Farm Bill Deadline To Pass Without Extension, Against Wishes of Influential Groups
Congress has spent weeks trying to meld the House and Senate versions of the next farm bill into one agreeable piece of legislation. Left in the balance…
Ask The Newsroom: The State Of State Parks
Recently, we received a question from Mark Porter, who wanted to know more about the state of state parks in Illinois.
Hemp Program Underway In Illinois
Corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see are the typical sights of summer throughout rural areas of Illinois. But next year, ‘fields of green’…
The Cost Of Doing Business Across The Rural Digital Divide
Gary Smith has worked at the grain elevator at Okaw Farmer’s Co-op in Lovington, Illinois, for forty years. On his desk sit two computer screens, where…
Study: Cover Crops Reap Financial Benefits, Not Just Environmental
An increasing number of farmers is using cover crops to keep water, soil and nutrients from running off fields. But while many studies have shown the…
Soybean Farmers Win Big In $12 Billion Federal Aid Package
The details of the federal government’s $12 billion aid package for farmers affected by trade disputes are out — and soybean farmers are the major…
Shortage Of Rural Veterinarians Puts Farmers, Food Supply At Risk
Thirty-eight calves, between two and four months old, moo and kick at the dirt floor in a steel barn in Brush, Colorado. One by one, a handler leads…
How One Woman Escaped Sex Trafficking And Overcame Her Opioid Addiction
Jenn Glaser lie in bed with a severe pain in her right hip. In the last few days a large abscess had developed under her skin–an infection from injecting drugs. After six years of heroin addiction, Glaser had had many of these but always managed to take care of them on her own. She avoided…
Study: In Becoming The Bread Basket, Midwest Contributed To Climate Change. But There’s A Solution
New research suggests that no-till farming could help mitigate climate change. A study from Iowa State University, released Monday, examined Midwest land use between 1850 to 2015. As agriculture and the practice of tilling spread, less carbon was being stored in the ground and more was going into the atmosphere. That added to the carbon…