Farm & Field
Pandemic Forces Food Chain Reaction By Small Farmers
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing small farmers to rethink the food chain to connect their products with customers.
Bringing Out the Dead: The Great Stockyard Fire of 1917
One of the biggest agricultural disasters in Kansas City history occurred in 1917, when a fire scorched the stockyard in the West Bottoms, leaving thousands of dead cattle and hogs charred in its wake.
In Kansas and Missouri, Immigrants are Rooted in the Agriculture Workforce
Rows of workers perch on ladders. They hoist hundred-pound baskets, which get heavier with every apple they pluck, around their necks. That’s the grind 14 hours a day, every day except for Sunday, while they earn maybe $13 an hour. These workers – mostly from Mexico – tend to the apple orchards in Waverly, Missouri….
‘No Bees, No Food’ – Missouri Group Pushing for State Ban on Bee-killing Chemicals
A Missouri environmental group is seeking statewide support for proposed legislation that would ban the use of a class of insecticides believed to be contributing to a decline in the population of honeybees. Environment Missouri’s “No Bees, No Food,” campaign sent canvassers across Kansas City this summer, collecting signatures in support of a ban on…
The Return of the American Bison
North America’s largest mammal, the American bison, is an enduring symbol of the Great Plains. Bison once ranged from Canada to New Mexico and from Nevada to the Appalachian Mountains. By 1889, their populations were reduced from 30 to 60 million animals to fewer than 1000. Bison were pushed to the brink of extinction by…