A support group and a lab in the St. Louis area provide resources for people with the allergy to mammal products — and evidence that its effects can be reversed.
Our journalists have been together in person for the first time this week, joining University of Missouri journalism students and faculty for our inaugural fall conference in Columbia, Mo. We toured the beautiful Missouri River by boat, met with farmers, scientists and policy experts, and learned about the past and future of humans' relationship with the watershed in a warming world.
Our team is connecting with new sources, gathering ideas to bring back to our home outlets and making connections we hope to explore together. Here are some of the highlights – stay tuned for all the stories we'll be telling as a result!
--Annie Ropeik, assistant director
Out on the water
Our journalists and students got up close with the Mississippi's largest tributary – and the longest river in the U.S. – with Missouri River Relief, the U.S. Geological Survey and Nature Conservancy. We learned about the Big Muddy's history of channelization, explored a wide sandbar that is often submerged, saw chutes, sturgeon nurseries and wing dikes, and viewed an indigenous pictograph at a Lewis & Clark historic site.
Story ideas & new connections
Beyond Coal's Leah Clyburn and St. Louis Public Radio's Eric Schmid talked to us about how to cover marginalized communities with trust and transparency, and indigenous organizer Maryellen Baker told us about the disconnect between people and water she observed while walking the length of the Mississippi River.
We heard from Mississippi River Network's Maisah Khan about how a buzzword like resiliency can be a double-edged sword, and we questioned the Environmental Protection Agency, Missouri Farm Bureau and Environmental Defense Fund on ways to involve farmers in nature-based solutions.
Ag & Water Desk reporters say this week has been a chance to meet and talk shop with folks they've been working with remotely for months, and it has inspired them with questions to take back to their home newsrooms and begin digging into together -- on sand mining, levee setbacks, drinking water and more.
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