This story is a part of a Harvest Public Media series on carbon capture projects. Read about CO2 pipeline projects being proposed throughout the Midwest and how federal tax credits are helping launch the projects. When Andy Alexander moved into his grandparents’ farmhouse a few years ago, he knew he was moving in next to…
Food waste takes up space in landfills and produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Composting that waste can reduce climate impacts and save municipalities money on landfill fees, but concerns about bad smells and pests sometimes get in the way. In the middle of an urban farm, tucked behind houses…
It’s a hot, buggy morning and Derrick Hoffman is poking around a densely packed row of bushy cherry tomato plants. Behind him, rows of peppers, eggplant, kale and broccoli are still soaking up the sun, while just a few country roads away, bok choy and butter lettuce sprout under hoop house protection. But in the…
Juan Peña, 28, has worked in the fields since childhood, often exposing his body to extreme heat like the wave that hit the Midwest last week. The heat can cause such deep pain in his whole body that he just wants to lie down, he said, as his body tells him he can’t take another…
Despite the chatter and hustle of a dozen or so workers, the production line at Flamm Orchards in deep southern Illinois sits mostly quiet this summer. A cold spell in late December knocked out a vast majority of the 300-acre farm’s peach crop. “To have a loss as bad as we’ve had this year, it’s…
A group of Midwestern shrimp farmers are on a mission to provide Americans with better-tasting, sustainable shrimp. The industry struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but farmers remain hopeful that indoor shrimp farming will come back stronger than ever. Triple J Farms in Foristell, Missouri, looks like a typical Midwestern farm — a red barn sits…
The EPA has completed less than 5% of its Endangered Species Act caseload in reviewing pesticides. Now the agency is proposing a new strategy for scrutinizing agricultural chemicals’ effects on listed species.
A crane looms above a dusty field just outside of North Platte, Nebraska, where trucks loaded with dirt criss-cross the busy site and workers set up a foundation. Two years ago, an old sewer lagoon took up this stretch of land. Cattails and marshy soil made the field a swampy mess. Today, it’s the…
This year’s particularly dry spring drove a large part of the Midwest, including Missouri and Illinois, into drought. The lack of moisture has far-reaching implications, including on agricultural production and water levels on the country’s largest rivers. “Rain is essential—it is where drought starts and ends,” said Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford. “As we were…
Dryness in the Great Plains began spreading east this year, affecting much of the Midwest and endangering crops, livestock and river shipping. Recent rains have been a god-send, but will it be enough to loosen the years-long drought? Around the end of June, Ryan Krenk didn’t want to even look at his corn fields. Deep…
Elderberries are native to the Midwest, but the commercial cultivation of the crop is relatively recent, and saw a big increase during the coronavirus pandemic. That has the burgeoning industry wondering if its future is as a small, niche crop or something bigger.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave two companies the green light last month to produce and sell their cultivated chicken meat across the country. But it could still take years before people can buy the new meat at grocery stores.
Driving along the Rock River, Mitch Leatherbie, a street superintendent for the city of Rockford, Illinois, spots a pair of trees he considers survivors. “There’s two ash trees, right, they’re still standing,” said Leatherbie. “… Those were just a couple of them that we kept.” In the early 2000s, Rockford lost approximately 5,000 ash trees…
The pallid sturgeons outlasted dinosaurs, but human changes to the Missouri River nearly wiped out the prehistoric fish. Some experts think the fish’s struggle could signal larger problems on the Big Muddy, especially as climate change accelerates. Every day in the spring and fall when water temperatures are right, a team of scientists meet at…
Kansas wheat farmers will reap the smallest harvest in more than 60 years. Persistent drought withered much of the crop. SYLVAN GROVE, Kansas — Kansas is “the wheat state,” the officially adopted moniker that embraces its place as the country’s breadbasket. Tall white grain elevators, some decorated with wheat murals, loom over tiny farm towns….