first prize at the national level, she must have achieved first prize in the organization’s At-Large division, which includes approximately 20 different states.
One of the articles “Agrivoltaics achieves impressive triple win, but still has some food safety concerns” involved using solar panels to generate electricity for houses, barns and even farm equipment, and growing crops.
Another article, “Super Bugs Bedevil Food,” deals with antibiotic resistance, which some human and animal health experts call a “slow epidemic.”
The first judges on solar praised Beecher for writing a well thought out and executed piece. “The difference between a good writer and a great writer is being able to take a complex topic, or a topic completely foreign to the reader, and explain it thoroughly,” the judge said.
The judges of the second article on antibiotic resistance praised the article for being well organized and well written.
The award was presented in June at the NFPW 2022 meeting in Fargo, North Dakota.
About Cookson Beecher: Beecher has been an agriculture and environmental reporter for 12 years at Capital Press, a four-nation newspaper covering agriculture and forestry issues in the Pacific Northwest. Before working at Capital Press, she was editor of the Courier Times, a small-town newspaper in Skagit County, Washington. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hunter College in New York City, and worked for a publishing company in midtown Manhattan before moving west. In the 1970s and 1980s, she and her family lived in northern Idaho, where they built a log cabin and lived a “pioneer life” without running water and electricity for nearly 10 years. She currently lives in rural Skagit County, Washington.
About NFPW: NFPW members are professional women and men who adhere to the NFPW Code of Ethics. According to the organization’s website, the organization calls for upholding the truth of the news. sex, objectivity, fairness and freedom. They offer the opportunity to purchase affordable libel insurance. The NFPW Education Fund provides funding for professional development. They provide constructive feedback and accolades through professional communication competitions at the state and national level.
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