Agriculture

State and federal officials are gearing up to stop the advance of a parasitic fly that is less than 70 miles from the United States border with Mexico.

Jerry Costello II, a former Metro East state lawmaker, says the $12 billion in aid from the Trump administration won’t come close to covering the losses farmers have suffered in the form of lost markets, lower commodity prices and higher input costs.

Before the outbreak, the Metro East producer had about 900 chickens and guinea hens, 80 ducks, and 20 geese. All had to be killed when the Illinois Department of Agriculture detected avian influenza.

Some Midwestern soybean farmers are selling their beans to be crushed and turned into soybean meal and oil. But economists say domestic processing won’t be enough to offset the drop in Chinese demand.

Aerial crop planting and treatment takes off across the Midwest.

The Trump administration is promising billions in a bailout for farmers. This harvest season the trade war with China has added to the farm economy’s woes, as producers deal with lower crop prices and high costs.

Experiments in agrivoltaics offer a respite to extreme heat, and provide land access for new farmers.

One Illinois man’s decadeslong fight to convert his fields into rice paddies demonstrates how it’s possible to bring diversity to the Corn Belt, but improbable so long as federal farm policy remains focused on soybeans and corn.

Some farmers keep growing in flood- and drought-prone fields because subsidies soften the losses, while federal programs meant to help them change course have been underfunded and mired in bureaucracy. Under Trump, those programs may weaken further.

The new book, "Sea of Grass," traces the history and future of the American prairie, laying out the stunning loss of grassland in North America and meeting the people fighting to bring it back.