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Cultivating stories from the ground up
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OUR MISSION: Global demand for food and fuel is rising, and the push and pull for resources has serious ramifications for our country’s economic recovery and prosperity. Today’s emerging agenda for agriculture is headlined by energy and climate change, food safety, biofuels, animal production and welfare, human health, water quality, and local food systems. By examining these local, regional and national issues and their implications, Harvest Public Media seeks to create a rich multimedia resource devoted to food, fuel and field.
HOW WE REPORT: Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio — regular reports are aired on our six member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television reports, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking. We are committed to the highest journalistic standards. Click here to read our ethics policy.
FUNDING: Harvest Public Media is one of seven Local Journalism Centers nationwide created with the support of a two-year grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The initiative is intended to strengthen collaboration among six Midwest public broadcasting stations. Additional editorial support comes from American Public Media, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.
PARTNER STATIONS: KCUR in Kansas City (lead station); Iowa Public Radio; NET which operates statewide public TV and radio networks; KBIA in Columbia, Mo.; High Plains Public Radio/KANZ in Garden City, Kan.; and Kansas Public Radio/KANU in Lawrence.
Learn more about our partners.
OUR STAFF:
As news director, Frank Morris supervises the reporters in KCUR's newsroom. He has presided over the station's news coverage since 1999.
In addition to his managerial duties, Morris files regularly with National Public Radio. He’s covered everything from tornados to tax law for the network, in stories spanning six states. His work has won dozens of awards, including four national Public Radio News Directors awards (PRNDIs) and several regional Edward R. Murrow awards.
Morris grew up in rural Kansas, listening to the public radio station out of Hutchinson. He worked as a DJ throughout college at the University of Kansas. After graduating with degrees in Philosophy and Political Science, Morris went to work at an AM news/talk station in Lawrence, Kansas, and later at the Statehouse in Topeka for Kansas Public Radio. He started at KCUR in 1991. He’s married with two fine sons.
Donna Vestal comes to Harvest Public Media after nearly 18 years as a business editor for The Kansas City Star, where she directed small business, retail, development, workplace and health care beats, among others. Donna’s agriculture focus dates back to the 1980s, when she served as news editor of The Packer, a national weekly newspaper for the fruit and vegetable industry. She also was the lead researcher and writer for “A Century of Produce,” a book commemorating The Packer’s 100th anniversary. Donna has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the University of Kansas. She lives in Parkville, Mo., with her husband, Eric, and works out of KCUR’s offices in Kansas City.
Jeremy Bernfeld is Harvest Public Media’s multimedia editor. New to the Midwest, Jeremy comes to Harvest from Boston where he helped build wbur.org, named the best news website in the country by the Radio Television Digital News Association. He has covered blizzards and tornadoes and the natural disaster that was the Red Sox’ 2011 season. A proud graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Jeremy’s work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the (Falmouth, Maine) Forecaster and on NPR’s Only A Game.
Jessica Naudziunas is Harvest Public Media's connection to Central Missouri. She joined Harvest in July 2010. Jessica has spent time on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and WNYC's Soundcheck, and reported and produced for WNIN-FM in Evansville, Ind. She grew up in the City of Chicago, studied at the University of Tulsa and has helped launch local food gardens in Oklahoma and Indiana.
Clay Masters is based in Lincoln, Neb. In addition to his job with Harvest Public Media, he is a reporter/producer with Nebraska’s statewide NPR and PBS stations, where he covers agriculture, environment and energy issues. His stories have appeared on NPR’s news magazines “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” In addition to being a husband and father, Clay is a seasoned fly fisherman and studies the solo folk guitar style called American Primitivism.
Kathleen Masterson has always loved the many intersections of art and science. In college she studied English and Environmental Studies and was torn as to which one she’d have to “choose” when finding a job. She taught high school English for a few years, and then swung back to science when she traveled to rural Argentina to work on a bird research project. She returned home to study science journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote for the local newspaper, made a film short about 4,000-cow dairy, and created several short films in the Bolivian Amazon basin. After graduate school she went on to work as digital producer for NPR’s science desk.
Peggy Lowe returns to the Midwest after 22 years as a journalist in Denver and Southern California. Most recently she was at The Orange County Register, where she was a multimedia producer and writer. In Denver she worked for The Associated Press, The Denver Post and the late, great Rocky Mountain News. She was on the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Columbine. Peggy was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2008-2009. She is from O'Neill, the Irish Capital of Nebraska, and now lives in Kansas City.
