The Midwest saw a record rise in the number of agricultural guest workers this year helping out on farms, in meatpacking plants and with landscaping companies. That jump fits with a national trend. The Department of Labor says the U.S. let in a record number of H-2A visa workers this year. Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas
From Iowa to Oklahoma to Kansas, universities are working more closely with agribusiness in search of ways to pay for projects where tax dollars have become more scarce. Critics worry that agriculture schools might focus more on industry than the public interest. Read Part I and Part II of this series. AMES, IOWA — Iowa
Large donors can put universities in potentially awkward positions when faculty conclusions conflict with the interests of those benefactors. Data collected by Harvest Public Media and Investigate Midwest show corporations have given at least $170 million to ag colleges in the past decade. Read Part II and Part III of this series. CHAMPAIGN — A major donor to the
Ranchers in Nebraska are rebelling against the “Big Four” meat companies by planning their own beef processing plant. They’re seeking a transformation for themselves, the industry and western Nebraska. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s60/audio/2021/11/beefplantwebfin.mp3 Plans to disrupt the Nebraska beef industry began in Hanoi, Vietnam. Rancher Rusty Kemp was on a 2019 trade trip with Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts.
MORTON — The great pumpkin shortage of 2021 is turning out to be as real as Linus’ Great Pumpkin. Neither ever showed. Instead, despite some national headlines about a pumpkin shortage this year, Midwestern farmers say there’s nothing to worry about. “God granted us quite a bounty this year,” says John Ackerman, who grows pumpkins
GIBSON CITY – In August, nine inches of rain dumped on one of Randy Aberle’s fields of corn and soybeans near Gibson City, Illinois. “We had some areas in those fields that the water was four feet deep,” he says. Luckily, he says, those fields have enough slope that the water drained off within a
Friday, April 16, 2021 Today’s headlines: Video of the fatal Chicago police shooting of Adam Toledo shows the 13-year-old raising his arms above his head the moment he is shot. COVID-19 is seeing a new resurgence in Region 2 of Illinois. The president of OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria says his hospital is currently at
Hemp is a hard crop to grow — just ask Jay Kata. “We were filthy and we were dirty and we were sweaty and it sucked and it was hot and it was miserable…
In late July 2019, a group of migrant farmworkers from south Texas was working in a cornfield in DeWitt County, Ill., when suddenly a crop duster flew…
It’s been almost ten months since the signing of the first phase of a trade agreement between the United States and China. In the lofty deal, China…
En las afueras de Rantoul, en el centro-este de Illinois, unos 100 trabajadores agrícolas migrantes están viviendo en un viejo hotel localizado en una…
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…
In the midst of what has otherwise been a heavy, unrelenting year, many Midwesterners have found solace in the dirt. So-called “COVID gardens” have…
When you walk into Cyndy Ash’s barn, one of the first things you notice is a huge burlap sack, bursting at the seams with wool. “We’re sitting on about…
The number of families experiencing food insecurity has hit a record due to the pandemic, and Black and Hispanic families are disproportionately…