About 100,000 Illinoisans will lose food stamps under a rule change finalized by the Trump administration this week. The rule change to the SNAP program, as food stamps are now called, takes effect in April. It will make it harder for states to waive work and time limit requirements for able-bodied adults to receive assistance….
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has paid out a record $4.24 billion in claims for acres farmers couldn’t plant this year. The “prevented planting”…
While local 4-H groups are known for summer programming, educator Julie Kreikemeier works with hundreds of students year-round across Colfax and Cuming…
It’s a difficult year for many farmers in the United States. A wet spring flooded crops and delayed planting across the Midwest, while trade conflicts…
Reporting any story means having to learn more about myself, what I care about and what I want to do next. For example, I once talked with John Gruidl of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs. He said a lot of younger folks now choose a place to live before they choose a job, and…
Every summer, thousands of Midwestern kids as young as 13 load onto school buses early in the morning to do one of the hottest, dirtiest temporary jobs…
There’s millions of dollars to be made from growing hemp, which for years was lumped in and vilified with its sister plant, marijuana. With the…
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is cosponsoring legislation that would rollback one of the provisions of the 1994 crime bill. It’s called the Restoring…
Between the growing warehouse district and the south side of Peoria, Illinois, sits 1312 SW Adams Street. The city-owned building looks like a great…
Farmers have been using the weed killer glyphosate – a key ingredient of the product Roundup – at soaring levels even as glyphosate has become…
Summer festivals are ubiquitous (especially across the Midwest), and often highlight the local food specialty, be it corn, apples or beef. But when the…
Floodwaters on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers may be going down, but rain has continued to soak farmland around much of the state. More rain could…
The Missouri River swamped Scott Olson’s land in March — the second time in the last eight years. Flooding tore holes in his fields and left mounds of…
A Silicon Valley startup is pitting itself against major seed companies, alleging that those companies are price gouging in the Heartland. Farmers…
Farm income has taken a long, hard fall, dropping 50 percent since hitting a high point in 2013. Add to that near-record levels of farm debt, and you…