In 2015, we put up a paywall like many independent nonprofit news organizations have done—as a way to raise funds to support our operations. Readers could access a small number of articles for free, and if they wanted to get past the paywall, they paid a fee to become a Civil Eats member. Our members care about independent food systems news, and the membership program has been critical in supporting our work as a small, nonprofit newsroom.
In 2024, we dropped our paywall and launched a campaign to make our award-winning reporting available to everyone.
Learn more about our paywall here—and become a member to support our work.