Matters relating to agriculture, including farming and agribusiness.
State inspection records highlight substandard conditions inside eight migrant farmworker housing sites.
Photo by Darrell Hoemann/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
Hundreds of migrant workers come to the United States from Mexico and other countries with special H-2A farm visas, but they make up only a fraction of the total number of migrant farmworkers.
The state and local agencies responsible for overseeing migrant farmworker housing vary from state to state. Here's a detailed look at how oversight works in Missouri.
Darrell Hoemann/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
A new trade deal aimed at cutting thousands of taxes and opening markets with 11 Pacific Rim nations has drawn heavy lobbying from some of America’s largest agribusinesses. The deal – known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership – was reached in early October. It is designed to ease the flow of goods between partner nations by lowering restrictive trade policies and regulations.
Darrell Hoemann
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced on Thursday that his department will award nearly two dozen states with millions of dollars to build the gas pumps and other infrastructure needed to supply American drivers with more renewable fuel.
Nearly a year after China re-opened its doors to imported U.S. corn, one former U.S. representative is recruiting Illinois farmers into a mass-action lawsuit as plaintiffs. Thousands of farmers – along with major agribusinesses Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill – are suing the Swiss chemical company Syngenta for selling a genetically modified strain of corn in the United States before its approval by China.
Darrell Hoemann
The state budget for agricultural education is once again coming under the scythe. In June 2010, the Illinois State Board of Education adopted a budget that zeroed out the $3 million funding under Gov. Pat Quinn, but by August, Quinn announced he restored it to $1.9 million.
Darrell Hoemann
With less than 2 percent of Champaign’s population involved in production agriculture, the Champaign County Farm Bureau has made it part of its mission to educate the community about the work being done by Champaign’s agriculture industry.
Darrell Hoemann
The average yearly amount of taxpayer money funding the highly subsidized federal crop insurance program has more than doubled in just over a decade. From 2003 through 2007, the government spent an average of $3.4 billion per year on crop insurance, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Darrell Hoemann
Jenny Mennenga farms corn and soybean with her husband between Le Roy and Farmer City in central Illinois. This past harvest brought Mennenga’s farm record corn production, though soybean yields were just “fairly average.”