As Drought Kills Corn, Farmers Fight Over Ethanol
We often talk about the "farm lobby" as though farmers spoke with a unified voice. And it's true, they usually try to. But an unusually bitter and public fight is breaking out right now between the...
View ArticleMeat Producers And Ultimately, Consumers, Hurt By Drought
Despite headlines about the crushing drought that's afflicting much of the country's prime agricultural land, the USDA isn't expecting any dramatic increases in the price of food this year or next.
View ArticleIn Drought-Stricken Midwest, It's Fodder Vs. Fuel
Transcript RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: And I'm Linda Wertheimer. In the Midwest, the drought is doing a number on the...
View ArticleHere's Where Farms Are Sucking The Planet Dry
This map is disturbing, once you understand it. It's a new attempt to visualize an old problem — the shrinking of underground water reserves, in most cases because farmers are pumping out water to...
View ArticleSecret Side Of The Drought: Many Corn Farmers Will Benefit
You've all heard a lot about this year's devastating drought in the Midwest, right? The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last Friday that the average U.S. cornfield this year will yield less...
View ArticleSaving Lives In Africa With The Humble Sweet Potato
A regular old orange-colored sweet potato might not seem too exciting to many of us.
View ArticleHow A Biofuel Dream Called Jatropha Came Crashing Down
From Congress to The Colbert Report, people are talking about the Midwestern drought and debating whether it makes sense to convert the country's shrinking corn supplies into ethanol to power our cars....
View ArticleSo, Who Sent Those Sick Cows To The Slaughterhouse?
Federal regulators and fast-food companies reacted with unprecedented speed this week to the release of an undercover video that animal-rights activists shot inside a California slaughterhouse. The...
View ArticleOn the Farmers Market Frontier, It's Not Just About Profit
Farmers markets are popping up in cities all across the country, and people expect lots of different things from them: Better food, of course, but also economic development and even friendlier...
View ArticleHow African Cattle Herders Wiped Out An Ancient Plague
Twice in all of history, humans have managed to eradicate a devastating disease. You've heard of the first one, I suspect: smallpox. But rinderpest? That's a German word for "cattle plague" a feared...
View ArticleAs Scientists Question New Rat Study, GMO Debate Rages On
The headlines on the press releases that started showing up yesterday, here at The Salt certainly got our attention. Just one sample: "BREAKING NEWS: New Study Links Genetically Engineered Food to...
View ArticleLawsuit Claims Pork Producers Council Scammed $60 Million From Farmers
You know that ad campaign for pork, the one that called it "the other white meat?" There's a fascinating behind-the-scenes story about that slogan, revealed in a new lawsuit that was just filed this...
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