Harvest Public Media | Cultivating stories from the ground up

For Farmland Conservation, It Comes Down To Who Owns It

Lin Warfel puts farmland owners in central Illinois into two categories: Those with a deep connection and desire to preserve their land, and those obsessed with short-term money. The 80-year-old still owns the land that’s been in his family since his great-grandfather arrived in Champaign County in the 1800’s. After farming it for decades, he now rents the corn and soybean operation to his neighbors down the road. It’s a crop-share arrangement. Warfel provides the land and pays the taxes. His...

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Midwest Farm Groups Greet Pruitt With Cheers Over WOTUS, Jeers On Ethanol Delay

By Grant Gerlock • Jun 15, 2018

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s message to Midwestern farmers this week is a mixed bag, telling them that the agency will be changing an Obama-era rule regarding water regulations but is pausing a plan to expand summer sales of ethanol.

Shortage Of Rural Veterinarians Puts Farmers, Food Supply At Risk

By Esther Honig • Jun 13, 2018

Thirty-eight calves, between two and four months old, moo and kick at the dirt floor in a steel barn in Brush, Colorado. One by one, a handler leads them from the pen to a narrow chute, where their legs are restrained and they’re lifted onto a hydraulic table.

If It Ain’t Got That Zing: A Weekend At The International Horseradish Festival

By Madelyn Beck • Jun 11, 2018

Two counties in southwestern Illinois grow the majority of the nation’s — possibly the world’s — horseradish. The city of Collinsville, population 25,000, straddles both Madison and St. Clair, and celebrates the root annually, hosting the International Horseradish Festival.

Harvest Public Media decided it was time to check out the entertainment, games and horseradish-based dishes and drinks. Here’s a bite of the zesty gathering.

Senate Sticks To Bipartisan Path For Farm Bill, Which Includes Hemp Legalization

By Grant Gerlock • Jun 8, 2018

Luke Runyon / Harvest Public Media file photo

The Senate Agriculture Committee unveiled its version of the farm bill Friday, including a path to legalizing industrial hemp. That’s an effort being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose state, Kentucky, is a leader in the crop.

Report: Federal Rules Haven’t Curbed Antibiotic Use In Pork

By Amy Mayer • Jun 7, 2018

Federal rules in place since January 2017 have not curbed the use of antibiotics in pork production, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group whose food and environment agenda includes responsible antibiotic use.

Bayer completes Monsanto acquisition

By Wayne Pratt • Jun 7, 2018

Monsanto, a company based in St. Louis for more than 100 years, is now part of Bayer.

The roughly $63-billion acquisition closed Thursday, nearly two years after the companies first announced the deal. Regulators in Canada and Mexico were among the last international watchdogs to approve the combination.

The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on it late last month after Bayer committed to shedding about $9 billion in several areas to chemical giant BASF.

That includes Bayer's Liberty-brand herbicides, which compete with Monsanto's Roundup.

Monsanto No More: Agri-Chemical Giant's Name Dropped In Bayer Acquisition

By Camila Domonoske • Jun 4, 2018

Originally, it was just a name — Olga Monsanto's name, to be precise.

Around the turn of the 20th century, she married a man named John Francis Queeny. He named his artificial sweetener company after her. And over decades, that company expanded from the sweetness business into agri-chemicals, where it began to dominate the industry.

Missouri The First State To Get Serious About The Definition Of Meat

By Erica Hunzinger • Jun 1, 2018

Grant Gerlock / Harvest Public Media file photo

Updated June 1, 2018, with bill signed — Missouri is in the vanguard when it comes to defining what meat is.

It’s an essential, perhaps even existential, question sparked by the growth of plant-based proteins,meat substitutes and lab-grown products. And it’s a topic that, while first passed at the state level Thursday, is also being considered at the federal level.

EPA Faces Lawsuit Over Refinery Waivers That Sparked Ire Of Ethanol Groups

By Madelyn Beck • May 31, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency is getting heat from farm country, where pro-ethanol groups filed suit against the federal agency Tuesday over renewable fuel exemptions, calling it “abuses of … authority.”

Conservation Benefits From Fruit, Nut Trees Are Tops, But There’s Money In Them, Too

By Amy Mayer • May 31, 2018

Bruce Carney raises cattle, poultry and a few sheep on his 300-acre farm in Maxwell, Iowa. He no longer grows any grain, but is preparing for new crops of a different kind.

Orange flags dot what was previously a cattle lot, with a ridge (or swale) built around it to manage water flow. The fruit trees Carney will be planting at each of the flags later this year will also help.

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