Harvest Public Media

Climate change is making insuring crops more risky, but the federally subsidized crop insurance program's payouts are up 500%. With a new Farm Bill coming, critics want to rethink the program.

The pallid sturgeons outlasted dinosaurs, but human changes to the Missouri River nearly wiped out the prehistoric fish. Some experts think the fish’s struggle could signal larger problems on the Big Muddy, especially as climate change accelerates.

Flash droughts come on quickly and can wilt crops and waterways faster than long-term droughts. New research finds the dangerous dry spells will become more common in the future.

Kansas wheat farmers will reap the smallest harvest in more than 60 years. Persistent drought withered much of the crop.

As wildfires burn in eastern Canada, smoke and pollutants drift over the heavily impacted Northeast and into the Midwest. Poor air quality levels in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, may be hurting people with more sensitive breathing conditions.

A deep and persistent drought has parched much of Kansas, and wheat farmers there now expect the smallest harvest in at least 60 years.

A growing legal movement to grant natural entities like rivers and forests legal rights is gaining traction in the U.S., and environmentalists are now setting their sights on the Mississippi River.

Last year more than 378,000 workers were authorized for H-2A visas, or temporary agriculture positions, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2012, it was less than a third of that.

Three companies are proposing pipelines across the Midwest that would carry carbon dioxide captured from ethanol plants to underground sequestration sites. The plan is to inject the CO2 deep into rock formations under Illinois and North Dakota, but some landowners are pushing back.

Many cities argue over "defunding the police." In Kansas City, Mo., they are debating whether the city — or the state — should manage the law enforcement budget.