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Who are you calling a corporate farmer?

Farmer of the Future, part 4: Agriculture is a big business fueled by big businesses. And although farmers themselves still come in many sizes, the distinction between corporate ownership and family farmer is blurring.

 

Slideshow: The farmer of the middle

The sustainable hand

Farmer of the Future, part 3: It seems every farming operation today professes to be "sustainable." We may not know if that’s true until decades from now, but farmers' choices today well may provide a game plan for tomorrow.

 

Video dispatch: Building a sustainable farm

U.S. farmland stays hot at record prices, Fed surveys show
Beef industry searches for solutions after pink slime uproar
Anticipation mounts for farm bill action
Study says ethanol cut gasoline by $1.09 a gallon in 2011
Take me to your fields: Robots on the farm

Farmer of the Future, part 2: With automation already popular on many farms, how far will technology go? Will the farmer of the future be a human farmer at all?

 

More: Robots on the dairy farm

Opinion: “The boom on the farm”
Blending of cultures may be blueprint for growth

Farmer of the Future, part 1: While some of the rural Midwest is hollowing out, regions like Sioux County, Iowa, are actually growing, thanks largely to immigrant populations moving in to take jobs that employers otherwise cannot fill. Melding cultures is never easy, but in communities like Sioux County, Latinos are slowly making the Midwest their home.

 

Interactive map: Hispanic growth in the Midwest

Opinion: "Thank you, Domino's, for trusting hog farmers"
More corn in the forecast
What is 'meat glue' and why isn't it on the label?
Opinion: "Hot doggin' it"
Missouri strengthens soybean connection to China

Missouri soybeans are exported all over the world and markets are growing. That means local Missouri farmers are making connections to global partners.

New index ranks Vermont tops in locally grown food
Blueberries in season at McDonald’s
Black farmers' quest for justice draws to a close
Early planting, lots of acres could mean record corn crop

Across the Corn Belt, the planting season is off to a roaring start. And with farmers expected to put in more acres of corn than they have since the Great Depression, this fall’s harvest could be one for the record books.

Mississippi County: One year after the breach
Oil, ethanol industries debate E15
Are USDA assurances on mad cow case 'gross oversimplification'?
A most unusual planting season

Last fall, officials predicted that farmland along the Missouri River in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas might be out of production for at least a year.  The flood of 2011 piled up sand dunes, gouged out deep holes, and killed off many of the microbes that help crops grow. But now it’s spring, and farmers are back on the land, trying to fix what nature broke.

Calif. could soon see labels for genetically modified food
Kashi cereal's 'natural' claims stir anger
E.U. rules could trim pork supply