Harvesting Change

This Flatland reporting series highlights producers in the Kansas City region who are working to support local food chains, and their impact on sustainability.

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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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)

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

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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Cows feeding in trough

Harvesting Change | Localizing Our Food System

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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A woman looks at a bundle of drying flowers on a lettuce stalk in a hoop house.

Harvesting Change | Making Local Food Connections in the Heartland  

Meet the people who are making Kansas City’s increasingly interconnected local food system more sustainable on multiple fronts.

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A woman in a black sweater stands in a greenhouse and holds a tray of fennel seedlings.

Harvesting Change | Growing Roots in the KC Food System 

The New Roots farmer training program is a four-year apprenticeship with Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas and Cultivate KC.  

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