The End of the Pesticide Arms Race?

To spray or not to spray, that’s the question for farmers. Pests can be the make-or-break factor for a season’s harvest. Between 20% to 40% of global crop production is lost to pests annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Conventional chemical pesticides have traditionally addressed this challenge, but their…

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Rural communities rely on this USDA agency. Trump’s cuts threaten that

Jenna Batchelder and her husband Brad have been raising livestock for years. A grant from USDA Rural Development helped them branch out into a successful retail meat business. (Frank Morris | Harvest Public Media)

USDA Rural Development is Washington’s chief tool to promote economic growth in rural counties — providing funding for everything from renovating old hospitals to providing faster internet service. Sometimes the agency sweeps in to clean up an urgent mess. For instance, last year in Dunklin County, in Missouri’s Bootheel, a sewer system failure sent raw…

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Harvesting Change | Localizing Our Food System

Cows feeding in trough

As part of the Flatland series “Harvesting Change,” Flatland in Focus looks at the people and policies that influence the transition away from industrial agriculture to a more localized food system that protects and regenerates the environment.

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