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Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco/A growing legal movement to grant natural entities like rivers and forests legal rights is gaining traction in the U.S., and environmentalists are now setting their sights on the Mississippi River. -
Eva Tesfaye/Harvest Public MediaThe United Nations has declared 2023 the International Year of Millets — a type of small grain mostly grown in parts of Asia and Africa. The highly resilient and cost-friendly grains could make them the next crop for U.S. farmers in the midst of climate change.
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Every five years, Congress has to renew the farm bill — a gigantic piece of legislation that supports and protects food production, natural resources and provides food benefits to low-income families. -
Across the Midwest, some city codes threaten people with fines for having milkweed on their property. But experts say many places have dropped those rules to support monarchs with urban and suburban butterfly gardens.
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A new report from the Environmental Working Group found targeting the U.S. Department of Agriculture's conservation funding to the Mississippi River region would have huge benefits to water quality and the climate.
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Three companies want to capture carbon dioxide from Midwestern ethanol plants, transport it by pipeline and store it underground. Many in the ethanol industry claim it’s essential to the industry’s survival. Environmentalists and even farmers argue the pipelines are a boon for the industry — not a real solution for climate change.
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States in the Midwest and South have already seen many deadly tornadoes so far this year. These parts of the country are also where the number of severe events are steadily increasing.
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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.
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Rural areas are losing grocery stores to consolidation faster than their urban counterparts — but some communities have come up with innovative solutions.
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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.
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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.
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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.
