Investigate Midwest

US farmers face $44 billion in losses as costs rise and markets shrink

Soybeans sit in storage, farm bankruptcies are rising, and total farm debt continues to climb. By nearly every measure, ...
Investigate Midwest

‘Live Storytelling’ event returns to Iowa City with 5 remarkable speakers

Join Investigate Midwest on Thursday, November 13 for an evening of live storytelling, community, and conversation at Trumpet ...
Investigate Midwest

Broadband’s broken promise: How federal failures and funding fights keep Native and Black farmers offline

Kelsey Scott fixes a fence on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota in November 2018. photo by Amanda Lucier ...
Investigate Midwest

Iowa officials quietly fast-tracked legal settlement with major meatpacker, environmental group alleges

This story was originally published by Sentient Media. A new legal challenge in Iowa argues that the Iowa Department of ...
Investigate Midwest

Trump could bail out farmers hurt in his trade war, again. Here’s what happened the first time.

: This article was updated at 11:40 a.m. Oct. 21, 2025 to reflect the latest developments and include additional context on ...
Investigate Midwest

Author Archives: Garrett Yalch and Ari Fife, The Frontier

This story was originally published by The Frontier. It was just before 3 a.m. in March when the hum of machinery at the OK Foods poultry plant in Heavener, Oklahoma, was broken by a haunting scream, ...
Investigate Midwest

An immigrant’s death at an Oklahoma poultry plant highlights dangerous conditions for workers

OK Foods poultry processing facility in Heavener, Oklahoma, is shown. OK Foods is owned by the Mexican company Industrias Bachoco. photo by Brianna Bailey, The Frontier This story was originally ...