Agribusiness
Missouri’s housing inspections for H-2A workers missed deficiencies for years
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The lax inspection process led to an incident in summer 2018 where workers lived in a former jail, a motel with bed bugs and a house with a leaking toilet.
Agribusiness
These farmworkers were forced to labor on empty stomachs
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During an incident in Kennett, Missouri, in summer 2018, H-2A workers labored through high temperatures while denied breakfast and with little access to water. Their legal status was supposed to protect them.
Agribusiness
General Mills launches pesticide reduction plan after traces found in cereal
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General Mills has outlined a new company approach to curbing pesticide residues in the grain used to produce its cereal and other products.
Agribusiness
Farming today is challenging and expensive. Here’s what these farmers had to say about their profession.
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The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting set up a booth at the annual Historic Farm Days event with the goals to meet more farmers and discuss changes in the agriculture industry.
As scientists predict ‘killer heat’ in near future, ag companies and farmers prepare
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As many as nine states could see heat indexes above 100 degrees for more than a quarter of the year by 2036, according to a new report. Farmers and ag companies are already preparing.
JBS a big winner in USDA trade war relief contracts
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A Brazilian-owned meat processing company undercut its competition by more than $1 per pound to win nearly $78 million in pork contracts through a federal program launched to help American farmers offset the impact from an ongoing trade war.
Agribusiness
Chicken farming hobby highlights changing industry
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Sonja Solomonson is in the minority of farmers who produce chicken and other poultry. She lives on a small farm with a small flock, while her competitors raise thousands of birds, contracted with one of the major agribusiness companies.
Five companies — Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, Perdue Farms and Koch Foods — produce 61% of the chickens Americans eat, about nine billion per year, which doesn’t leave much room for alternative methods of farming birds.
Agribusiness
DowDupont split off its agriculture business; here’s what to know about Corteva Agriscience
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A new spinoff from DowDupont could mean fewer
seed and pesticide options for farmers, who are already facing mounting
challenges that include low commodity prices, poor weather conditions and a
growing trade war. On June 1, DowDuPont separated its
agricultural chemical and seed business into a standalone company called
Corteva Agriscience. Dow Chemical and Dupont Nemours, Inc. merged in 2017, and made $86 billion in sales last year. Its agriculture division provided pesticides and seeds to farmers, but the company also made paints, silicone and other chemicals in its material science and specialty products divisions. Before the merger, Dow offered more pesticide products to farmers, while Dupont sold more variety of seeds.
Agribusiness
As foreign investment in U.S. farmland grows, efforts to ban and limit the increase mount
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Foreign investors acquired at least 1.6 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2016, the largest increase in more than a decade, according to the latest available federal data.
The latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that foreign investors control 28.3 million acres, valued at $52.2 billion. That area is about the size of the state of Ohio.
Agribusiness
Breaking down the use of glyphosate in the U.S.
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Of 400 pesticides used on agriculture crops across the U.S, glyphosate is used at least three times more than all others, according to an analysis of data estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey.