Environmental Reporting at WNIJ
The Mississippi River Basin spans nearly half of the continental United States. Millions of residents rely on the river system for drinking water, commerce and recreation.
More than 90% of America’s agricultural exports are grown in the Mississippi River Basin, including more than three-quarters of the world’s exports in feed grains, and most of the country’s livestock. More than 70% of nitrate pollution in the Mississippi River comes from agriculture, which harms human health and aquatic life and contributes to the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. As the impacts of climate change become more severe, residents can expect more extreme weather, including flooding.
By making resources available on this beat, we support more complete coverage of these critical topics. As our reporters build deeper knowledge, they tap into a network of newsrooms, experts, and support that will help them tell more equitable, impactful and interconnected stories.
Harvest Public Media reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues through a collaborative network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest and Plains. Our goal is to provide in-depth and unbiased reporting on complex issues for a broad, diverse audience, often connecting the Heartland to the rest of the country. Primary topics include, but are not limited to, agribusiness, biofuels, climate change, farming and ranching, food safety, rural life and public policy.
Below you will find reporting from reporters across our collaborations.
Locally, Jess Savage reports on clean air, water, and agricultural systems in northern Illinois for WNIJ, part of the Mississippi River Basin Project and Harvest Public Media. They recently graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Jess was awarded the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Fellowship, where they reported on landscape-scale ecological restoration in England and its effects on local farmers. They studied ecology at the University of Vermont as an undergraduate.
Jess focuses on access and policy related to clean air, water and agricultural systems for northern Illinois residents. This includes storytelling that gives voice traditionally underserved communities and the impact of climate change on local communities. The beat is a solutions driven approach to reporting related to efforts to improve the quality of rivers and groundwater, policies and processes in agricultural practices and food systems, and overall access to healthy living.
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Passing on the family farm to the next generation is typically an involved process, both financially and emotionally. A turbulent agricultural economy the past few years has made that transition even more difficult. -
Food safety experts say contaminated water in farm fields is a likely culprit. But questions still remain about the current outbreak. -
When Congress allowed Affordable Care Act tax credits to lapse, healthcare premiums spiked for millions of Americans — especially self-employed farmers and ranchers. That added cost is multiplying the stress on their already stretched balance sheets. -
Animal rescue leaders say new rules meant to prevent the spread of the livestock parasite make sense. But they are also costly for overcrowded shelters in Texas, which transfer many pets to other states. -
Corn and soybean growers have seen several years of low commodity prices and increased costs for supplies like fertilizer and fuel. That has many farmers worried about whether they'll turn a profit this year and drawn some comparisons to a dark time in American agriculture. -
Attorneys say cases that claim the popular weedkiller causes cancer will have to change course to move forward in court after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the agriculture company last month. -
For 150 years, silos have been a fixture of the Corn Belt, but efforts to preserve them have been haphazard. -
Pesticide pollution is a problem especially in the middle of the country. And sometimes there's enough of it to possibly hurt aquatic plants and animals. -
The majority of tornadoes this year have blasted through states in the Midwest and Southeast, including Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Iowa. Tornado activity has been increasing east of the Great Plains in recent decades. -
A preliminary court order reinstated federal grants largely helping Black, Indigenous, veteran and immigrant farmers access land, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut earlier this year. Now, organizations are cautiously moving forward with their projects.
