Harvest Public Media
Detective Veterinarian Pursues Mysterious Globe-Trotting Virus
Editor’s Note: This is Part II of a two-part series from KCPT’s partner, Harvest Public Media, tracking the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea. To catch up on Part I, click here. Veterinarian and researcher Scott Dee doesn’t much look the part of a detective, in his jeans and company polo shirt. But when a virus never before seen…
Deadly pig virus remains a mystery – and a threat
Editor’s Note: This is Part I of a two-part series from KCPT’s partner, Harvest Public Media, tracking the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea. Look for Part II tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 20th, here on Flatland. A fast-spreading virus never before seen in the United States hit the pork industry more than two years ago, racking up roughly $1 billion…
Tracking a Virus
In the spring of 2013, hundreds of baby pigs were dying off and nobody knew what was making them so sick. As a deadly virus hopscotched across farms, researchers went to work as disease detectives, hoping to contain, identify and track the cause. The virus was identified as Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea, never before seen in…
Fuel: It’s What’s For Dinner
There are few places where the connection between energy and food is more obvious than at the Bright Agrotech warehouse in Laramie, Wyo. Most of the building is filled floor to ceiling with giant shelves of cardboard boxes and tubing—equipment Bright Agrotech sells to farmers—but in one corner of the warehouse, there’s a small farm:…
EPA Increases Mandate For Ethanol
The amount of ethanol blended into the U.S. fuel supply will go up under new rules issued Monday. In releasing the details of the Renewable Fuel Standard, the policy that sets the amount of biofuels oil refiners must blend into the fuel supply, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to continue to increase the…
What’s eating you about energy and food production?
As part of the “Feasting on Fuel” reporting series, we’d like to know what questions you have about food and energy.
What Is The Carbon Footprint Of A Typical Thanksgiving Dinner?
Mike Berners-Lee may not be an expert on the American Thanksgiving. A native of the UK, he’s never actually had the pleasure of experiencing one. But as one of the world’s leading researchers on the carbon footprint of—well—everything (he even wrote a book subtitled “The Carbon Footprint of Everything”), he’s plenty familiar with the impacts of…
Looking To Settle Down, Immigrant Workers Face Housing Crisis
The immigrant workers that pick crops like cotton and melons in the U.S. can have a tough time finding a place to live. The rural areas where they can find work often lack the social services and affordable housing. That means many farm worker families end up in dilapidated buildings, which can come with health…
Farmers school themselves on soil health to revive dying dirt
Generations of tilling and planting on the same land have left the nation’s soil in poor shape. And if farmers don’t change the way they grow crops, feeding the future won’t be easy. As farmer Jordan Shearer from Slapout, Okla., puts it, “we’re creating a desert environment by plowing the damn ground.” Taking a toll…
Food Companies Pressure Farmers To Reduce Runoff
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on agricultural runoff from Harvest Public Media. The first part of the series ran on Flatland on September, 26. In order to grow massive amounts of corn and soybeans, two crops at the center of the U.S. food system, farmers in the Midwest typically apply hundreds…