Taryn Phaneuf is a Minnesota-based independent journalist reporting on the food system and how communities interact with it, including the challenges it presents and solutions they need. In particular, she's interested in demystifying the role of science, public policy, and culture in shaping how and what we eat. Her work appears at MinnPost, Minne Inno, TheAtlantic.com, Crosscut, Civil Eats, and The Inlander, among others.
Taryn earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and sociology from the University of Minnesota in 2011. She started her career at the Minnesota Daily – an award-winning student-run publication. Later, she was a projects reporter at the Bowling Green Daily News in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where she worked closely with staff photographers to tell visually focused stories that took a deeper, more personal look at issues of the day: housing, public health, economic development, and higher education. She sought online training in data analysis and visualization to produce fuller stories. While on staff, Taryn reported on conditions at two dysfunctional county-funded animal shelters – stories which preceded systemic changes at the facilities.
Taryn started her career as an independent reporter covering food-related economic development, policy, and research in Washington for local and national publications. She seeks opportunities to work with journalists with different expertise, including in photo, video, data, and design. She returns to Kentucky annually to volunteer as a writing coach at Mountain Workshops – a weeklong bootcamp for visual journalists orchestrated by Western Kentucky University and held in a different community around the state each year, documenting place and people at a point in time. She teaches participants techniques for developing a story, interviewing for narrative, and writing visually as they complete assignments. In 2018, Taryn participated in Mountain's first digital storytelling workshop, working in a team to produce a story as a web presentation.
Born in Fargo, North Dakota, and raised on or near Air Force bases on the east coast, Taryn is more likely to claim Minnesota as home because that’s where she met and married Ben, learned to tell stories, and fell in love with the outdoors. The Phaneufs often travel the country to rock climb, backpack, and mountain bike. Over the years, they’ve climbed tens of thousands of feet of rock and explored the mountains by bike, boot, crampon, and snowshoe.
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Taryn earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and sociology from the University of Minnesota in 2011. She started her career at the Minnesota Daily – an award-winning student-run publication. Later, she was a projects reporter at the Bowling Green Daily News in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where she worked closely with staff photographers to tell visually focused stories that took a deeper, more personal look at issues of the day: housing, public health, economic development, and higher education. She sought online training in data analysis and visualization to produce fuller stories. While on staff, Taryn reported on conditions at two dysfunctional county-funded animal shelters – stories which preceded systemic changes at the facilities.
Taryn started her career as an independent reporter covering food-related economic development, policy, and research in Washington for local and national publications. She seeks opportunities to work with journalists with different expertise, including in photo, video, data, and design. She returns to Kentucky annually to volunteer as a writing coach at Mountain Workshops – a weeklong bootcamp for visual journalists orchestrated by Western Kentucky University and held in a different community around the state each year, documenting place and people at a point in time. She teaches participants techniques for developing a story, interviewing for narrative, and writing visually as they complete assignments. In 2018, Taryn participated in Mountain's first digital storytelling workshop, working in a team to produce a story as a web presentation.
Born in Fargo, North Dakota, and raised on or near Air Force bases on the east coast, Taryn is more likely to claim Minnesota as home because that’s where she met and married Ben, learned to tell stories, and fell in love with the outdoors. The Phaneufs often travel the country to rock climb, backpack, and mountain bike. Over the years, they’ve climbed tens of thousands of feet of rock and explored the mountains by bike, boot, crampon, and snowshoe.
Follow her work or get in touch:
