RAYMOND — A pig’s ideal temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit. So on a 90-degree day in the middle of July, Phil Borgic keeps a close eye on his herd. “A pig can’t sweat,” he says. “So the only way that it can transfer the heat is by panting.” https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s138/audio/2021/08/livestock-climate-change-hpm-web.mp3 The air is humid and heavy
TOLONO — Lin Warfel puts farmland owners in central Illinois into two categories: Those with a deep connection and desire to preserve their land, and those obsessed with short-term money. The 80-year-old still owns the land that’s been in his family since his great-grandfather arrived in Champaign County in the 1800’s. After farming it
BROADLANDS — When it rains on Joe Rothermel’s central Illinois farm, most of the water drains into the nearby East Branch Embarras River. There, it begins a journey south through the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. As it flows through more and more farmland, fertilizer runoff — which once nourished crops — compounds the water’s
On a recent Saturday, white vans shuttled small groups of migrant farmworkers from the southern Illinois orchard where they work to St. Joseph’s…
Dusty Spurgeon is proud to be a female farmer. She and her mother-in-law, Eloise, run Spurgeon Veggies, a small vegetable farm located in Rio, Illinois….
On the outskirts of Rantoul, in east-central Illinois, about 100 migrant farmworkers are living at an old hotel in a sleepy part of town. Every day at…
Ja Nelle Pleasure never used to think twice about putting food on the table for her family. In fact, the Pleasure family revolved around food. One of…