Welcome to the final episode of Greener Pastures, a Midstory podcast on the future of farming in the Midwest. In this episode, we’re talking about eggs and the chickens that lay them, and how they have become one of the most resilient commodities within the agricultural industry. Profits and productivity are climbing even as other sectors struggle to stay afloat. How does the poultry industry stay winning, and how does it affect what the future farms and farmers of America will look like?
Welcome to episode five of Greener Pastures, a Midstory podcast on the future of farming in the Midwest. In this episode, dive into Michigan’s fishery, an industry that put the state on the map, but has since begun to flounder. In response to rampant overfishing in the mid-20th century, the state’s Department of Natural Resources limited what commercial fishing operations could catch, and gave more freedom to recreational fishers to access and steward the resource. Today, only a handful of licensed fishing businesses remain in operation. What exactly are they up against, and is there a future for commercial catch in the Great Lakes State?
Welcome to episode four of Greener Pastures, a Midstory podcast on the future of farming in the Midwest. In this episode, we pay a visit to the Stateler farm to see what life and business looks like at a CAFO. Anthony Stateler believes that large-scale animal farms like his have been unfairly blamed for the water quality issues that have afflicted Lake Erie for the last decade. What he wants is for farmers to focus on growing their storytelling capabilities, because he feels they have nothing to hide — and everything to gain.
Welcome to episode three of Greener Pastures, a Midstory podcast on the future of farming in the Midwest. In this episode, we approach the billion dollar industry of factory-farmed beef, the scrutiny surrounding its environmental and animal welfare concerns, and one Indiana cattle farmer’s vision for an alternative approach.
Welcome to episode two of Greener Pastures, a Midstory podcast on the future of farming in the Midwest. In this episode, we present farmers’ thoughts on two key cash crops — corn and soy — and their ideas surrounding monocropped soils, resilience, conservation strategies and meeting their bottom lines.
The Midwest is the land of Big Ag — but it wasn’t always that way. Before we can make any claims about the future of farming in America’s heartland, we need to look to its past, a story of how scientific progress, federal policy and social pressure brought an end to the era of the family farm.
Welcome to the season finale of Brain Drain, a Midstory podcast that explores the city of Toledo through the eyes of the people who’ve left it behind. In this episode, we talk to Midstory’s cofounders, who graduated from Princeton and Harvard and gave up careers on the coast to help build Toledo’s tomorrow.
In the last eight years, Midstory has brought over 200 bright, young people from across the nation to Toledo through their internship and fellowship programs. In this first part of the season finale, we bring the Midstory interns back into play to talk about what would make a city like Toledo worth living in and fighting for.
Many choose to leave Toledo, but there are those who choose to stay. Their awareness of the exodus around them strengthens their resolve to dig deeper, keep insisting on Toledo’s promise and to encourage their friends and neighbors to work harder on behalf of this city. But, how long can Toledo keep counting on its biggest advocates to swim upstream? In this episode, we tackle the recurring and thorny matter of investing in a city that might not always love you back.
