The statistic that sparked an award-winning investigation

Our goal is to raise $7,000 by July 31 to help sustain our nonprofit newsroom and continue producing in-depth, data-driven reporting that remains free for everyone.

Every investigation starts somewhere. Sometimes it’s a whistleblower. Sometimes it’s a public records request. And sometimes it’s a single statistic in the footnotes of a works government report.

At Investigate Midwest, we believe those moments deserve the time, mentorship and resources to become stories that inform the public and hold powerful institutions accountable. That’s why we’re investing in the next generation of investigative journalists and why we’re asking for your support during our summer fundraising campaign.

One example of that investment is former summer reporting intern Melissa Dai.

Last summer, our summer reporting intern Melissa Dai was combing through USDA reports when she noticed a single statistic tucked in the bottom corner of a federal fact sheet. It showed that Native American farmers had strikingly low rates of broadband access.

The number would have been easy to overlook, but it raised an important question: We often hear about the rural-urban digital divide, but why were some farmer demographics being left even further behind?

As Melissa dug deeper, she found Native American and Black farmers were the only groups with broadband access rates below the national average.

What began as a small statistic grew into a months-long investigation with extensive data analysis and interviews with more than 40 farmers, advocates, researchers and government officials across the country.

Broadband’s broken promise: How federal failures and funding fights keep Native and Black farmers offline

Across the US, Indigenous and Black farmers face ‘digital redlining,’ a web of barriers to affordable broadband even as billions in federal dollars flow to internet providers. Rooted in high costs, policy failures and historic exclusion, the connectivity gap endures — but communities are fighting back with local solutions.

by Melissa Dai, Investigate Midwest

The story went on to earn regional and national journalism awards, and brought attention to a significant disparity that had largely gone unreported.

In this video, Melissa joined our current audience engagement intern, Paloma Sanchez-McGee, to discuss how the story came together, what she learned from reporting it, and why the best investigative reporting combines data with the experiences of people most affected.

Stories like this are possible because our newsroom invests time, resources and mentorship into ambitious reporting. Reader support helps sustain this work and train the next generation of agriculture beat journalists.

Please donate today.