After the end of pandemic-era free meals, schools are reporting rising school meal debt and fewer kids in their free and reduced price programs.
The Latest Harvest Stories
-
Rural areas are losing grocery stores to consolidation faster than their urban counterparts — but some communities have come up with innovative solutions.
-
The Missouri General Assembly passed legislation in 2019 and 2021 to restrict counties from imposing regulations on industrial livestock operations.
-
A new study shows a threefold increase in Midwest farm acres using the offseason crops to help protect the soil and reduce runoff, but it still makes up less than 8% of all farmland.
-
Tar spot, a fungal disease, first appeared in the U.S. in 2015 with reports in Indiana and Illinois. Since then, it has been spreading across the Midwest.
-
The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a new rule that would change the requirements of meat, poultry and egg labels that say “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” to better align with what consumers understand the claim to mean.
-
Legislation is being proposed at the federal and state level to restrict foreign ownership of farmland, especially by China. The scrutiny comes after a Midwestern project was scuttled by military concerns and the flight of a Chinese spy balloon across the U.S.
-
While food prices won’t rise as sharply in 2023, they could still increase about 8% over last year’s rates, according to forecasts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
-
Voters are just days away from deciding whether Oklahoma will legalize recreational marijuana. But results of similar ballot initiatives in Arkansas and Missouri could help predict the fate of State Question 820.
-
The consumer price index is widely used by Americans to determine inflation, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics only surveys American counties that include a metro or micropolitan area.