If history proves, Russian import ban will fail
When headlines surfaced last week that Russia would block U.S. agricultural imports, the news seemed dire, or at the very least, unpredictable. The day it was announced, markets reacted, with...
View ArticleManufacturers cut food waste to build bottom line
The long line of semi-trucks waiting to get in the gates of the Farmland Foods plant could simply wait around for a few hours to head back, fresh products on board. The trucks are loaded with hogs from...
View ArticleCromnibus bill limits cow gas monitoring and allows school lunch flexibility
The $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill President Obama signed Wednesday isn’t just about dollars and cents. The so-called “Cromnibus” bill also keeps school cafeteria fries salty and limits the...
View ArticlePolitics dominates top ag and food stories of 2014
Harvest Public Media was created four years ago to report on agriculture and food production in the geographic area where the majority of that takes place – the Midwest. This year, my third of counting...
View ArticleUSDA’s MIDAS Computer Program Tarnished; Overdue, Over Budget
From Harvest Public Media : Blake Hurst rides ten feet above his soybean field in northern Missouri, looking more like he’s playing a video game than driving a $350,000 high-tech piece of machinery. As...
View ArticleReport: New OSHA Rule Reveals Slaughterhouse Worker Amputations
From Harvest Public Media : In the first nine months of 2015, workers in meat-packing plants owned by Tyson Foods averaged at least one amputation a month. That report was gleaned from a Freedom of...
View ArticleAg tech start-ups show explosive growth in the billions
From Harvest Public Media : The Western Farm Show in Kansas City, Mo.., is a long way from Silicon Valley. But here in a huge arena, set in what used to be the Kansas City Stockyards, the high-tech...
View ArticleSenators Reach Deal On National GMO Labeling Bill
Just a week before a Vermont law kicks in requiring labels on food containing genetically modified ingredients, U.S. Senate agriculture leaders announced a deal Thursday that takes the power out of...
View ArticleWorking ‘the chain,’ slaughterhouse workers face life-long injuries
From Harvest Public Media : The nights were often worse for Gabriel, even after long days working on the production line at a pork slaughterhouse in Nebraska. He had nightmares that the line – what the...
View ArticleWorking 'The Chain,' Slaughterhouse Workers Face Lifelong Injuries
Teresa, an immigrant from Mexico has worked at a pork processing plant in Lincoln, Neb., since 2011. She didn't want to use her last name because she feared that a family member, who still works at a...
View Article$2.6 million paid by farmers and ranchers missing from Oklahoma Beef Council
A federal investigation has been launched into the alleged embezzlement of $2.6 million by an employee of an obscure state board that promotes the beef industry, money created by a mandatory government...
View ArticleKansans Caught In Crosscheck System Singled Out For Kobach's Voter Fraud...
Editor’s note – This story is being reposted to give our readers more information on the criticism surrounding Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s use of a voter registration database to win voter...
View ArticleWant to blow a whistle? Here’s how to talk to Harvest Public Media
Over here at Harvest Public Media, we may not have Deep Throat. But we do have Undercover Cowboy. Deep Throat, of course, was the Washington Post reporters’ source for their Pulitzer Prize-winning...
View ArticleKobach Gets Plea Bargain In Seventh Voter Fraud Case
A western Kansas man accused of voting in two states has agreed to a plea bargain, saying he “simply made a mistake.” Lincoln Wilson, a 65-year-old Republican from Sherman County, will plead guilty to...
View ArticleBusiness Startups Ticking Up, Immigrant Entrepreneurs Growing
The number of business start-ups has increased for the third consecutive year, according to the annual Kauffman Index of Startup Activity, and immigrant-owned businesses show strong growth. The annual...
View ArticleFarm Economy Downturn Prompts Fears Of A ‘Crisis’
Of all the expensive machinery Tom Giessel worked during the 2017 wheat harvest, his favorite sits in the office of his home. It’s a microfilm machine, the kind found in a high school library. Giessel...
View ArticleBayer Announces $7 Billion Deal, Part Of Move To Acquire Monsanto
Bayer AG announced the sale of a large part of its agribusiness on Friday. The deal will move the company closer to yet another big deal. Bayer AG says it sold part of its crop science division to BASF...
View ArticleLabor-Starved Ag Businesses Want To Keep Immigrant Workers In US Legally
On a feedlot in far southwest Kansas, two cowboys on horseback move cattle on the high dusty plains, spread out like dozens of football fields stitched together with miles of fences. Their “ Buenos...
View ArticleOpioid, Heroin Overdoses Contributing to Rural Population Decline, USDA Says
For the first time in its annual survey of rural America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that mortality rates of working-age adults are on the rise because of opioid and heroin overdoses....
View ArticleKansas Couple’s Account Frozen After They Didn’t Answer Citizenship Question....
When Josh Collins first got the letter from Bank of America more than two months ago, he thought it was a scam. The letter wasn’t on the glossy paper typical of what he’d seen during his two decades...
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