While nearly the same amount of corn and soybean acres have been planted every year since the mid-1990s, the use of pesticides in Illinois has increased exponentially, according to USDA data. Synthetic pesticide use has been a dominant agricultural practice since the 1950s, but use escalated dramatically in the mid-1990s when Monsanto, now Bayer, first […]
Author Archives: Jennifer Bamberg, Investigate Midwest
Jennifer Bamberg covers agribusiness and food systems policy in Illinois for Investigate Midwest.
Bamberg previously worked as a freelance reporter in Chicago, covering labor, housing, police misconduct and public health. She has been published by the Illinois Answers Project, In These Times Magazine, Block Club Chicago and the Chicago Reader.
She holds a master’s in investigative journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, and was a former reporting fellow with City Bureau, where she covered urban agriculture. She grew up in the Central Valley of California and worked as an ironworker before becoming a journalist.
