While disproportionate numbers of rural residents, especially low-income and communities of color, are exposed to unhealthy greenhouse emissions, a majority of goods produced in the process are headed to cities and suburbs.
Meat processing company Tyson Foods released at least 371.7 million pounds of pollution into U.S. waterways between 2018 and 2022, according to a report released this week from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In a state where college sports arenas blaze with fertilizer logos, the phrase “corn grows Iowa” is common on TV and radio and nearly 15% of lawmakers are farmers, there’s reluctance to pinpoint agriculture as a possible reason for Iowa’s rising cancer rate without conclusive evidence.
Imagery collected by inexpensive satellites is ushering in an era of real-time monitoring of manure-spreading practices at big farms -- including illegal winter applications that can cause harmful runoff. Some advocates want Wisconsin regulators to utilize the technology.
Out-of-state investors are buying up Nebraska land in part because of the groundwater that can be placed on crops. But there are restrictions on what they can do with that water.
Last year, the EPA called out nitrate pollution, largely from agriculture, in southeastern Minnesota. Now a bill to raise taxes on fertilizer is moving through the Minnesota Legislature.
A proposal to create a federal funding program to protect the Mississippi River, which advocates say would mirror those of other major watersheds and is long overdue, is back in front of Congress.
The Midwest has thousands of miles of oil and natural gas pipelines running underneath farmland, forests, and even rivers. And many more pipeline projects are being proposed as part of efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Drought has left parts of the Mississippi River basin with rainfall deficits of more than a foot. Recent winter storms could provide some relief as the snow melts and makes its way to parched waterways.
