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Investigate Midwest The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/feedzy-import/fair-warning/)

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      • Wellness on the Farm
      • Mental health resources in the Midwest
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Coronavirus

The Trump Administration told an Illinois health department to leave Rochelle Foods alone. Then a second COVID-19 outbreak struck the plant.

By Derek Kravitz, Brown Institute for Media Innovation; Georgia Gee, Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Columbia Journalism School; Madison McVan, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting; and Ignacio Calderon, USA TODAY Network Agriculture Data Fellow | January 18, 2021

A May 1 conference call with federal, state and local health officials sent one message: Despite a COVID-19 outbreak amongst it workers, Rochelle Foods was to remain open. This fall, a second outbreak at the plant wasn’t publicly reported.

Coronavirus

  • Building Trust Is Key To Ensuring Farmworker Access To COVID Testing, Vaccine
    By Christine Herman and Dana Cronin, Harvest Public Media | 8 hours ago

    The rollout of coronavirus vaccines provides hope that the end of the pandemic is near. But the virus is still spreading across the U.S. and efforts to expand access to testing and build trust with the farmworker community are still needed, Tellefson Torres says.

  • COVID-19 deaths go uninvestigated as OSHA takes a hands-off approach to meatpacking plants
    By Kyle Bagenstose and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY; Sky Chadde, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | January 12, 2021

    Normally, a workplace death in the United States is met with a swift and thorough response.  By law, employers must report a death within eight hours to the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration. An inspector from OSHA typically arrives within a day to interview workers, review the site of the incident, and determine whether the […]

  • How we did it: ‘They think workers are like dogs.’ How pork plant execs sacrificed safety for profits
    By Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | December 29, 2020

    With support from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, we deeply examined the outbreak at Triumph Foods, which sickened hundreds of meatpacking workers and killed at least four. Here's how we did it.

Wellness on the Farm

  • Long distances and stigma: Telehealth seen as way for farmers to access needed mental health assistance
    By Marissa Plescia, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

    Mental health providers said online therapy offers more confidentiality to farmers and spares them from driving long distances to access care.

  • After #MeToo, This Group Has Nearly Erased Sexual Harassment in Farm Fields
    By Vera L. Chang

    Nely Rodríguez stands in front of 43 farmworkers and supervisors who sit side by side at picnic tables wearing various protective workwear—hats, ski masks, bandanas, socks as sleeves.

    Rodríguez, a member and worker-leader of the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), points to a drawing of a female farmworker bent over picking tomatoes while a male supervisor stands over her saying, “¡Mamacita, qué rico te vez!” or “Hot momma, you look so sexy!”

  • Homegrown relief: Farming communities tackle rise in suicides
    By Stephanie Hanes

    This story was originally published by the Christian Science Monitor LIME RIDGE, WIS. One humid afternoon this past July, on the gravel driveway of Lime Ridge Ag Supply in the rolling green heart of America’s dairy land, a small group of masked volunteers delivered sugar cones and goody bags to farmers in big trucks. The […]

Agribusiness

  • Biden administration reviews Trump regulatory rollbacks likely to harm farmworkers
    By Johnathan Hettinger, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | 8 hours ago

    In one of his first acts Wednesday, President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to review Trump-era rules that advocacy groups said harmed public health and the environment.

  • GRAPHIC: Poultry plants were already dangerous. Then came COVID-19.
    By Sky Chadde, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | December 16, 2020

    There had been about 8 deaths a year on average across the poultry industry — until this year.

  • Lawsuit Alleges Farmworkers Sickened After Pesticide Exposure
    By Dana Cronin | December 10, 2020

    In late July 2019, a group of migrant farmworkers from south Texas was working in a cornfield in DeWitt County, Ill., when suddenly a crop duster flew overhead, spraying them with pesticides. Panicked, the crew, which included teenagers and a pregnant woman, ran off the field with clothes doused in pesticides. Their eyes and throats burned and some had trouble breathing.

Dicamba on Trial

  • ‘Buy it or else’: Inside Monsanto and BASF’s moves to force dicamba on farmers
    By Johnathan Hettinger, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | December 4, 2020

    Internal company records show the companies knew crop damage from their weed killer would be extensive. They sold it anyway.

  • Federal judge upholds dicamba ruling but reduces damages owed to Missouri peach farmer
    By Johnathan Hettinger, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | November 30, 2020

    A jury awarded Bader Farms $250 million in punitive damages after finding Monsanto and BASF knew dicamba would harm crops. A judge reduced the amount.

  • Trump EPA removes tool states use to protect farmworkers, environment
    By Johnathan Hettinger/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | November 20, 2020

    The Trump Administration took a step on Friday to severely weaken state regulation of pesticides, taking away a tool that state regulatory officials say helps protect farmworkers and the environment.

Government

  • Midwest Center sensors find potentially hazardous pesticides near schools, parks and homes
    By Claire Hettinger and Johnathan Hettinger, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

    For one year, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting periodically sampled for pesticide drift in five locations surrounded by agricultural fields in Central Illinois, where large numbers of corn and soybeans are planted. Five air sensors put up by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting from June 2018 to July 2019 found the presence of pesticides near schools, parks and homes where vulnerable populations live.

  • Without federal oversight, some states protect workers from COVID-19, others shield businesses from lawsuits
    By Frank Hernandez, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

    Advocates have said safety measures need to be enforceable in order to protect workers. Without the feds, some states have stepped in and done so.

  • Plagued by COVID outbreaks, the meatpacking industry could be forced to change under Biden
    By Sky Chadde, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting; Rachel Axon and Kyle Bagenstose, USA Today

    While president-elect Joe Biden has not announced any specific plans to protect meatpacking workers, advocates believe there are things he could, and should, do.

Environment

  • Despite hundreds of millions in tax dollars, ADM’s carbon capture program still hasn’t met promised goals
    By Johnathan Hettinger, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | November 19, 2020

    Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agribusinesses, has yet to make good on its promise to capture a million tons of carbon a year at its Decature, Illinois, facility.

  • EPA takes steps to allow continued use of pesticides linked to cancer, brain development issues in children
    By Johnathan Hettinger, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | September 24, 2020

    The Trump administration in recent days took steps toward continuing to allow the use of two popular pesticides linked to developmental issues in children. In both cases, the agency weakened its metrics for assessing human health protections. On Sept. 18, the EPA approved the continued use of atrazine, the second most commonly sprayed herbicide in […]

  • EPA Inspector General: Covid-19 could affect agency’s ability to communicate health risks to communities
    By Samuel Trilling, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | June 25, 2020

    Covid-19 could hamper the EPA’s ability to inform communities of health risks, according to a report released this month from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. Specifically, the inspector general’s office worried the EPA might not be able to inform residents who live near facilities with emissions that could cause cancer. In a separate report […]

Database: Tracking Covid-19’s impact on meatpacking workers and industry

USDA photo by Preston Keres

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) meat inspectors and graders perform their mission.

‘They think workers are like dogs.’ How pork plant execs sacrificed safety for profits.

‘They think workers are like dogs.’ How pork plant execs sacrificed safety for profits.

From City Hall to the White House, our investigation found, officials let Triumph Foods stay open as hundreds of workers got coronavirus. Four died.

Opinion

  • USDA Secretary nominee will need to change his spots to meet unprecedented challenges

    Big Ag must have breathed a huge collective sigh of relief when President-elect Joe Biden tapped Tom Vilsack to be secretary of USDA. For Big Ag Vilsack is like your grandfather's favorite slippers – comfortable, cuddley warm, and dependable.

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Rural America

  • Minnesota has figured out a way to help stressed farmers. Can it be replicated?

    This story is part of a yearlong project exploring the ways farmers and farming communities tackle mental health and is supported with a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. When Pam Uhlenkamp separated from her husband earlier this year, she knew the person to call.  As a farm business management instructor, Uhlenkamp mentors farmers one-on-one.

From the USDA

  • USDA Exempts Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a final Alaska Roadless Rule that exempts the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 provision that prohibited road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvests.

SEEDS OF DESPAIR: Isolated, and with limited access to mental-health care, hundreds are dying by suicide.

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