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What John Deere's strong earnings say about the farm economy

May 19, 2023
Solid earnings posted by the farm equipment maker show many farmers had cash to spend, but that's no guarantee for the year ahead.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, supplies of grain and oil seeds were low and prices soared, said Kristen Owen of Oppenheimer. Now, farmers can afford to make some investments. 
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COVID stresses food production in Washington fruit harvests

Oct 27, 2020
It's fruit harvesting and processing time in the Pacific Northwest and workers are getting PPE, but still pressing for union rights.
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Farmers grapple with stress and depression as they try to keep their operations afloat

Jun 11, 2020
One Minnesota program offers free mental health care through the state agriculture department.
A farmer looks over his field in Texas. COVID-19 is adding stress to already strained farmers.
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We're now buying almost all of our meat through supermarket chains.
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Midwestern farmers are tied to a Gulf dead zone

Oct 9, 2017
Minnesota is trying to limit runoff carried by the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Soybeans are harvested near Worthington, Minnesota.
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Amid Trump’s immigration crackdown, farmers look for reform

Sep 26, 2017
Farmers want to see reform to the H-2A visas program, that allows foreign agricultural laborers to work legally in the U.S.
Gary Paulk, a muscadine and berry farmer in Irwin County, said he lost about $200,000 in 2011 due to a labor shortage.
Elly Yu for Marketplace

Chicken processing plants want to speed up operations

Sep 13, 2017
They'll need the USDA to roll back protections first. Critics say that will compromise worker safety.
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As customers buy more organic food, a call for more industry oversight

Sep 11, 2017
The market for organic food passed the $40 billion mark in the U.S. last year. As bigger companies get into the organics game, and more imported organic food lands in the U.S., more questions arise for USDA certifiers.
In 2016, organic food sales broke past the $40 billion mark for the first time. Above, a customer shops for milk at a Safeway's "Lifestyle" store in Livermore, California.
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Citrus growers cower as Irma advances on Florida coast

Sep 7, 2017
With Hurricane Irma on the way, farmers from Florida on up the coast to the Carolinas are on alert. More cotton crops are threatened, and the price of orange juice futures is already up. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

How an immigration raid threw a small Iowa town into economic crisis

Aug 3, 2017
Postville's recovery has been slow after hundreds of workers were arrested and virtually disappeared over night.
Signs are displayed in Postville in 2009, a year after an immigration raid crippled a meat processing plant. “It cratered the Northeast Iowa economy,” says Aaron Goldsmith, a local business owner.
ERIK CAMAYD-FREIXAS/AFP/Getty Images