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.
Pepper Roberts' farm in Belzoni, Mississippi, where he grows soybeans, cotton, corn and other grains. He plans to stick to his usual crop rotation this year despite the market headwinds created by the Trump administration’s tariffs. Credit: Nick Judin, Mississippi Free Press
With the solstice coming up Friday, it already feels like summer is in full swing, and there's plenty going on at the Desk. That's meant several recent stories coming together, and we're going to share a roundup of those this week.
From farmers' thoughts on tariffs to the hypoxia forecast in the Gulf of Mexico, and the high stakes of predicting damaging storms, our reporters are keeping busy across the Basin exploring important issues that impact the everyday lives of real people.
Though there’s been plenty of backlash from the agricultural sector, Trump’s tariffs have also drawn support from a subset of farmers, who see them as a means of regaining an edge in an increasingly competitive global economy.
Annual forecasts for the “dead zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico predict the area of water with depleted oxygen levels will be about average in size this year. What’s less certain is whether government efforts to reduce its size will falter as the Trump administration scales back agencies involved in the process.
On the heels of deadly storms across the Mississippi River Basin and ahead of a hurricane season that’s predicted to be worse than average, five former National Weather Service heads released a letter outlining their concerns regarding cuts to the agency.
Thanks for reading. More next week from across the Basin.
