Farmers invested in federally-backed programs now worry about delays, rising costs, and financial uncertainty, with critical infrastructure projects, conservation efforts, and climate disaster relief funding left in limbo.
45% of hired farm workers were undocumented in 2017. Experts say the consequences of mass deportations under a second-term Trump could lead to lasting higher grocery prices and the collapse of the agriculture system.
Donald Trump has promised a transformational second term. Change is coming to almost every aspect of American policy.
No matter who had won the election, Investigate Midwest was poised to
Starting with the failed-to-deliver debacle of the 2023 Farm Bill to what a second Trump Administration might mean for ag, there is plenty at stake, Dave Dickey predicts.
A May 1 conference call with federal, state and local health officials sent one message: Despite a COVID-19 outbreak amongst it workers, Rochelle Foods was to remain open. This fall, a second outbreak at the plant wasn’t publicly reported.
The Trump Administration took a step on Friday to severely weaken state regulation of pesticides, taking away a tool that state regulatory officials say helps protect farmworkers and the environment.
While president-elect Joe Biden has not announced any specific plans to protect meatpacking workers, advocates believe there are things he could, and should, do.
Even as thousands of their employees fell ill with COVID-19, meatpacking executives pressured federal regulators to help keep their plants open, according to a trove of emails obtained by USA TODAY and The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.