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The Midwest is farm country. Acres of corn and soybeans stretch to the horizon, tilled by grizzled farmers on their green, John Deere tractors — at least, that’s what we’ve been told to believe. But that stereotype doesn’t do the region’s $150 billion-dollar economic engine justice.Â
This is Greener Pastures. We’re taking you out into the fields to retell the story you thought you knew.
The region’s farms are facing some big challenges — eroding soils, extreme weather, economic hardship — and the grass certainly looks greener on the far side of this crisis. But how do we get there? And what could the farm — and the farmer — of tomorrow look like?Â
Tune in for upcoming episodes of Greener Pastures on Midstory.org, WGTE or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episodes
Welcome to Greener Pastures, a new Midstory podcast that takes you out into the fields to retell the story you thought you knew. Midwest farms are facing some big challenges, and the grass certainly looks greener on the far side of this crisis. But how do we get there? And what could the farm — and the farmer — of tomorrow look like?
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.
Two key cash crops elevated Midwestern agriculture to powerhouse status in the middle of the 20th century. But today, monocropped, heavily-tilled soils aren’t as resilient or as productive as they used to be. Some corn and soy farmers think their sector ought to embrace conservation strategies that were long considered to be fiscally irresponsible, but now might be the best bets for their bottom lines.
Factory-farmed beef generates more than $100 billion in revenue each year, but the industry is under intense scrutiny for environmental and animal welfare concerns. One Indiana cattle farmer has a vision for a regional alternative to the industrial model — but as federal funding priorities are changing, so, too, must his approach.
See what life and business looks like at a CAFO, or concentrated animal feeding operation. 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.
Michigan’s fishery, an industry that put the state on the map, 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?
From the country’s most popular source of protein to its cheapest: eggs, and the chickens that lay them, have quietly become one of the most resilient commodities within the agricultural industry, with profits and productivity 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?
Project Credits
The people behind the scenes who made this project possible.
Conceptualization
Midstory
Host
Janek Schaller
Editing
Logan Sander
Yaffa Segal
Celia Johnson
Additional Reporting
Jacob Beakas
Leah Schroeder
Siyeon Lee
Grant Rockwell
Writing
Janek Schaller
Jacob Beakas
Sound Design + Engineering
Janek Schaller
Graphics
Yaffa Segal
Ruth Chang
Video Trailer
Evan Blenko
Web Design
Alex Lim
Anna DiAsio
Data Visualization
Anna DiAsio
Yitong Jiang
Caixia Cui
Fact Checking
Terri Briskey