News, Insights & Interviews Archive

As renewable energy projects expand across rural America, many landowners are weighing the benefits of wind and solar leases against concerns from neighbors and local officials. For farmers looking for financial stability in a volatile agricultural economy, the conversation increasingly centers on how to find reasonable compromises that allow development while addressing community concerns. That balancing act is at the heart of the work being done by the Renewable Energy Farm

Missed deadline led to another missed deadline, which is only fueling frustration from agricultural industry groups and farmers who keep waiting for the Trump administration and Congress to approve year-round sales of E15 fuel nationwide. Previously, both the Trump and the Biden administration have approved temporary E15 sales through the summer, bypassing decades-long restrictions that claimed smog concerns from the use of higher ethanol fuel over the summer months. But the

President Donald Trump is trying to protect glyphosate, one of the most widely used and effective herbicides. Meanwhile, Bayer is trying to protect its business interests by offering billions of dollars to settle a class action lawsuit that claims that Roundup is making people seriously ill. President Trump’s executive order  invoked the Defense Production Act to ensure continued U.S. production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides, arguing that both are es

For rural landowners, renewable energy remains one of the most talked-about — and misunderstood — developments shaping the countryside. Waylon Brown, Regional Policy Manager for Clean Grid, sees both the promise and the growing pains facing wind, solar, and battery storage across the Midwest.

Excitement rippled across the agriculture community this week after the IRS released long-awaited proposed rules for the 45Z tax credit . “Oh, it’s a good day,” said Mitchell Hora, founder and CEO of Continuum Ag, in a news conference to respond to the announcement. RELATED: Hora told American Farmland Owner last July that 45Z would lead to a surge in carbon awareness for landowners.   The Biden administration created the 45Z credit under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to e

Soybean farmers and the various people connected to their industry are asking themselves, “Could it finally be true?” They want to know if a deal really is close in Congress to finally extend E-15 – the 15% ethanol fuel blend – for year-round sales across the United States. They have been hoping that a campaign pledge would turn into action when Donald Trump returned to the White House. President Trump gave them hope this week when he addressed several hundred supporters in a

Sharon Krause believes that the future of agriculture is close to home. “From an environmental perspective, the more food that we can grow closer to home, the more we reduce our costs between transportation and storage,” Krause told American Farmland Owner.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcast For many farm owners today, the question isn’t whether change is coming; it’s how to respond to it without jeopardizing everything they have built. Commodity markets remain volatile, input costs stay stubbornly high, and consolidation continues to squeeze margins. Virginia farmer, author, and outspoken agricultural thinker Joel Salatin offers a significantly different perspective for thinking about growth, resilience, and transition. Joel S

Opposition may have succeeded in stopping a wind farm project in Iowa and delaying unrelated data center proposals in Indiana. MidAmerican Energy, a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, has worked over the past four years to develop the wind farm in northwest Iowa. Wind is already a significant commitment from the company, which provides service in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Illinois. MidAmerican has turbines in roughly one third of Iowa’s counties

“Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) has splashed around in various forms depending on the political party of the current president and court rulings. The administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican, has proposed the latest form of the longstanding guidelines that have previously impacted – and sometimes frustrated – farmers, ranchers, energy producers, and other landowners.   On November 17, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), together with the U.S. Army C

Some rural communities provide the perfect setting for the nation’s growing demand for data centers to provide artificial intelligence for an industry that is exploding. But many residents in town are kept in the dark until the deal for a new data center is done. Rural America offers large tracts of land, cheap power and favorable zoning regulations to build high-capacity data centers. But an increasingly common feature in the development process is the use of non-disclosure

Mallory Devries was growing more specialty mushrooms than she could have imagined. The operation in an adjoining tent to their home was becoming so big that she and her husband realized that they would need outside labor to handle it all. Customers showed up from miles around.

Feast or famine has taken the precipitation twist of soaked to parched. Farmers in Missouri started September in search of rain. The U.S....

This year hasn’t been as trying for the “Mighty Mississippi” as the past few years, but it would be nice if it delivered more...

Martha Stewart is one of the country’s most well-known farmland owners even though farming is only one aspect of her multi-layered...

Corn is growing in parts of North Dakota where it didn’t used to grow. Citrus production has fallen 90% over the past two decades in...

A new $300 million bio-based chemical plant in Eddyville, Iowa, is turning locally grown corn into QIRA®—a renewable alternative to petroleum-based 1,4-butanediol used in everything from clothing to cars. Developed by Qore, a joint venture between Cargill and HELM, the plant is the first of its kind globally and will produce 66,000 metric tons annually. With major brands like LYCRA and BASF already on board, the innovation promises new markets and stability for Iowa corn farm

Bayer continues to manage the legal fallout from its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, with CEO Bill Anderson announcing the company has recently settled or dismissed 17,000 glyphosate-related cases. Of the 192,000 total claims filed, 61,000 remain unresolved. Bayer has already paid over $10 billion in settlements but maintains that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is safe and backed by decades of research.

There were vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, heaters, hair dryers, hand dryers, washing machines, and ventilators. Now, there are...

Peanuts vs. gopher tortoises and swallow-tailed kites. It looks like the animals will remain. Lee Peanut Farms LLC looked to swap 700...