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Egg prices, foreign ownership of land, Prop 12 … What’s the most consequential ag story of 2023?
In the past year, there have been any number of potentially consequential agricultural events. But at the end of the day for me, there is one clear choice as the most consequential. And it’s not really all that close. Before we delve into the 2023 winner, let’s review a number of stories and issues that didn’t quite make the cut.
‘We can’t sit back’: Amid polluted water and climbing cancer rates, Iowa eyes farm chemicals
Articles in this project are edited by Carey Gillam, managing editor of The New Lede. Faced with a startlingly high cancer rate in the key U.S. farm state of Iowa, public health leaders are taking the politically precarious step of acknowledging that preventing disease necessitates cutting exposure to potentially cancer-causing chemicals, including those used in agriculture.
GRAPHIC: Eastern and northeastern states have been the most successful in their applications for USDA’s conservation programs
Conservation programs that provide federal money to farmers for climate solutions have been underfunded over the past four years. During this period, only three out of 10 landowner applications for the two main programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), received funding between 2018 and 2022, according to Investigate Midwest’s analysis of application and funding data the USDA provided The Gazette.
Secret Acres: Boom or bubble? High farmland prices encourage investors, concern farmers
A lot can change in just under three years — a flip in control of the House of Representatives, four new iPhone models, a once-groundbreaking vaccine now offered alongside annual flu shots. This story was reported in partnership with Investigate Midwest. Gray’s National Investigative Team is covering issues surrounding...
Nonstop dredging kept the Mississippi River open this year, but moving mountains of sand creates its own problems
Historic low flows turned the Mississippi River into a construction area in 2023, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged huge quantities of sand to keep the channel open for barge traffic. Massive machines like the Dredge Goetz, a 225-foot-long vessel with a suction pipe nearly two feet wide, were moving through the river constantly to keep it clear.
The watchdogs: After Wisconsin landowners discover plans to spread pig manure without consent, critics call for stronger oversight
* Critics of a proposed pig farm in Trade Lake, Wisconsin, found a way to stall it: preventing land use for spreading the millions of gallons of manure the farm would generate annually. * State rules require large livestock farm owners to have a sufficient land base on which to...
Ted Turner, longtime Nebraska land baron, still buying as next chapter nears
This story was originally published by the Flatwater Free Press. Long before anyone talked about China, Bill Gates or multinational corporations buying up Nebraska land, another name was spoken, with curiosity and frustration, on farms and ranches from Ord to Ogallala. Ted Turner, they said. Ted Turner is buying everything.
The businessman: Pig farm developer gains little trust in Wisconsin town. He doesn’t particularly care.
* Critics have accused an agriculture developer of disregarding local concerns and misrepresenting himself in his push to construct the state’s largest pig farm, which they believe foreshadows the lack of care and transparency under which the farm would operate. * As opponents gathered additional information about the proposed...
GRAPHIC: In past decade, global agriculture’s rate of growth has slowed
Globally, the agriculture industry has enjoyed increasing productivity over the past several decades. Technological advances, such as varieties of crops that can produce more than in the past, have helped spurred this growth. But the rate of that growth has slowed in the past decade, according to an analysis from...
Who’s Buying Nebraska? Foreign companies deeply involved in farmland — but not how you think
This story was originally published by the Flatwater Free Press. first story and the second story in the series. On sweltering summer days Mike Zakrzewski’s cows neatly line themselves up by the hundreds in their pastures. They shift sideways as the sun crosses the sky, following a narrow line...
‘Forever chemicals’ found in freshwater fish, yet most states don’t warn residents
This story was originally reported by KFF Health News. Bill Eisenman has always fished. “Growing up, we ate whatever we caught — catfish, carp, freshwater drum,” he said. “That was the only real source of fish in our diet as a family, and we ate a lot of it.”
GRAPHIC: Ag emissions from world’s top ag emitters have trended up slightly since 2015, nonprofit data says
Tens of thousands of officials, political leaders, advocates and industry representatives have descended on Dubai for this year’s United Nations annual climate summit known as COP28. Delegates worldwide have signed pledges to reduce greenhouse emissions from agriculture sources this year. The summit focuses on food systems and sustainable agriculture,...
US push to produce methane from manure raises concerns
AMES, IOWA — In a gathering that drew the attendance of both farmers and Wall Street financiers, U.S. regulators joined with oil giant Chevron at a November conference here to promote what backers promise will be a monumental breakthrough — systemic changes that would turn polluting agricultural waste into a source of renewable energy that replaces fossil fuels and slows climate change.
Climate report indicates dire future for Mississippi River basin, which is already feeling impacts
The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released earlier this month, warns of wide-ranging climate impacts throughout the United States. The implications for people and the environment in the Mississippi River basin are extreme, but experts stress that it is not too late to slow the worsening effects. From its headwaters in...
‘Throw me a bone here’: Small meat processors say USDA measures don’t address consolidated industry’s root problems
Over the past two decades, Greg Gunthorp carved out a niche operating a small meat processing plant in northern Indiana. He sold several kinds of meat to chic Chicago and Indianapolis restaurants and to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, he said. He also sold direct to consumers. But selling in...
GRAPHIC: Foreign-owned land growing across the United States
Since 2015, the amount of land owned or leased by foreign individuals or companies has more than tripled, sparking increased political attention on whether new restrictions should be put in place. Foreign-owned land nationwide remained steady at around 15 million acres during the 1980s and 1990s, according to USDA records.
FDA must test food color additives to improve public trust
What food additive does the Food and Drug Administration deem potentially cancerous if applied to the skin, but is just peachy keen to digest?. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you erythrosine, more commonly known as FD&C Red No. 3, a synthetic food coloring derived from fluorone. I know what you...
Who’s Buying Nebraska? After shopping spree, Mormon church is top land purchaser
This story was originally published by the Flatwater Free Press. first story in the series here. Early in the summer of 2018, a nonprofit few Nebraskans have heard of bought a 22,613-acre chunk of land in Garden County. The next year, the nonprofit, tied to a P.O. Box in Salt...
A Kansas City farm school shows how the Farm Bill is helping develop urban ag
KANSAS CITY, Kansas, (DTN) — At a holiday market on Monday, the KC Farm School at Gibbs Road hosted about 20 vendors who included people selling beauty aids, teas and soap, but also fresh produce, baked items, and some meat and eggs. As people shopped, the farm also included information about using various federal and state food-aid programs as well.
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