Harvest Public Media

A sign highlighting nutrition incentive program Double Up Oklahoma is displayed in an Oklahoma City Grocery store. The program matches up $20 a day of SNAP spending for produce.

Federal calls for SNAP data could deter eligible immigrants from applying, advocacy groups say

Anna Pope

The Trump Administration is asking states to more closely watch the citizenship status of people receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But some advocates for immigrant families worry the messaging could hurt people who are eligible for the food assistance.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins shakes hands with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen as she holds up a copy of the first-ever SNAP waiver to allow a state to restrict certain food items from the federal food assistance program. Nebraska's pilot project will prohibit SNAP recipients from using the benefits to buy soda and energy drinks.

Nebraska will ban soda and energy drinks from federal food aid. Cuts in other states are likely next

Molly Ashford

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins gave a first-ever approval for a state to restrict what’s covered by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during a visit to Nebraska this week. Other states, including Kansas, Iowa and Indiana, are seeking similar waivers.

John Gelineau, Mushrooms Naturally founder and chef pictured on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in O’Fallon, Mo, has taken advantage of the artisanal mushroom boom by opening his business and moving to a larger storefront.

Morels remain a tough-to-farm delicacy. Midwest cultivators are slowly figuring out how

Kate Grumke

Each spring, Midwesterners head to the woods to find morel mushrooms. But some in the region are developing methods to reliably farm the delicacy.

AmeriCorps members assist with a controlled burn on restored prairie landscape at Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The crew's work was cut short after its program was cut.

After DOGE gutted AmeriCorps, rural communities stand to lose education and preservation help

Kate Grumke

AmeriCorps members were working on environmental education and habitat restoration at parks and nature centers in rural areas across the country. Now federal cuts have eliminated many of those positions.

A man wearing work gloves moves a shovel inside a large wooden bin

Dairy farms are vulnerable to Trump's mass deportation threats. The industry hopes to get a pass

People without legal status are a key part of the dairy industry's workforce. Some producers hope their economic contribution will protect farms from ICE raids and may open the conversation around policy reform.

An adult New World Screwworm fly sits on a plant.

A flesh-eating parasite once plagued American cattle. Now it's threatening to return

Michael Marks

It’s been decades since the New World Screwworm was a problem in the U.S., but the flies are now advancing northward from Panama. They could disrupt American agriculture if they gain a foothold here again.

U.S. truck drivers will need to prove English proficiency under new executive order

Héctor Alejandro Arzate

Supporters of the mandate say it will help to make roads safer, but some are worried about how it will impact immigrant drivers.

A farmer in the 1930s lifts a fence line so it doesn't get buried under the sand in the Oklahoma panhandle. Congress created the Soil Conservation Service to help respond to the Dust Bowl crisis on farms across the Great Plains.

Soil conservation in the U.S. started with this agency 90 years ago. Now its future is uncertain

Anna Pope

The Dust Bowl led to the creation of what is now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Just as it celebrates a major milestone, the agency is dealing with job losses, massive proposed budget cuts and talk of consolidation.

Corn is a key source of biofuel. Fertilizing it releases a potent greenhouse gas into the air, so the federal government had approved research to grow corn with less fertilizer. The funding is now paused.

The Trump administration pauses a moonshot push to grow biofuel crops with less fertilizer

Celia Llopis-Jepsen

Scientists in the Midwest and Great Plains were poised to start research to cut U.S. reliance on fertilizer imports, keep biofuel farming cost-competitive and tackle a potent greenhouse gas.

A woman in a gray turtleneck shirt and a straw hat with a black bow stands underneath a tree with red flowers, facing to the side.

A federal conservation program protects her farm from erosion, but Project 2025 aims to end it

Molly Ashford

The Conservation Reserve Program incentivizes farmers to take environmentally sensitive land out of production. Project 2025 says the Trump administration should champion its elimination.