Investigate Midwest

The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit newsroom that operates independently, dedicated to informing the public about important issues in the Midwest. It particularly emphasizes agribusiness, along with related subjects like government initiatives, environmental concerns, and energy matters. Founded in 2009 by journalist Mike Sherry, this Center aims to offer training and education for students, professional journalists, and community members. Its goal is to enhance understanding of agribusiness and its effects at local, regional, and global levels. The Center also plans to leverage both traditional and cutting-edge digital tools to analyze data on agribusiness and share its findings widely.

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USDA data highlights monopoly risk in rural grocery markets

1 week ago | investigatemidwest.org | Lauren Cross |Investigate Midwest

If you live in a small town, you probably have fewer grocery stores than you did 30 years ago — and fewer choices inside them. Independent grocers have disappeared, replaced by big national chains that now decide what’s on the shelves, how much it costs, and who gets to profit. In 1990, the top four grocery chains controlled just 13% of nationwide sales. By 2019, the top four retailers — Walmart, Kroger, Costco, and Ahold Delhaize — controlled 34% of U.S. grocery sales, according to the USDA.
WA farmworkers fear reporting sexual harassment to federal anti-discrimination agency under Trump

1 week ago | investigatemidwest.org | Kelsey Turner

Marlen, a 35-year-old mother from Mexico, knows what farmworkers like her are supposed to do if they’re sexually harassed on the job: Tell the harasser to stop, document it, then report it to company leadership. If none of that works, get legal help. This could mean filing a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the government agency responsible for enforcing federal employment discrimination laws.
Oklahoma's loophole: How Tyson’s water use goes unchecked

2 weeks ago | investigatemidwest.org | Juan Vassallo |Investigate Midwest

As Jill Trapp steered her pickup truck down the red dirt roads of southeast Oklahoma, she raised a hand to greet a passing neighbor — a calf roper who once made it to the National Finals Rodeo. She drove on, passing a modest cowboy church where Sunday sermons share space with country music and the smell of brisket. Then, rising among the cedar and elm trees, came a familiar and unwelcome sight: a row of long, gray, windowless chicken houses, each longer than two football fields.
Trump’s budget bill is on the verge of transforming how America eats

3 weeks ago | investigatemidwest.org | Ayurella Horn-Muller

In early May, after some equivocation, President Donald Trump briefly endorsed the idea to hike taxes on the wealthiest Americans in his budget proposal to Congress. Economists were quick to point out the meager impact a new millionaire tax bracket would have on the ultra-rich, particularly in the context of other proposed tax cuts that would offset any pain points for them. Still, the backlash from Republican members of Congress was swift.
Senator demands Tyson child labor probe. Trump’s cuts to DOL could make that difficult.

1 month ago | investigatemidwest.org | John McCracken |Investigate Midwest

Despite rising child labor violations and new Senate demands to investigate the nation’s largest meat processor, the U.S. Department of Labor remains silent on whether it has the staff to conduct future probes amidst a major reduction in its workforce.
Tomatoes become latest flashpoint in US-Mexico trade tensions

1 month ago | investigatemidwest.org | Mónica Cordero |Investigate Midwest

Tomatoes, found in everything from tacos to soups, are suddenly at the center of a new cost concern, not because of crop failure, but because of tariffs. The Trump administration’s plan to impose steep levies on fresh Mexico-grown tomatoes, which supply most of the U.S. market, could drive up prices for restaurants, grocers, and families alike.
How Big Ag thwarted wetlands protections in Illinois and Iowa

1 month ago | investigatemidwest.org | Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco |Frida Garza

This story was originally published by Grist. Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. the Environmental Protection Agency significantly limited the agency’s ability to use the 1972 Clean Water Act to safeguard the nation’s wetlands from pollution and destruction. The decision determined that wetlands — waterlogged habitats that help filter water and sequester carbon — must be indistinguishable from larger bodies of water to be eligible for protection under the law.
FDA needs additional state help to do its job

1 month ago | investigatemidwest.org | Dave Dickey

Let’s be honest. The Food and Drug Administration is a huge dumpster fire when it comes to complying with federal food inspection laws. In January of this year, the U.S Government Accountability Office reported that FDA has not met its domestic and foreign inspection targets since fiscal year 2018. That’s six years and counting. Some years the inspection numbers are gosh awful.
Recruited with the promise of a US cultural exchange, graduates ended up trapped in a factory farm.

1 month ago | investigatemidwest.org | Nina Elkadi

This story was originally published by The Sentient. At the end of their studies at San Carlos University in Guatemala City, Fredy Alvarado Contreras, Sergio Escobar Gonzalez and Dennis Najera Barillas were recruited to participate in a special opportunity: a year-long internship at a swine operation, where they would learn from experts, partake in American cultural activities and agronomy courses and receive free housing, according to a new lawsuit.
‘I know I have a dust problem’: ADM repeatedly failed to prevent potentially deadly grain explosions

1 month ago | investigatemidwest.org | Sky Chadde |Investigate Midwest

Key takeawaysImprovements slow-walked. ADM leadership has at times been slow to address a critical component of grain explosions: the accumulation of highly flammable dust. After a 2022 blast in Nebraska, ADM blamed the presence of dust on its maintenance contractors. A longtime safety executive admitted the plant’s manager had been trying to improve dust maintenance prior to the incident: “I’m going to say something that our attorney isn’t going to like.