As loans come due, farmers feel the financial squeeze

Mar 25, 2019
Some farmers are “quietly exiting” because they can’t make a profit.
Farmer Tom Giessel stands in front of a corn pile near Larned, Kansas. The corn was grown in 2017 and because of a market glut, it still hasn’t sold.
Peggy Lowe/KCUR

Rookie farmers in California are turning to nonprofit groups to boost their business savvy

Jan 29, 2019
“Beginning” farmers operate a quarter of U.S. farms, according to the USDA.
YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / Getty Images

Farming during a government shutdown

Jan 7, 2019
Between unresolved tariffs and a partial government shutdown, it's a tough moment for American farmers.
A hog is prepared for showing at the Iowa County Fair in July in Marengo, Iowa.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Pacific Rim nations ring in new year with a trade deal shutting out U.S. farmers

Jan 2, 2019
As of this week, there are some tariffs around the world that are falling. Six Pacific Rim nations, including Japan, Australia and Mexico, are lowering tariffs for a number of products and services, with five other countries set to join in once their governments formally ratify the deal. Notably absent from the party? The United […]
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

In the age of climate change, farmers weigh their options for the future

Dec 27, 2018
National climate change report says the business of farming could dramatically change if global warming isn’t addressed.
A pasture of pure blue stem prairie grass, never touched by a plow during the 150 years the Teske family has owned this piece of northeast Kansas.
Peggy Lowe for Marketplace

Hurricane means fewer North Carolina sweet potatoes

Nov 22, 2018
The state provides most of the nation's fresh supply; Florence wiped out 20 percent of the crop.
Jimmy Burch, owner of Burch Farms in North Carolina, said he lost about a third of this year's sweet potato crop because of rain from Hurricane Florence.
Andy Uhler/Marketplace

Trade war means more donations to food banks

Nov 22, 2018
To blunt the pain of tariffs, the government is buying more than $1 billion in surplus food. Much of that will go to food banks.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Why are E. coli outbreaks so hard to trace?

Sprawling supply chains are part of the problem, but new technology could help.
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Lots of soybeans with no place to go

Nov 6, 2018
A Chinese tariff on the U.S. crop has shut down a critical market.
Soybeans are loaded onto a truck before delivery to a grain elevator in June in Dwight, Illinois. 
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Who will grow our food?

Nov 6, 2018
As prices fall and costs squeeze farmers, the young opt against lives of hard work and low wages.
Scott Olson/Getty Images