Farm & Field
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…
USDA whistleblower claims censorship of pesticide research
A senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a whistleblower complaint on Wednesday accusing the federal agency of suppressing research findings that could call into question the use of a popular pesticide class that is a revenue powerhouse for the agrichemical industry. Jonathan Lundgren, a senior research entomologist with the USDA’s Agriculture Research…
From ‘combine karaoke’ to cursing: The sounds of harvest in the Midwest
How farmers entertain themselves driving a combine cab during Harvest season and what this time of year sounds like on a farm.
Bridging the cultural divide through soccer
Fort Morgan is a town of about 11,000 people tucked into the farmland of northeastern Colorado. Among its residents are people of Latino and European ancestry, and more recent immigrants, including refugees from eastern Africa. The town is home to a Cargill meat-packing plant. In areas home to the meatpacking industry across the Midwest, it’s…
Cargill Executive Says Climate Change Threatens Food Production
Climate change is real and must be addressed head-on to prevent future food shortages. That’s the message Cargill Executive Director Greg Page delivered Monday night to an audience at Kansas State University in Manhattan. “Climate change is not a particularly popular subject in much of the heartland,” he said. “But at Cargill, we have come to believe…
Choice Cuts: Ready For a Cricket Taco?
This is the fifth and final part of Harvest Public Media’s week-long series Choice Cuts: Meat In America, examining how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and the American diet. The documentary on the subject, which aired Thursday on KCPT, will re-air Sunday at 9am and Monday at 10pm on KCPT. Beef, poultry and pork are staples of the American diet,…
Choice Cuts: Farmers raising meat look to keep up with your changing diet
Harvest Public Media’s series “Choice Cuts: Meat In America” examines how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and diet