Less than two months ago, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its intent to unconditionally register three new dicamba-based pesticides for over-the-top usage on soybean and cotton crops. To say EPA has a checkered history in trying to get dicamba registered is an understatement. The federal courts have twice revoked EPA approval of dicamba. In 2020, […]| Investigate Midwest
U.S. farmers are likely staring down another year in the red, faced with a familiar cycle: rising costs and weakening markets. After years of strong grain prices between 2021 and 2023, growing corn and soybeans is no longer profitable — a trend likely to continue and one that farm groups warn could spark a financial […]| Investigate Midwest
Esta nota cuenta con el apoyo del Chicago Region Food Systems Fund. Read the story in English here. En Beardstown, Illinois, la pareja cubana había pasado el último año construyendo una vida de la que se sentían orgullosos. Llegaron a Estados Unidos después de un camino largo e incierto: un viaje rumbo al norte a […]| Investigate Midwest
After the Civil War, the U.S. government promised 40 acres, either from abandoned plantations or unused land, to formerly enslaved Black people. But then President Andrew Johnson intervened. He pardoned Confederates, returning their land. It became a common theme. In the following decades, some Black farmers gained land through deals with white landowners: After being […]| Investigate Midwest
What happens when immigration enforcement targets the very workers who help keep it alive? The conversation comes as Investigate Midwest launches a new grant-funded reporting series exploring how Trump-era immigration raids, stepped-up ICE enforcement, and delayed federal reform have reshaped the agricultural workforce — and the lives of noncitizen workers behind it.| Investigate Midwest
