Sky Chadde

Pesticide use and cancer risk rise together across America’s heartland - Investigate Midwest Increasingly, pesticides are being blamed for rising cancer rates across America’s agricultural communities.  Hardin County, home to around 800 farms, has a pesticide use rate more than four times the...

Pesticide use and cancer risk are on the same growth path in Iowa and other Midwest states. Must read.

THREAD: Jack Link’s has spent years cozying up to Trump and now it wants a bigger stake in food policy.

What's on your kid’s lunch tray might be up for grabs.

Read our investigation here: investigatemidwest.org/2025/07/30/j...

#SNAP #JackLinks #FoodPolicy

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Home - Investigate Midwest Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by serving as a watchdog over influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-d...

Folks, Investigate Midwest is doing amazing investigative reporting into our food security and problems that need to be solved in agribusiness. It needs to raise a little less than $2K in the next 9 days to get a matching grant. Support this work if you can. investigatemidwest.org

gijn.org Uncovering the Hidden Environmental Impact of an Industrial-scale Hog Farm

@yanqixu.bsky.social and @skychadde.bsky.social exposed how a hog-farming empire owned by a US Governor polluted groundwater with a cancer-linked chemical, revealing deep-rooted issues of political influence and regulatory neglect.

@sejorg.bsky.social interviewed Xu: https://twp.ai/9PTJP7

Underage workers, millions of dollars and trucks full of dead chickens — inside the business of killing in response to bird flu - Investigate Midwest When a poultry farm tests positive for bird flu, the clock starts. Within the first 72 hours, farmers start depopulating, an industry term for killing contaminated flocks. Despite the sweltering heat ...

investigatemidwest.org/2025/04/30/u...

After forcing resignations, USDA tries to walk back staff cuts and calls frontline workers ‘vital’ - Investigate Midwest After forcing the departure of several hundred U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists and inspectors who prevent invasive pest and disease outbreaks, the Trump administration is trying to reverse c...

“This is a pattern,” said one longtime USDA employee. “Fire or force out people now, learn what their job is later."

investigatemidwest.org/2025/04/24/a...

Several hundred workers who keep invasive pests out of the US accept Trump’s buyouts  - Investigate Midwest Several hundred federal employees who help keep invasive pests and plant diseases out of the United States have accepted buyout offers from the Trump administration, which could leave the agricultural...

investigatemidwest.org/2025/04/17/s...

In tough times, they sold farmers cheaper fungicides. A top manufacturer, Syngenta, intervened. - Investigate Midwest When faced with generic competition, Syngenta tried to prevent cheaper pesticide options from reaching farmers, court records show. The company said it was protecting its investments and helping consu...

investigatemidwest.org/2025/04/01/i...

Axed once, USDA employees anxiously await potentially being fired again - Investigate Midwest Following judges’ orders, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun reinstating employees who were fired en masse in February. But now, many of those workers who are being paid not to perform any d...

investigatemidwest.org/2025/03/25/a...

Hmm, USDA's Brooke Rollins says the Biden administration didn't do anything on avian flu, then it announces... continuing a program that Biden did?
www.wsj.com/opinion/agri...

Mass terminations have cut USDA ‘off at the knees,’ ex-employees say - Investigate Midwest More than a dozen recently fired USDA employees told Investigate Midwest that mass terminations have stalled irrigation projects, rural housing aid and efforts to combat invasive crop diseases. Remain...

Fired #USDA employees told Investigate Midwest the #Trump admin's terminations have stalled irrigation projects, rural housing aid and efforts to combat invasive crop diseases. Remaining staff are overwhelmed, and farmers may not receive needed and timely help. story via @skychadde.bsky.social

Mass terminations have cut USDA ‘off at the knees,’ ex-employees say - Investigate Midwest More than a dozen recently fired USDA employees told Investigate Midwest that mass terminations have stalled irrigation projects, rural housing aid and efforts to combat invasive crop diseases. Remain...

investigatemidwest.org/2025/02/25/m...

Trump ag secretary nominee says food issues from mass deportations are ‘hypothetical’ - Investigate Midwest Farmers have begun raising concerns about the potential impact of President Donald Trump’s mass deportations on their operations, but the president’s nominee for agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins,...

With Brooke Rollins confirmed as ag secretary today, here's what she said about the effects of mass deportations on the ag industry, w/ @jmcjmc.bsky.social @investigatemidwest.bsky.social

investigatemidwest.org/2025/01/24/t...

President Trump’s tariffs bring return of uncertainty for America’s farmers - Investigate Midwest Bob Hemesath has spent his entire life on his Northeast Iowa farm, raising corn and hogs alongside his brother. His business depends on open global markets and stable trade agreements. But under Donal...

"Anytime that a tariff is put on goods that I sell or export to those countries, that’s going to put me at a disadvantage to the marketplace,” an Iowa farmer said.

investigatemidwest.org/2025/02/12/p...

EPA environmental justice staff ousted amid ongoing industrial ag complaints - Investigate Midwest President Donald Trump has significantly reduced staffing within a civil rights office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently investigating dozens of complaints, including two involving...

investigatemidwest.org/2025/02/06/e...

If you have a tip, Signal/protonmail is in bio, or: investigatemidwest.org/send-us-a-se...

Meatpacking plants mostly pollute low-income communities of color, analysis shows EPA data shows meatpacking plants disproportionately pollute low-income, communities of color. Postville, Iowa, has long dealt with the fallout.

investigatemidwest.org/2024/10/17/m...

Early morning calls. Barren chicken barns. Millions in debt.  - Investigate Midwest Tyson Foods says recent plant closures ‘drove out waste from the business.’ Contract chicken farmers are now stuck with uncertainty and massive loans.

investigatemidwest.org/2024/05/08/e...

How Seaboard Foods rebuilt the Oklahoma Panhandle's economy, ushering in a new era of groundwater depletion How Seaboard Foods rebuilt the Oklahoma panhandle’s economy, which ushered in a new era of groundwater depletion.

investigatemidwest.org/2024/06/06/p...

The ultimate price - Investigate Midwest Two Mexican farmworkers died in a trailer fire in North Carolina. Their story illustrates how the nation’s most important agricultural visa program is failing the workers it is supposed to protect.

investigatemidwest.org/2023/10/26/i...

PAIN DENIED: At one of the country’s largest meatpacking plants, workers say their injuries were ignored - Investigate Midwest Workers were told their injuries were “break-in pain,” soreness that comes from adjusting to life in a meatpacking plant. But some injuries were severe enough to warrant additional testing and treatme...

investigatemidwest.org/2021/09/30/p...

‘Buy it or else’: Inside Monsanto and BASF’s moves to force dicamba on farmers - Investigate Midwest Internal company records show the companies knew crop damage from their weed killer would be extensive. They sold it anyway.

My colleagues have done great work over the years, and here are some of my favorites:

investigatemidwest.org/2020/12/04/b...

America's largest corn company, Corteva Agriscience, pledges no supply chain abuses. It's hired a repeat offender in Iowa for years. - Investigate Midwest CONESVILLE, Iowa — The deductions frustrated him.  “You earn money faster” in the U.S. than in Mexico, the man said in Spanish. But the deductions in every paycheck slowed his earnings, and he and his...

Last year, we revealed that America’s largest corn company has a long relationship with an Iowa labor contractor with a history of labor violations: investigatemidwest.org/2024/09/25/a...

Pillen’s Rise: After building pork empire, Nebraska’s governor stands at intersection of state and ag power - Investigate Midwest Key takeaways: * Ethics experts said the best way to avoid appearances of conflicts of interest is for public officials to sell their business interests. Pillen's most recent financial disclosure, fro...

In 2023, I helped unpack the potential conflicts of interest inherent in a major U.S. pork producer becoming Nebraska governor: investigatemidwest.org/2023/08/31/j...

How Illinois’ ‘fragmented system’ of monitoring pesticide exposure ‘allows individuals to get poisoned over and over without any brakes’ - Investigate Midwest A crew of farmworkers claimed they were sprayed with pesticides. What should have been a “rapid response” was a “big mess.”

In 2022, I dived into how an Illinois law (at the time) failed to hold accountable those who exposed farmworkers to toxic chemicals: investigatemidwest.org/2022/04/14/h...

'They think workers are like dogs.' How pork plant execs sacrificed safety for profits.   - Investigate Midwest USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting spent five months piecing together the pivotal moments in the Triumph Foods outbreak, interviewing more than a dozen current and former wor...

Then, in 2020, I was on a team covering how covid was ravaging meatpacking plant workers: investigatemidwest.org/2020/11/11/t...

SEEDS OF DESPAIR: Isolated, and with limited access to mental-health care, hundreds are dying by suicide. - Investigate Midwest American farmers produce nearly all of the country’s food and contribute some $133 billion annually to the gross domestic product. Yet they now are saddled with near-record debt, declaring bankruptcy ...

When I first joined @investigatemidwest.bsky.social about five years ago, I helped explore why farmers were dying in droves in the Midwest: investigatemidwest.org/2020/03/05/s...

Home - Investigate Midwest Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and instituti...

Hey y’all, late to the party but here is some work I’ve done in past several years. Our newsroom investigates how Big Ag intersects with labor, the environment and government policy (and we love collaborating!) investigatemidwest.org