Normally, Story County soybean farmer Kevin Larson said, he would resolve a dispute with a neighbor privately. Instead, he went to the Iowa Pesticide Bureau in 2017, just like a lot of other Iowans did.
USDA Rural Broadband Investment Tops $200 Million In 2018
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The USDA has announced plans for a pilot program to bring broadband internet to all of rural America. The plan, which Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue calls a “proof of concept,” will provide $600 million dollars in grants and loans to internet service providers to bring connection to parts of the country that are too remote, underpopulated or expensive to serve. “I absolutely, unequivocally believe that broadband connectivity is part of rural prosperity,” said Perdue in a press conference on Dec. 13. “We don’t want an urban rural divide in this country.
traffic safety
Safety Exemptions For Livestock Haulers Raise Concerns For Others On The Road
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It was sometime around 4 a.m. on a cool spring morning when James McGilvray lost control of his semi, careening into a ravine off Interstate 49 in Harrisonville, Missouri. His trailer, which carried between 80 and 100 cattle, according to police records, flipped on its side as the truck plowed to a halt. The crash killed roughly half the livestock onboard, with the other half escaping onto the highway where state and city law enforcement spent the next four hours shutting down traffic in order to corral the remaining herd. McGilvray, who was 48 at the time of the crash, blamed another car for causing the wreck, according to the crash report, despite officers marking no evidence for another vehicle’s involvement. Rather, 45-year-old Stacy Ball, who was traveling with McGilvray and was in the sleeper cabin changing when the crash occurred, believes McGilvray fell asleep at the wheel. On the crash report, Ball told officers that McGilvray had run off the road twice the previous night and “had been driving ‘non-stop’ for 2-3 months between Mississippi and Florida.” She also informed officers that McGilvray had been pushing himself to prove to his current employers that despite his age, he was still fit to drive the long, hard hours commonly associated with the trucking industry.
authentic storytelling
Risks and Rewards: In The Words Of People Who Have Experienced Them
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Sometimes you have to take risks in order to accomplish something. We asked four Eastern Iowans who have taken risks to speak at a live storytelling event about turns they took in search of something better and share their stories in this podcast.
Poultry Growers, Caught Between Strict Rules And Financial Risk, Lean Heavily On Government-Backed Loans
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After 20 years, Mississippi chicken farmer Kevin Kemp is getting out of the chicken business. He raised millions of pounds of chicken since 1996, alongside his father and brother. But Kemp said even though he’s done well as a poultry grower, raising chickens is “not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“The chicken industry has been good to a lot of people around here,” Kemp said. “It just got to the point where I didn’t enjoy raising chickens, because you had to put up with too much crap from the integrator.”
By “integrator,” Kemp means the big poultry companies, which deliver chickens to farmers as chicks, and pick them up six to eight weeks later as full-grown birds, ready to be slaughtered and sent to restaurants and grocery stores. Kemp has experienced the immense control poultry companies put on growers – how they care for the birds, the way payments are determined, even dictating when growers replace equipment.
Farmland Gone
High-Grade Cropland Gives Way To Urban Growth In Iowa – At Least Where There’s Growth
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Urban expansion, at least in the few areas where Iowa cities are growing, is eating up some of the state’s best farmland. The urban growth is part of a national trend in which good farmland is lost to new residential neighborhoods.
farmland
Disappearing Farmland: Despite Value, Little Protection Exists For Midwest Farmland
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America has lost millions of acres of farmland over the nearly three decades to urban and rural development. Despite conservation efforts by state and local governments and increased financial incentives for farmers, urban development and the expansion of rural residential real estate over the last 25 years has eliminated farmland across the country at levels not seen since the early 1970s.
urban sprawl
Disappearing Farmland: Small Towns Trade Farmland For Residential Development
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Driving along Route 47 in Kane County, Illinois, corn and soybean fields are dotted with signs advertising the amenities of burgeoning communities. For more than 20 years, Kane County has been a poster child for urban sprawl, the spreading of development of land on the edge of a metropolitan area.
Defining Family Farms
When Being A Family Farm Doesn’t Mean Squat In The Government’s Eyes
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Small family-run farms that raise organically, without genetically modifying crops or by reducing their use of pesticides and antibiotics, are such a small part of the federal government’s definition of a family farm that they often are lost in the crowd when it comes to government and industry support.
agriculture
Twelve Things To Know About The 2018 Farm Bill
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Once every five years, the farm bill reauthorizes farm and nutrition programs nationwide, covering programs such as healthy food access for low-income Americans and protecting our environment. A conference committee is working on a new one.
autonomous vehicles
Safety Would Take Back Seat if Senate Passes Bill On Driverless Cars, Critics Say
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Consumer advocates are attacking a bill heading for a vote soon in the U.S. Senate that would clear legal obstacles for the deployment of driverless cars — a proposal that, critics say, lacks safeguards needed to protect the public and largely would let vehicle manufacturers regulate themselves. A special report from Fairwarning.org.