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Farmers have been relying on the high value of their land to get them through years of low commodity prices

May 18, 2018
Land accounts for 80 percent of farm assets according to the Department of Agriculture. So farmers are using their land as collateral to face low commodity prices, but the amount of production that farmers need to service their debt is rising.  Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Farmers eyeing trade tariff threats as crop insurance trims considered by House committee

Apr 18, 2018
The House Agriculture Committee considers the Farm Bill today. The bill includes funding for crop insurance, the federal program that protects farmers from swings in crop yields, and prices. If insurance is cut back, that could be a problem should China makes good on its latest tariff threats.  Click the audio player above to hear […]

Detroit's new urban farms bring change and raise questions

Mar 27, 2018
Since 2016 Detroit has gained more than 22 new large scale gardens and farms. As these new farmers put down roots, some wonder what the future of urban agriculture will look like there.
Paige Pfleger/ for Marketplace

Montana inmates learn job and life skills while raising cattle on prison ranch

Feb 7, 2018
But food coming from a prison isn't necessarily a selling point.
An inmate attaches milkers to cows' teats.
Eve Abrams/Marketplace

Small farmers say meal kits cut into their CSA businesses

Jan 18, 2018
Some small farms that participate in community-supported agriculture say that meal kit companies are cutting into their profits.
Paul Underhill is selling more to restaurants and grocery stores to compensate for lost revenue from CSA boxes.
Sam Harnett/ for Marketplace

As farmworkers grow scarce, wages are on the rise

Mar 23, 2017
But that's not attracting native-born American laborers to the fields yet, L.A. Times reporter says.
California farmers face such tight labor pools that some are replacing grapes with almonds, which require much less human labor.
John Moore/Getty Images

Oil pushes out Venezuela's agriculture

Apr 18, 2016
A strong currency pushed up by oil exports, and national price controls, have marginalized once strong economic sectors
Egg-producing hens at a farm in Venezuela.
Jorge Galino/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Undocumented

Aug 21, 2015
Quartz and Marketplace look at Donald Trump's immigration reform plan and Turkish whistling.

12 crazy facts about chickens, and then some

Feb 12, 2015
At any one time, 20 billion chickens are alive and squawking on our planet.

The economics of slow money

Sep 19, 2014
A look behind the 'slow money' movement and BeetCoin with Christopher Wayne from Greenmarket Farmer's Market, and Vermont Public Radio's Angela Evancie.