Renée Alexander
![](https://thecounter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Renee_Alexander_F8004_SQ_Hi_Res.jpg)
Renée Alexander grew up in North Carolina, where there are more pigs than people. Perhaps that's why she thinks everything tastes better with bacon. An intrepid traveler, she has chased solar eclipses in Australia, Indonesia, and Oregon; driven an auto-rickshaw across India, and made mezcal in Mexico. Her hobby is collecting tropical illnesses, including dengue fever. She currently lives in San Francisco, where she runs a boutique public relations firm and writes about food, booze, travel, and culture for Vice, Vice Munchies, Saveur, The Atlantic, Bay Area Bites, and 7x7 magazine.
![A mural of an indigenous woman shelling corn by Rosy Peraza Rios on the left. And an image of corn fields in Sonora, Mexico on the right. July 2021](https://thecounter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/v2_glyphosate-mexico-corn-maize-july-2021.jpg)
![Citizen scientists are trying to use mushroom science to clean up pollution from natural and human-made disasters. Credit: iStock / KsanasK, P_Wei, February 2019](https://thecounter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/mycoremediation-mushroom-pollution-natural-disaster-clean-up-february-2019-1.png)
![California's new Homemade Food Operations Act, if signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, would allow home cooks to run food operations out of their homes again. Credit: SolStock, September 2018](https://thecounter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/california-home-cooking-rule-cottage-food-act-september-2018.jpg)