Harvest Public Media

The Trump administration’s tariff announcements this week are bringing uncertainty to farmers going into planting season. Farm groups warn that retaliatory tariffs will add an additional “burden” to U.S. producers.

Kansas City’s bus service is slow and rapidly declining. Advocates want the region to step up its funding. But in the meantime, more routes may get cut, and Kansas City could miss out on major economic growth. What will it take to fix the bus system? Also, Missouri content creators breathed a sigh of relief when President Donald Trump paused the federal ban on TikTok, but people who make their livelihoods off the video sharing app aren’t sure its future is secure.

Employees at U.S. Department of Agriculture research facilities across the Midwest have lost their jobs as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to trim the federal workforce. Former and current employees at one of those labs say the job cuts will impact agricultural research and support for farmers.

Farmers, nonprofits and state agencies received almost $3 billion in grants from the Inflation Reduction Act in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. But recent federal funding freezes have recipients concerned they won’t end up receiving money.

Farmers, politicians and agriculture experts are raising alarm about the impact of potential tariffs on Canadian potash, a key mineral needed for fertilizer.

Homeownership is a path to generational wealth, but many Black families have struggled to own their own homes. Habitat for Humanity Kansas City found a way to help. Plus: In Missouri and across the country, plant libraries that could help fight climate change are in danger of funding cuts.

Scientists say amid climate change and biodiversity loss, the world’s herbaria could hold the keys to overcoming the crises in their folders of dried plant specimens. But their future is in question amid cuts to research and education funding.

Wildfires have become more frequent, burning bigger areas during longer seasons thanks to conditions exacerbated by climate change. More people in the Great Plains and Midwest are turning to “prescribed” burns, which can help reduce wildfire risk.

A federal freeze on certain USDA programs has held up billions of dollars for conservation and caused layoffs at a nonprofit in Iowa that supports soil and water quality.

Peat bogs sequester a massive amount of the Earth's carbon dioxide. But even as scientists work to better understand bogs' sequestration, the wetlands are under threat.

The Soybean Innovation Lab based at the University of Illinois has laid off 30 employees and expects to shut down in the spring if funding isn't restored. Lab leaders at other Land Grant universities say they have avoided layoffs, but that could change.

After a historically warm winter last year canceled several events, Michigan’s sturgeon season came back in full swing earlier this month. It broke records with the most participants and the fastest timing, for what’s already known as the shortest fishing season in the state.