Ezra David Romero
Ezra David Romero is an award-winning radio reporter and producer. His stories have run on Morning Edition, Morning Edition Saturday, Morning Edition Sunday, All Things Considered, Here & Now, The Salt, Latino USA, KQED, KALW, Harvest Public Radio, etc.
Romero worked with Valley Public Radio from 2012-2017. He landed at KVPR after interning with Al Jazeera English during the 2012 presidential election. His series ‘Voices of the Drought’ using the hashtag #droughtvoices has garnered over 1 million impressions on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. It's also resulted in two photography exhibits and a touring pop-up gallery traveling across California. Stories affiliated with #droughtvoices have run locally, statewide and on national air. In January he was awarded a Golden Mike Award from the Radio & Television News Association for Southern California for this series. He beat out some of the largest radio stations in the state.
In 2015 he was awarded a first place radio award by the Fresno County Farm Bureau for a piece on the nation’s first agricultural hackathon.
In early 2015, he was awarded two prestigious Golden Mike Awards through the RTNA of Southern California for a piece on budding tech in Central California and a story on Spanish theater. Valley Edition, the show Romero produces, was named for the best Public Affairs Program for 2013 by the RTNDA of Northern California.
He’s a graduate of California State University Fresno, where he studied journalism (digital media) and geography. He has worked for the Fresno Bee covering police, elections, government and higher education. In 2012 he was a Gruner Award finalist for his 13-part Sanger Herald series on obesity in Sanger, Calif.
In his spare time, Romero hikes the Sierra Nevada, takes road trips to the Pacific Coast and frequently visits ice cream shops.
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Tomato plants grown in large scale outdoors are often selected for hardiness more than taste. What if you could boost disease resistance, flavor and yield? Researchers think they can — by grafting. -
A relatively new variety of almond tree called Independence has some beekeepers nervous. These trees are self-fertile — meaning they technically don't need bees to pollinate their flowers. -
Iran is historically known for its pistachios. With sanctions against Iran lifted, its growers are free to sell in the U.S. Iranian nuts haven't flooded the U.S. yet — but that could soon change. -
A lot of El Nino-related precipitation is falling on an area devastated by a giant 150,000 acre fire that burned last summer. Dirt and debris are flowing into lakes, and farmers are worried.
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High almond prices led many California growers to put in new plantings in recent years. Too many, it seems: Oversupply has helped push prices down by about 20 percent. -
Harvesting grapes usually takes thousands of workers. But a new raisin grape variety bred in Central California could dramatically cut down on the need for labor. -
California's fig industry has undergone some big changes, but after years of struggles, some farmers hope growing consumer interest in fresh produce might finally provide a turnaround. -
A lack of crops for bees to pollinate has California's beekeeping industry on edge. Some are feeding their colonies pricey processed bee food or moving their hives out of state to forage. -
After a scientist on a hike in Sequoia National Park saw trees with thin and browning needles, it got scientists thinking: Did the drought cause this? So they're climbing up them to study the damage. -
In the state's agricultural Central Valley, planning is under way to transform peach and plum fields into Kings River Village, a solar-powered community that will send wastewater back into an aquifer.
