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.
A herd of sheep takes a break from “solar grazing.” Farmer Chad Raines said that the sheep will fertilize the soil, leaving it healthier than it was originally. Credit: Lucas Dufalla, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
A second Trump presidency will likely bring major changes to the Mississippi River Basin and its various constituencies. How might these changes affect agriculture, water quality, conservation efforts, wetlands and more? The Ag & Water Desk will continue to cover these issues in ways that connect and inform our communities and address their concerns.
Below, you’ll see stories from the past week, including one on how Great Plains tribes are training a workforce to install and maintain solar power with the longer-term goal of producing sovereign-owned clean energy for their communities. And farmers in the Arkansas Delta are experimenting with “solar grazing” – running sheep on the same land as solar panels.
We’re starting a new series introducing you to our team at the Desk. Do you have pitches or story tips for our reporters? Send ideas to irina@agwaterdesk.org and I’ll make sure it gets to the right person.
Get to know us!
Now that our reporters are settling into their roles at outlets throughout the Basin, we want to introduce you to the people behind the bylines. First up is Julie Freijat, with Kansas City PBS/Flatland in Kansas City, Missouri.
We'll be featuring more of our journalists here in the weeks and months to come.
What's interesting about your beat?
Julie Freijat: My beat is water and sustainability in the heartland. I find that water in Kansas and Missouri has not always been a topic at the forefront of people's minds when it comes to the environment. A lot of the environmental topics that are talked about and covered in those states are very ag-centric. And so something that I really enjoy about this beat is being able to bring in water as kind of a calculus for the way we talk about the environment.
What are you looking forward to exploring in the Mississippi River Basin?
Freijat: I'm really fascinated by the way that we are starting to work with nature instead of against it, and I'm particularly interested in green infrastructure as a concept. So that's using things like rain gardens or natural depressions to control flooding and filter water.
Name one cool thing about being a journalist.
Freijat: I get to ask some of the coolest questions to some of the coolest people. For example, I just did a story on alligator snapping turtles, and I got to hold an alligator snapping turtle. I don't think that I would have those experiences if I worked in a different job.
Julie Freijat is one of 15 reporters in 10 states along the Mississippi River that make up the Desk. The journalists all work for local papers, radio stations or television networks, but we pay a portion of their salaries and, in turn, they dedicate some of their time producing regional stories around ag, water, energy and the environment. We also pay their outlets a stipend to cover equipment, travel, conference and training fees or anything else they decide will help them better do their jobs. All of this sounds expensive…and it is!
So this is also a reminder that the Desk is currently participating in its first public fundraising campaign. We’re teaming up with NewsMatch, a fundraising effort supporting independent public service journalism. Through NewsMatch, all donations to the Desk up to $1,000 will be doubled through the end of the year. We hope you’ll consider chipping in. Thank you!
Great Plains tribes are eager to capitalize on the burgeoning clean energy economy and are creating training programs to empower tribal members. Rather than competing with the region’s dominant wind industry, some tribal communities are focused on solar power programs. By prioritizing local workforce development, they’re reimagining the job site and a utility system rooted in community ownership.
By Grace Fiori, Buffalo’s Fire
Lightspring Solar apprentices install solar panels on the roof of a community building in the small township of Wakpala, on the Standing Rock Reservation. Credit: Grace Fiori, Buffalo’s Fire
