Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

At the nation’s largest student farm organization, a reckoning on race

When Xavier Morgan first enrolled in the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in 2010, he wasn’t necessarily interested in farming. In fact, his admission to the school, which his aunt recommended due to its strong reputation for career and technical education, was in part a product of chan

By Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

/ 10 Sep 2020

At the nation’s largest student farm organization, a reckoning on race

Opinion: Smithfield’s media attack shifts attention from its own lack of disclosure

Smithfield’s ad, which was published the Washington Post Omaha World-Herald, and New York Times, begins with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts … the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”

By Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

/ 6 Aug 2020

Opinion: Smithfield’s media attack shifts attention from its own lack of disclosure

A battle brews in rural Wisconsin over factory farms

A community divided. A local official accused of self-dealing. A top political appointee ousted from his job. In Wisconsin, a state where the footprint of agribusiness is growing, the question of how to regulate factory farms is a pressing topic from the town hall to the statehouse.

By Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

/ 20 Nov 2019

In Missouri, lawmakers are poised to eliminate local regulation of CAFOs

Communities in Missouri have been fighting the expansion of large-scale livestock operations in the state for years. But a controversial pair of bills moving through the state legislature would make community oversight of those farms even harder.

By Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

/ 10 May 2019

The air they breathe

Recent actions by the GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump administration have exempted big livestock farms from reporting air emissions. The moves follow a decade-long push by the livestock industry for exemption and leave neighbors of large-scale operations in the dark about what they’re inhaling

By Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

/ 21 Dec 2018

In Ohio, ranchers say beef checkoff program flouts prohibition on lobbying

Some Ohio ranchers have long taken issue with the administration of the beef checkoff, fighting the program at the state and federal level. They allege that some checkoff funds go toward political activity and lobbying, which is prohibited by the Agricultural Marketing Service, the body of the USDA

By Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

/ 15 Feb 2018

Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network

At the nation’s largest student farm organization, a reckoning on race

Opinion: Smithfield’s media attack shifts attention from its own lack of disclosure

A battle brews in rural Wisconsin over factory farms

In Missouri, lawmakers are poised to eliminate local regulation of CAFOs

The air they breathe

In Ohio, ranchers say beef checkoff program flouts prohibition on lobbying

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