Video NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Video Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:11:08 +0000 https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mike McGraw ATCHISON, Kan. — The families of six men killed when a grain elevator blew up on the banks of the Missouri River here in 2011 have now waited well over five and a half years for closure in the case. But the hurt is still raw, they say; for them, it could have happened yesterday. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/more-5-years-families-deadly-grain-elevator-blast-victims-still-searching-justice 336 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 12 Jul 2017 16:20:36 +0000 More Than 5 Years On, Families Of Deadly Grain Elevator Blast Victims Still Searching For Justice Off a narrow dirt road in the middle of Kansas, retired Army Col. Gary LaGrange, his daughter Shari LaGrange-Aulich and a group of veterans are cultivating a future for service members and American agriculture. Three-hundred–and-twenty acres nestled between Manhattan, Kansas, and Fort Riley will be the future site of S.A.V.E. Farm , which stands for Service member Agricultural Vocation Education. "S.A.V.E. Farm is a response to several national needs," LaGrange said. "Sixty-three percent of farms in this country are in the last generation, and so there is a great need for new and younger farmers." The S.A.V.E. Farm will offer veterans a year-long training and residency, where they can learn the business of farming and have access to holistic care, along with their families. "The basis of this farm is all about growth and new life," LaGrange-Aulich said. LaGrange-Aulich, a clinical psychologist, will oversee the health and wellness programs at S.A.V.E. She approached her father with the https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/new-kansas-farm-hopes-cultivate-future-veterans 308 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Fri, 05 May 2017 16:42:36 +0000 New Kansas Farm Hopes To Cultivate A Future For Veterans Kristofor Husted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noC-aaR7CLc Two of the top questions I get as an agriculture reporter for Harvest Public Media are: What are pesticides, actually? How are they used on my food? From foodies to farmers, pesticides are a sensitive subject. First: Pesticides are chemical concoctions used to control, destroy or regulate pesky weeds and insects. Herbicides kill weeds. Insecticides kill bugs. For most purposes, we use the umbrella term “pesticides” to cover both types, which falls in line with the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition . Some of the most popular pesticides are atrazine and glyphosate , which is the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup, produced by agribusiness giant Monsanto. Farmers often spray pesticides over crops like corn or soybeans, the vast majority of which in the U.S. have been genetically modified to withstand those chemicals. Pesticides are also often used in growing tomatoes, apples and other fruits and vegetables we eat directly. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-what-are-pesticides-and-how-are-they-used 306 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Fri, 05 May 2017 09:03:00 +0000 Watch: What Are Pesticides And How Are They Used? https://youtu.be/gDJED_NecsY Three months into his term, President Donald Trump now has in place his Secretary of Agriculture , Sonny Perdue. Here’s what you need to know: Perdue served two terms as governor of Georgia Prior to serving as governor of Georgia from 2003-2011 as a Republican, Perdue was elected to represent his Middle Georgia district in the state Senate as a Democrat. He switched to the GOP in 1998. While in office, Perdue was dogged by ethics complaints The complaints generally stem from Perdue’s involvement with family business ventures during his time as governor, as the New York Times reported . Perdue grew up on a farm and has worked in agribusiness Perdue earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine and has had a long career operating family agribusiness and transportation companies. His cousin, Georgia Sen. David Perdue, is a member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee and supported Trump on the campaign trail. This is not, however, the same family as runs Perdue https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-who-new-agriculture-secretary-sonny-perdue 299 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:06:48 +0000 Watch: Who Is New Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue? Jack Williams The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has been very good to many Midwest agriculture producers. That’s why many farmers and ranchers are nervous about President Donald Trump’s promise to either completely dismantle, or at least renegotiate, the free-trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-many-midwest-farmers-wary-changes-nafta 289 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 03 Apr 2017 16:56:42 +0000 Watch: Many Midwest Farmers Wary Of Changes To NAFTA Jack Williams When the dangerous organism known as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli gets into the food system, it can be deadly. That’s why more than 50 researchers at 18 different institutions are hoping to find ways to identify and wipe-out the strain in beef, as part of a major USDA-sponsored study. The $25 million project began in 2012 and was recently extended for at least another year. So far, researchers have found ways to differentiate harmless strains of the E. coli bacteria, which is naturally present in most humans and warm-blooded animals, from the nasty Shiga toxin-producing kind, known as STEC. The research has also found that certain cattle feeds could increase the presence of the dangerous STEC . Cattle fed large amounts of distillers grains, a corn-based feed that is a byproduct of ethanol production, seem to have more STEC in their digestive tracts, according to the study. Researchers also think the cell biology of the seven different types of STEC regulated by the USDA as dangerous https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-new-research-hints-ways-keep-your-burger-safe-e-coli 276 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:00:00 +0000 Watch: New Research Hints At Ways To Keep Your Burger Safe From E. Coli editor What’s old is new again, at least on some Midwest farms. Winter cover crops have been used by farmers for centuries, but over the last decade or so they have once again started to become more popular. The idea is to create biomass in fields that would typically be dormant over the winter. Cover crops like vetch, rye, kale and winter peas can grow after a corn harvest, maintaining live roots in the ground on farm fields in an effort to control erosion, preserve moisture in the soil, and to keep damaging chemicals on fields and out of streams. Recent surveys show that nationwide the share of farmers who have planted cover crops, or plant to, is growing. Here, however, is the tricky part: It’s hard to know exactly when to plant cover crops so they have time to grow without disrupting the farmer’s money-making crops, like corn and soybeans. Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln hope to solve that timing issue. They’re planting cover crops at different times in the fall and https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-how-midwest-farmers-are-trying-protect-soil 34 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 31 Jan 2017 16:52:00 +0000 Watch: How Midwest Farmers Are Trying To Protect The Soil Grant Gerlock Farmers across the Midwest are trying to figure out how to get by at a time when expected prices for commodities from corn, to wheat, to cattle, to hogs mean they’ll be struggling just to break even. “Prices are low, bins are full, and the dollar is strengthening as we speak and that’s just making the export thing a little more challenging,” says Paul Burgener of Platte Valley Bank in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Burgener says the problem is oversupply. Farmers responded to booming prices in the early part of the decade by planting more crops and improving their land. Soon, crop production outpaced demand. “We did what most people would do if they had a factory and had a lot of demand: you expand,” says Brent Gloy, a Purdue University economist who also farms in southwest Nebraska. American farmers aren’t alone, Gloy says. Farms have been expanding across the globe. “In South America from 2004 to 2014, they added roughly 86 million acres of principal crops,” he says. That is roughly equal, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/midwest-farmers-prepare-another-year-red 63 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:29:00 +0000 Midwest Farmers Prepare For Another Year In The Red Jesse Howe Drones are not just a hot gift item or a weapon for use by the military. They’re also helping farmers change the landscape of agriculture. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International predicts that 80 percent of drones in the commercial sector will be used for agriculture, according to ​USA Today ​. Alongside unmanned tractors and satellite technology, drones are seen by many as part of the next generation of “precision agriculture” tools, able to use Big Data to improve agricultural practices and efficiency. Though still in its infancy as a tool, here are five ways drones are already impacting the food system. 1. Providing Aerial Imagery Getting a bird’s-eye-view can help farmers in many ways. Drones can detect issues such as off-kilter tractors and broken irrigation lines from above. Whereas satellites can only pass over ground every two weeks or so, and airplanes are expensive and can be impacted by clouds, drones can fly closer to the ground, allowing in some cases https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-5-ways-drones-help-bring-food-your-table 262 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 18 Jan 2017 14:58:48 +0000 Watch: 5 Ways Drones Help Bring Food To Your Table Jack Williams The federal government expected net farm income and farm profits to fall in 2016, the third-straight year of declines . That means farmers and ranchers are taking a closer look at their finances, and many aren’t very optimistic about their prospects for 2017 . The Nebraska Power Farming Show in Lincoln is kind of like the Super Bowl of farm equipment, with almost 900 vendors and thousands of producers from all over the Midwest in attendance. It you’re looking for a place to find out about some of the tough economic choices farmers are facing, it’s a pretty good place to start. Farmers visiting the tradeshow were talking about cutting costs. Some are delaying big equipment purchases, holding on to their combines instead of shelling out for a half-million-dollar new one. Many are leasing instead of buying. Some equipment dealers at the Power Farming Show said they’ve seen a 50 percent drop in sales. Experts like Jay Parsons at the University of Nebraska Lincoln say now is the time for https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-down-times-have-farmers-looking-cut-costs 69 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:28:00 +0000 WATCH: Down Times Have Farmers Looking To Cut Costs Jack Williams The Midwest is known for a lot of things, but hard apple cider isn’t one of them. At least not yet. Popular hard cider brands like Angry Orchard and Woodchuck are made on the East Coast. Other well-known brands like Strongbow are made in Europe. Nebraska, however, is now home to a small cider-making scene. Because hard cider production is similar to winemaking, some vineyards in Nebraska have started adding the venerable beverage to their product list, using capacity that would otherwise be unused to make thousands of gallons of the alcoholic drink. Glacial Till Vineyards, near the small town of Palmyra in southeast Nebraska, started producing hard apple cider a few years ago after a shaky grape season. Today, it outpaces their wine production. Several other Nebraska wineries have also jumped onboard. Nationally, hard apple cider has enjoyed of renaissance of sorts over the past few years. Sales growth neared triple-digits just a few years ago and became the fastest growing segment of https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/hard-cider-midwest-s-new-alcoholic-specialty 266 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 29 Nov 2016 18:48:24 +0000 Hard Cider: The Midwest’s New Alcoholic Specialty Jeremy Bernfeld When farmers put nitrogen fertilizer on their fields it soaks down into the soil and turns into nitrates that feed crops. But when there are too many nitrates, water from rain or irrigation carries those extra nutrients past the point where roots can reach and eventually to the aquifer below. For the cities and towns that depend on the underground aquifer or surface water for their drinking water, that can be a big problem. On the High Plains Aquifer in Nebraska, for instance, there are pockets of nitrates pushing far, past the legal limit of 10 parts per million. In central Nebraska, a pocket of high nitrate water is flowing right toward the wells where the city of Hastings draws its drinking water. “They get up to the 50 part per million range,” says Marty Stange, the environmental supervisor for Hasting’s utilities system. “They’re five times the drinking water standard. Those are really areas of high concern for us.” Too many nitrates are a health hazard, particularly for infants https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-small-towns-look-unique-solutions-agricultural-water-pollution 272 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 28 Sep 2016 19:47:58 +0000 Watch: Small Towns Look For Unique Solutions To Agricultural Water Pollution Grant Gerlock Living in the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska means understanding that the water in your well may contain high levels of nitrates and may not be safe to drink. “When our first son was born in 1980, we actually put a distiller in for our drinking water here in the house,” says Ken Seim, who lives in the Platte Valley near the town of Chapman, Nebraska. “And at that time our water level was a 12 parts per million.” Nitrates are formed when nitrogen, from the air or fertilizer, is converted by bacteria in the soil to a form that is more plant-friendly. Nitrates help plants grow, but can be dangerous in large amounts. The legal limit in public water systems is 10ppm. Some nearby wells, Seim says, contain nitrates at dangerous levels, two or three times the legal threshold. For Seim, nitrate pollution in groundwater is a problem that feels personal, because he’s a farmer. Seim and his sons grow about 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans, which means that some of nitrates in his water https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/heres-how-midwest-farmers-are-fighting-agricultural-water-pollution 102 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 20 Sep 2016 21:12:00 +0000 Here's How Midwest Farmers Are Fighting Agricultural Water Pollution Luke Runyon The Colorado Department of Agriculture is killing pests dead, without the aid of chemicals. Halfway down a dead-end road in the small farming town of Palisade, Colorado, is the research facility known as “The Insectary.” Scientists at the lab develop “biocontrol insects,” insects adapted to attacking bugs and plants harmful to agriculture. Colorado’s Insectary is the oldest and largest facility of its kind in the United States. The pioneering program began in response to a peach pest called oriental fruit moth that devastated the local crop in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Scientists saved the famed Palisade peach industry by successfully introducing the parasitic wasp, Macrocentrus ancylivorus, which was the perfect predator to control the moth. Today the facility’s angular, modern design stands out in its rural setting, but it reflects the groundbreaking science going on inside. Room after room of labs and two greenhouses are full of pesky insects and noxious weeds that have been https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/midwest-lab-breeding-bugs-kill-pests 117 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 21 Jul 2016 17:32:00 +0000 This Midwest Lab Is Breeding Bugs To Kill ... Pests Jeremy Bernfeld Hundreds of thousands of people go to work each day preparing the beef, pork and poultry that ends up on our dinner tables. Their workplace is among the most dangerous in the United States. Fatalities are high and life-long injuries are common. Between 2004-2013, 151 meat and poultry workers were killed on the job, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report . The furious pace of production may also contribute to elevated levels of repetitive motion injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome, and workers face a lifetime of pain. Slaughterhouses – while safer than they were decades ago – exact a steep price from workers, sometimes even their lives. Watch the video below to learn more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqwnZ4KbiQM https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-dangerous-jobs-bring-us-cheap-meat 270 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 15 Jun 2016 19:30:27 +0000 Watch: The Dangerous Jobs That Bring Us Cheap Meat Peggy Lowe Meatpacking workers call it “the chain.” Sometimes “the line,” or “la linea.” It sets the pace for all work done at meat processing plants, production rates that force workers to make in the tens of thousands of cuts, slices and other movements for hours at a time. Those repetitions affect workers’ muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves, causing what is called musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs, and resulting in sprains, strains, pains, or inflammation. Although the government hasn’t linked line speeds to high rates of injuries, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 2014 data shows that repetitive motion cases caused by “microtasks” among beef and pork processing workers were nearly seven times that of other private industries. Watch the video below to learn more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KctDrk6yVsY https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-meatpacking-workers-often-face-life-pain 271 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:37:32 +0000 Watch: Meatpacking Workers Often Face Life With Pain Amy Mayer At the grocery store, processed foods like cereal, crackers and candy usually maintain the same price for a long time, and inch up gradually. Economists call these prices “sticky” because they don’t move much even as some of the commodities that go into them do. Take corn, for example, which can be a major food player as a grain, starch or sweetener. Corn prices can fluctuate widely, so why don’t products containing corn also see price changes? Why does your cereal pretty much cost $3 per box every week? It’s partly thanks to the futures market. Farmers use various tools to control the many risks in agriculture. Watching the weather influences when they plant or harvest. Buying crop insurance and selecting farm bill safety net programs helps protect them from crop devastation. But they can also manage some of the threat posed by volatile market prices by participating in the futures market. The futures market helps both producers and users of a major commodity, such as corn, defend https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-how-futures-market-helps-keep-your-grocery-bill-down 135 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 06 Jun 2016 21:00:00 +0000 WATCH: How The Futures Market Helps Keep Your Grocery Bill Down Jeremy Bernfeld There’s a heated debate happening right now about GMOs and labels. Big food companies like General Mills, Mars and Kellogg’s say they plan to put labels on their products that tell consumers whether or not the food contains ingredients derived from genetically engineered plants. So what’s the big deal? What are GMO labels, and what do they tell you? Watch the video below to get the full scoop on GMO labels. Here are three things you should know: 1. Think processed food GMO stands for genetically modified organisms. GMO labels would be slapped on food that contains ingredients made from plants that were genetically engineered. Many processed foods contain corn syrup, soybean, canola or cottonseed oil. Most of those crops grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered. Scientists can insert a gene into a variety of corn, for instance, to make it immune to a weedkiller, so when farmers spray their fields the weeds die but the corn doesn’t. 2. Don’t think safety or nutrition Some food and https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/watch-what-are-gmo-labels 151 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 20 Apr 2016 13:00:00 +0000 WATCH: What Are GMO Labels? Amy Mayer The normally dry northern region of Argentina has a problem of biblical proportions. Farmers there are struggling with a massive outbreak of locusts. Dark clouds of the green-brown bugs cast shadows when they fly overhead and when they land, they cover the ground. “It is really, really, amazing when you see the locusts because you see millions of them together,” said Juan Pablo Karnatz, who raises cattle in Santiago del Estero, about 600 miles northwest of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. “When you think they can be more millions flying around, it could be a disaster.” While it’s not unheard of for northern Argentina to have locust swarms, it has been at least 50 years since an outbreak of this magnitude. The swarms can stretch to eight square miles, Karnatz says, and they eat everything in their path. So far they’ve mostly been eating not from crop fields, Karnatz says, but from pasture lands, though several thousand acres of mostly onions are destroyed. As a major agricultural https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/theres-plague-locusts-argentina-could-we-see-bugs-here 170 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 22 Feb 2016 14:31:00 +0000 There's A Plague Of Locusts In Argentina. Could We See The Bugs Here? Grant Gerlock The middle of winter is when the stream of locally grown fruits and vegetables in the Midwest begins to freeze up. Nicole Saville knows first-hand. Saville is the produce manager at Open Harvest, a grocery coop in Lincoln, Neb. The store promotes food grown by local farmers, but this time of year there just isn’t much available. “We can get kale and some culinary herbs this time of year,” Saville said. “Otherwise the only other local option is a soil mix in our garden center.” Which means the bunches of carrots, bags of onions, and piles of pears on the shelf right now made a long trip to get here. “This time of year we are sourcing globally almost,” Saville said. “It hurts me to say because the fossil fuels it takes to get things here are astronomical. But we try to source from within the United States when we can. Florida and California are going to be the two biggest options.” In the Midwest, it’s possible to stretch the growing season for nine months or more with unheated https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/geothermal-heat-could-warm-local-food-production-midwest 171 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 15 Feb 2016 15:43:00 +0000 Geothermal Heat Could Warm Up Local Food Production In The Midwest