Investigate Midwest - The Midwest Center for Investigative ReportingInvestigate Midwest | The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

“Fall-off-a-cliff moment”: Covid-19 adds new dimension to farmers’ stress

Farmers faced high levels of stress before the pandemic. But the virus’s impact on agriculture has only deepened some farmers’ stress, experts said.

New Bayer-engineered seed raises questions among experts on the future of weed control
By Johnathan Hettinger/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | July 3, 2020
A new genetically engineered corn seed designed by Bayer to be sprayed by up to five herbicides could represent the future of farming. But for how long?
Roundup maker Monsanto settles for over $10 billion in class action lawsuit
By Samuel Trilling | June 24, 2020
Bayer-owned Monsanto and law firms representing about 100,000 plaintiffs reached a settlement on Wednesday over the alleged cancer-causing effects of the popular herbicide Roundup.
Cows likely to be culprit in 2019 E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, FDA finds
By Madeline Perry, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | June 11, 2020
Cows in the Salinas Valley area of California have been blamed for three E. coli outbreaks in late 2019 that sickened 188 people in at least 27 states, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration report released in May.

In Roundup settlement, Bayer reaches $400 million deal with farmers over dicamba
By Johnathan Hettinger/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | June 24, 2020
Bayer has reached a $400 million settlement with farmers whose crops have been damaged by drift from the herbicide dicamba, the company announced Wednesday. The settlement was announced alongside the company’s $10 billion settlement over claims that the herbicide Roundup causes cancer.
Federal court denies motion to hold EPA in contempt of dicamba ruling
By Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | June 19, 2020
A request to hold the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in contempt of a June 3 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals order to vacate registrations of the weed killer dicamba was denied Friday.
EPA defends decision to allow continued dicamba use
By Johnathan Hettinger/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | June 17, 2020
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defended its decision to allow farmers to continue to spray a recently banned herbicide through July 31 in a court filing on Tuesday evening. The agency argued that it has the power to regulate existing stocks of herbicides that have been canceled.

Temporary worker at Central Illinois meat processing plant tests positive for Covid-19
By Pam Dempsey | July 3, 2020
After 26 days of no new reported cases, a Rantoul Foods worker has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
EPA Inspector General: Covid-19 could affect agency’s ability to communicate health risks to communities
By Samuel Trilling | 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 […]
‘All smoke and mirrors’: How Trump’s meatpacking order has failed to keep workers safe
By Rachel Axon USA TODAY, Sky Chadde, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | June 18, 2020
Since the executive order, COVID-19 cases tied to meatpacking plants have skyrocketed from fewer than 5,000 at the time to more than 25,000 as of this week, according to tracking from the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. Rather than protecting workers, a half dozen experts and advocates said, the federal government is failing them.

SEEDS OF DESPAIR: Isolated, and with limited access to mental-health care, hundreds are dying by suicide.
By Katie Wedell USA TODAY NETWORK Lucille Sherman USA TODAY NETWORK Sky Chadde Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
American farmers produce nearly all of the country’s food and contribute some $133 billion annually to the gross domestic product. Yet they now are saddled with near-record debt, declaring bankruptcy at rising rates and selling off their farms amid an uncertain future clouded by climate change and whipsawed by tariffs and bailouts. For some, the burden is too much to bear.
Seeking a Cure: Mental health access scarce in rural, farming communities
By Claire Hettinger and Pam Dempsey/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
With farmers facing increasing stress and depression, Midwestern states and national farm groups are making more efforts to better provide services to alleviate the high rate of suicide among the agriculture industry. Yet in rural areas, this care is more of a challenge.
Relocating USDA agencies delayed millions in grants. One was for a suicide prevention network for farmers.
By Sky Chadde/Gannett Ag Data Fellow
Suicide is a major problem among farmers. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found the agricultural industry had the fourth-highest rate of suicide.

Feds could do more to investigate forced labor claims in the seafood industry, GAO report finds
By Madeline Perry
The federal government struggles to evaluate forced labor allegations in the seafood industry, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this month.
EPA temporarily suspends monitoring of a pesticide in water over COVID-19 concerns
By Johnathan Hettinger
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allowed Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta to halt its water monitoring program of a pesticide linked to reproductive issues and cancer that is found in the drinking water of millions of Americans because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Lawsuit: Smithfield plant forced workers to crowd together as COVID-19 spread in its other plants
By Sky Chadde
As more and more Smithfield workers in South Dakota fell ill with COVID-19, the company's workers at a Missouri plant contended with policies that made social distancing almost impossible, according to an affidavit from a plant worker filed in a lawsuit last week.

EPA sidesteps normal public process to approve BASF’s cancer-linked pesticide
By Johnathan Hettinger | April 3, 2020
This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that soybean farmers in 25 states are now able to spray a pesticide that the agency has determined is likely to cause cancer and drift hundreds of feet from where it is applied.
As sales of the pesticide chlorpyrifos ends in California, maker Corteva announces it will stop producing it.
By Sky Chadde/Gannett Ag Data Fellow | February 7, 2020
Corteva Agriscience – the main manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children – said it would stop its production by the end of this year.
Despite federal, state efforts, dicamba complaints continue
By Johnathan Hettinger/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | August 27, 2019
For the third straight year, a volatile pesticide is damaging crops across the Midwest and South, despite federal and state efforts to lessen the drift.