This story was co-published with The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. Illinois billionaire Shahid Khan is known for building the autom
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In 2014, in the midst of a gubernatorial election, the construction of a $1.4 billion fertilizer plant in Tuscola was announced with much fanfare and
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One of the largest meat processing plants in central Illinois is battling an outbreak of coronavirus in which 21 cases of Covid-19 have been al
Read MoreChina imported more than $130 billion in U.S. commodities in 2017, according to U.S. Import and Export Merchandise trade statistics. Earlier this m
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For Illinois farmer Mark Crawford, the impending trade war with China comes at a bad time. “I do not agree with the approach,” Crawford said, “when w
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Argentina and Brazil may fill China’s soybean needs if China imposes a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybean exports. Chad Hart, an agriculture economist
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While safety nets like federal crop insurance could ease the revenue losses for farmers, large payouts could also impact on an impending Farm Bill dis
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More than 100 Illinois pesticide retailers reported the weed killer dicamba drifted and damaged soybeans even when it was sprayed in good conditions,
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Since 2001, the former hospital on Nightingale Court in Rantoul housed as many as 450 migrant farmworkers and their families to work in the fields in
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After Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready corn and soybeans in the mid-1990s, the use of glyphosate skyrocketed. Currently, more than 90 percent of f
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