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GRAPHIC: Insurance spending gap between corn and other crops at widest ever in 2023
Impacted by drought and export disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, insurance spending for corn versus that for other crops in 2023 grew to its widest-ever gap. Increases in annual total corn premiums outpaced other highly-insured crops over the past five years. These policy premiums are paid for, in part, by government subsidies, which on average covered 62% of the crop insurance costs for farmers in 2022, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Hive Mentality: Drone swarms are on the horizon
This story was originally published by Ambrook Research. Envision a classic pastoral landscape: wide open spaces, cows grazing, bales of hay. In the distance, a structure — likely a rustic red barn. Or is it a giant metal shipping container abuzz with hundreds of aerial drones?. This is the...
‘We should have a sense of urgency’ as farm drainage tile drives nutrient pollution
* There are over 50 million acres of drainage tile in the U.S., almost all estimated to be in the Midwest. They contribute to excess loads of nitrate and phosphorus in our waterways, and can also move contaminants like PFAS or “forever chemicals” and heavy metals. * Wetter...
Could the Mississippi River benefit from Chesapeake Bay’s strategy to improve water quality?
* Chesapeake Bay’s water quality improvement initiative uses a legally enforceable pollution quota to reduce nutrient runoff. The multi-state agreement is one of few like it in the nation. * Despite the program’s best efforts, the region has missed two deadlines for nitrogen and phosphorus reductions, and a third...
Not just a Gulf problem: Mississippi River farm runoff pollutes upstream waters
* Upstream communities are now starting to see costs of the Gulf’s dead zone problem closer to home, as their drinking water has become contaminated. * Several Midwest states with economies driven by agriculture, such as Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska, have pockets of nitrate pollution where soils are sensitive and porous.
At the mouth of the Mississippi, Louisiana bears the burden of upstream runoff. Why doesn’t it push for solutions?
* The 2025 target for cutting nutrient runoff into the Gulf does not appear to be a priority for the federal Gulf Hypoxia Task Force, which, along with Louisiana, has not raised funds from Congress to implement programs that would reduce nutrient pollution. * Louisiana has the power to petition...
As conservation lags, so does progress in slashing Gulf’s ‘dead zone’
* Opt-in conservation programs for farmers are not working. Just one year away from a 2025 deadline to reduce nitrate and phosphorus entering the Gulf by 20%, success seems unlikely. * Seventy percent of the nitrate load to the Gulf comes from agriculture. * Even with the government subsidizing conservation...
Oklahoma governor vetoes effort to enforce the state’s groundwater limits
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a bill requiring groundwater users to prove they are staying under state-imposed limits, keeping the state as one of the few above the declining Ogallala Aquifer not to require agriculture well owners to track water usage. Investigate Midwest recently reported that groundwater levels in the...
GRAPHIC: Most corn planted in the US is engineered to resist herbicides and kill insects
Nearly all of the corn grown in the United States is from genetically engineered seeds designed to resist both bugs and herbicides, a shift that has largely taken place in the past 20 years. Genetically engineered seeds most commonly fall into two broad categories: herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant. Herbicide-tolerant varieties are...
Tyson Foods, Cal-Maine Foods sued for alleged antitrust action
Farmers who raised chickens for Tyson Foods have filed a class action lawsuit against the meat company, alleging that the company broke its promise not to engage in antitrust behavior. The complaint filed in the Circuit Court of Stoddard County, Missouri, on June 6 alleges that Tyson Foods promised local...
As Illinois session ends, lawmakers’ attempt to reinstate wetland protections fails
In 2006, 19-year-old Jessica Whinston inherited 20 acres of land that her grandparents once farmed in Quincy, Illinois. The land had sat dormant since the 1980s and was overgrown, but Whinston and her husband Bradley worked to turn it into a productive farm. The couple were eventually able to produce 100,000 pounds of vegetables a season.
‘Dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico predicted to be bigger than average this summer
The “dead zone” forms in the Gulf of Mexico every summer. It’s caused by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, largely from farm fertilizer and municipal runoff, which are carried down the Mississippi River and into the gulf. Algae feeds on those nutrients and when it dies, bacteria deplete oxygen in the water, causing marine life to die or avoid the area.
‘None of us saw this coming’: Michigan confronts bird flu in cows
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. Laurie Stanek shovels hay in front of a group of young, black and white Holstein cows. “We’re out here at 5 o’clock every morning to get started feeding the babies,” she said. In...
Illinois Legislature puts the brakes on a carbon capture boom
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, environmental media organization. The Midwest’s largest potential reservoir to store carbon is buried deep under the farmland of Illinois, and the state’s lawmakers just hit the brakes on any plans for a carbon capture and storage boom there.
Add dicamba access to uncertainty facing farmers next year
Being a farmer means accepting uncertainty. Will it rain enough? Has it rained too much? What will the upcoming heat spell do to my crops? Is that bug invasion on my soybeans serious enough to spend big money to contain? What will prices be like in the fall when I have to sell? The list is truly endless.
GRAPHIC: Dollar stores impact rural grocery stores more than urban ones, USDA analysis shows
For years, rural areas have dealt with declining food options — fewer restaurants and grocery stores. One option that has popped in recent decades is the dollar store. When dollar stores enter a marketplace, whether rural or urban, grocery stores are affected negatively, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers who used proprietary data.
Oklahoma governor signs bill shielding poultry companies from lawsuits over chicken litter pollution
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he was “very excited” to sign into law a bill that shields poultry corporations from lawsuits over pollution caused by chicken waste, which for decades has led to high rates of phosphorus and E. coli in the state’s eastern waterways. Senate Bill...
In West Virginia’s ‘Poultry Capital,’ immigrant workers struggle to find the help and support they need
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. This is the second story in a two-part series. Read part one here. MOOREFIELD, West Virginia — Tatiana had two options after she lost her job in 2020, and both of them broke her heart. The first was to stay...
In one of the most dangerous workplaces in West Virginia, a poultry giant has profited from immigrant labor for decades
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. This is the first story in a two-part series. Read part two here. MOOREFIELD, West Virginia — On a rainy afternoon in 2020, Pilgrim’s Pride’s West Virginia chicken factory was dirty. The slaughterhouse has sharp metal hooks, deboning...
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