Agriculture

Radishes, carrots, greens and leeks are piled on a table.

Break Out the Tote Bags: Farmers Market Season Has Arrived

Kansas City area farmers markets are trying to hold the line on prices as grocery prices soar, while touting the benefits of buying fresh produce from local growers.

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U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, joined by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), is briefed by National Bio and Agri-Defense Facility Site Project Manger Tim Barr about the status of the facility being built on the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, Kansas, on May 30, 2018.

Opening This Spring in Kansas: A High-Tech Lab Researching Livestock Diseases

Construction is wrapping up at a new biological research lab in Manhattan, Kansas, where researchers will study vaccines and treatments for highly contagious diseases that affect livestock and humans.

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Center pivot irrigation systems like this one in Finney County pump water up from the Ogallala aquifer to spray on crops. This part of southwest Kansas experienced some of the state's worst aquifer declines last year as drought pushed farmers to pump more water from underground.

How Kansas Could Lose Billions in Land Values as its Underground Water Runs Dry

The water in the Ogallala aquifer is worth billions of dollars to western Kansas, but it’s rapidly disappearing. And it’s been a challenge to find ways to slow the depletion.

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Former Haviland mayor Robert Ellis stands between pipes inside the small town's multimillion-dollar water treatment plant.

As Fertilizer Pollutes Tap Water in Small Towns, Rural Kansans Pay the Price

For towns with only a few hundred residents, keeping tap water clean and safe can pose a crippling expense. The predicament is likely to become more common in western Kansas as farm chemicals seep into dwindling water supplies.

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American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall spoke at the organization’s 2022 annual convention in Atlanta.

American Farm Bureau Federation Claims it’s the ‘Voice of Agriculture.’ Others Beg to Differ

While the best-known, best-funded “voice” of farmers, the American Farm Bureau is far from the only one.

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Sign on a mirror reads: hemp engineered manufactured products

‘Highway to Hemp’: Building, Making and Dreaming Big with Hemp Fiber

Manufacturers are finding new ways to make sustainable products using hemp fiber.

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A man drips CBD extract into a bucket.

Highway to Hemp: ‘Wild West’ of the CBD Market

Prices for CBD plummeted in 2019 as producers flooded the market, but those who stayed in the game are hopeful that FDA approval will blossom the industry.

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Food Fight: How Kansas City Struggles to Feed Its Families

According to Feeding America, one in eight people in the United States face food insecurity. Of those who are food insecure, only 50% are eligible for SNAP benefits. The result is a food chain stretched to the breaking point, families going hungry, people losing hope and a charitable sector struggling to help.

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A cornfield in Champaign County, Illinois.

Fertilizer Washes off Midwest Farm Fields and Taints Communities’ Drinking Water, Poisons Gulf of Mexico

As rainfall events become more intense and frequent, fertilizers applied to Midwestern farmland wash away, contaminating waterways near and far.

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Melissa Nelson-Baldwin catches hemp hurds as they fall out of the decorticator at South Bend Industrial Hemp.

‘Highway to Hemp’: Waves of Fiber and Grain

South Bend Industrial Hemp, located at the outskirts of Great Bend, Kansas, is at the cutting edge of the emerging industrial hemp economy.

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