KUNC

         

May. 21, 2013

How would you vote on Missouri’s ‘Right-to-Farm’ amendment?

By: 
Abbie Fentress Swanson
(twi$tbarbie/Flickr)
(twi$tbarbie/Flickr)

Next year, Missouri voters will get a chance to consider a controversial constitutional amendment that would affirm the rights of farmers to engage in modern farming and ranching practices

So-called “Right-to-Farm” laws have been proposed in many states and North Dakota became the first state with similar legislation on the books when voters passed a measure there last year. The laws seek to ban ballot initiatives that would force changes in the way farmers and ranchers operate and ensure that only the Legislature has the ability to write laws regulating farming practices.

Groups that want to see tighter regulation of farming and livestock practices have used ballot initiatives as one of their main legislative weapons in the past.

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May. 16, 2013

5 things you should know about genetically modified food

By: 
Jeremy Bernfeld
The USDA says about 88 percent of all corn planted in 2012 is genetically engineered. (Caveman Chuck Coker/Flickr)
The USDA says about 88 percent of all corn planted in 2012 is genetically engineered. (Caveman Chuck Coker/Flickr)

You may not realize it but genetically modifed food is a big part of the American diet.

Central Standard, a daily talkshow produced by our partner station KCUR in Kansas City, focused Thursday on the science behind genetically modified (GMO) and genetically engineered (GE) food. I hosted the program and our guests were:

Here is some of what we learned.

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May. 15, 2013

As U.S. farmers plant Argentines hoard harvest

By: 
Amy Mayer
This soybean field in Argentina will contribute to the country's harvest, but how much of that ends up in the export market remains unclear even as harvest wraps up. (Courtesy Sarah Even, South Dakota Soybean)
This soybean field in Argentina will contribute to the country's harvest, but how much of that ends up in the export market remains unclear even as harvest wraps up. (Courtesy Sarah Even, South Dakota Soybean)

With the South American soy harvest well underway, some Argentine farmers are hoarding their beans as protection against inflation. That could make reading the global market more complicated for U.S. farmers, who will already see the Brazilian farmers surpass them as the number one soy producer this year.

Midwestern grain farmers are finally in their fields planting corn and soybeans after a cold, wet spring, so their gaze may not be focused much on their competition to the south at the moment. But Argentine farmers have been battling issues of their own, including wild inflation.

Roger Elmore, an extension agronomist at Iowa State University, lived in Argentina’s grain belt in 1990 and 1991 – a period of rapid inflation for the country’s old currency, the austral. When money’s not worth anything, he said, you hang on to something that has value, like your grain harvest.

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