How are nitrates ending up in drinking water supplies?

Watching Our Water, part 1: Many towns and cities across the Midwest and Great Plains face pollution seeping into their water supplies. A big part of the problem: farming and ranching.
Farmers feel the pressure to fight agricultural water pollution

Watching Our Water, part 2: With agriculture a major contributor to water pollution in the Midwest, many farmers are are stepping up to address their impact on the environment.
Absent regulations, farmers dabble in voluntary measures to stop harmful runoff

Watching Our Water, part 3: While federal regulations have successfully cut back some types of water pollution, most have little muscle in combating what is one of the Midwest’s biggest environmental problems: agricultural runoff.
Cities cope with polluted ag runoff, create their own pollution, too

Watching Our Water, part 4: While agriculture gets most of the blame for waterway pollution, cities and suburbs play a part, too.
Researching new ways farmers can fight Gulf’s ‘dead zone’

Watching Our Water, part 5: Farming in the fertile Midwest is tied to an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but scientists are studying new ways to lessen the Midwest’s environmental impact.

In-depth coverage of food, fuel and field

Watching Our Water

The Challenge Of Keeping It Clean

Dangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat

Ralph “Ed” Horner is buried a short drive from his rural Larimer County home. (Dan Boyce/Rocky Mountain PBS for Harvest Public Media)

Death and injuries on "The Chain"

Tracking A Farm Virus

Mystery and a threat

Feasting On Fuel

Large banks of fluorescent lamps provide the spectrum of light that keeps the floating beds of plants alive year-round in The Plant Chicago, a vertical farming facility. (File: Peter Gray/Harvest Public Media)

Energy in, energy out

Choice Cuts: Meat In America

Meat: It's what's for dinner

My Farm Roots 2015

The Renyer family from Nemaha County, Kansas. (Peggy Lowe/Harvest Public Media)

What it's like to grow up today in Farm Country

Tossed Out

Food Waste in America

Growing Influence

Lobbying the Farm Bill

My Farm Roots 2014

Deep roots in farm country

The Local Food Challenge

Growing food, growing market

Welcome to Harvest Public Media

Down economy has many farmers looking for agronomists’ advice

Today, as farmers rely as much on data and research as on tractors and combines, agronomists and their network of experts are as important as ever to many Midwest farmers.

These veterans are finding peace on the farm

Many veterans making the tough transition home find a new sense of purpose in the field, tending to vegetables or livestock.

Saving seeds, to spur return to indigenous foods

Long before European settlers plowed the Plains, corn was an important part of the diet of many Native American tribes. Today, members of some tribes are hoping to revive their food and farming traditions by planting the kinds of indigenous crops their ancestors once grew.

How would Trump, Clinton clean up Midwest waterways?

Many farmers today use pesticides and fertilizers, which can take a toll on our water. The next president will have to deal with the problem. So what can we expect from either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

Why you should care about ‘Big Ag’ companies getting bigger

Five of the six biggest companies that produce and sell seeds and chemicals to the world’s farmers are pursuing deals that could leave a market dominated by just three giant, global companies. Most Americans aren’t farmers. But these moves would trigger structural changes to the foundations of our food system and impact all Americans, whether or not they buy seeds, fertilizer or herbicides.

Eat or be eaten: How 'Big Ag' came to be

Some of the world's biggest agribusiness companies have plans to team up to get bigger. To understand the significance of this consolidation, you have to go back a century to look at how the industry got to where it is today.

Soda taxes: Coming soon to a city near you?

It's a crucial election season for taxes on sugary drinks. At least four cities, including Boulder, Colorado, will vote on whether to enact the tax, giving public health advocates hope that they'll soon be headed to a ballot near you.

Food program gap can put families at risk

Millions of families depend on federal food aid programs to keep their children fed. But when kids age out of an early childhood development program, entire families can plunge into food insecurity.

Why scientists disagree on RoundUp’s cancer risk

After dueling reviews of research studies, scientific panels from the U.S. government and the World Health Organization are having a hard time agreeing whether glyphosate, the most common weed killer in the United States, can cause cancer. Known by the brand name RoundUp, glyphosate is sprayed on farm fields and lawns all across the country.

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Watch: Small towns look for unique solutions to agricultural water pollution

Watch: The insect factory that breeds better bugs

While cities recover, the rural economy still struggles to shake off Great Recession

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Welcome to Harvest Public Media

Watch: Small towns look for unique solutions to agricultural water pollution

Watch: The insect factory that breeds better bugs

While cities recover, the rural economy still struggles to shake off Great Recession