Farm & Field
Food-obsessed filmmaker returns to her Napoleon, Missouri origins
Kelly Cox hangs with chefs, hunters, moonshiners and other characters across the country, filming her original web series Original Fare presented by PBS Food. She’s traveled the world searching for stories that cut through the pretty packaging and buzzwords of the foodie movement to make a slice of American authenticity accessible to all. Last November Kelly returned to…
Dual Personality
As a student in the early 1970s at the Kansas City Art Institute, Jerry Eisterhold found himself pondering wine in addition to graphic design. It was a brief phase, yet one that foretold the future. “I thought it would be a cool thing to be a wine aficionado,” Eisterhold remembers. “So I went down to…
Review Meets Preview
The Preview: We hate to humblebrag, but Flatland has had a big year. Inside the Hale Center, we burned through a lot of coffee gearing up for our October relaunch, where we showed off our new look. But Flatland is more than a pretty face. We’ve also re-tooled our digital focus, finding new ways to bring you into the…
USDA’s MIDAS Computer Program Tarnished; Overdue, Over Budget
Blake Hurst rides ten feet above his soybean field in northern Missouri, looking more like he’s playing a video game than driving a $350,000 high-tech piece of machinery. As he rolls across the land in his John Deere combine, joystick in hand, three computer monitors offer him a host of information. He knows how much…
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.