Agriculture

The Farm-to-School movement is out to revolutionize the humble school lunch with food grown on local farms. But the path from cropland to cafeteria is full of complicated twists and turns. A new wave of federal funding is trying to smooth the way.

Speaking to Missouri farmers during a roundtable discussion Friday, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said he’d like to consider a one-year extension to pass the bill.

Proposed projects would add more than 3,000 miles of new carbon pipelines through rural parts of the Midwest. Some emergency officials are concerned about safety, especially after a rupture on a similar pipeline three years ago.

About a quarter of the United States’s irrigated cropland sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains. But water levels are dropping, and states are taking different approaches to monitoring how much groundwater irrigators are pumping out.

Farmers say Title One — a farm bill program that sends money when crop prices or harvests get low enough — isn’t working as a buffer against tough years. Yet others argue the nearly 100-year-old safety net is costing billions of dollars with few strings attached.

The leaders of both congressional agriculture committees say federal lawmakers will move back farm bill negotiations to December. The current law expires Saturday, but experts say there should be little peril despite the blown deadline.

Federally subsidized crop insurance made record-high payouts last year. While climate change is making farming more risky, the federal program often shields producers at taxpayer expense. Some argue it’s time that the fast-growing program encourages farmers to mitigate their risks.

Up to 50 homeowners in Belleville will be allowed to keep chickens in their backyards under an ordinance adopted by the City Council on Monday night.

The consensus of agricultural economists is that crop prices, especially for corn, soybeans and cotton, will go down this year. The cost of farming is also expected to go down but not as much.

Recent heat and drought have fueled concerns about this year’s corn crop, as producers in the Midwest see a wide range of conditions.