Peggy Lowe

As Drought Turns To Flood, Farmers Get 'Weather Whiplash'

Peggy Lowe — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:31:00 +0000

As Chris Webber checked the 40 acres of muddy field he wanted to plant on a recent morning, he worried about getting more rain, even as he worried about the lack of it.

"The drought is over at the moment," he says. "But in Missouri, we tend to say that in 10 days or two weeks, we can be in a drought again.

Will Chinese Firm Bring Home The Bacon With Smithfield Deal?

Peggy Lowe — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:07:00 +0000

There were questions Wednesday if U.S. regulators will approve the takeover of Smithfield Foods Inc., the company that sells all-American hams, hot dogs and bacon, by China's Shuanghui International.

It's being called the biggest such takeover of an American company by a Chinese firm.

Oprah Winfrey's Latest Venture Is Farming In Hawaii

Peggy Lowe — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:19:00 +0000

The local food movement has a powerful new poster girl.

More glowing than American Gothic, Oprah Winfrey and her pal, Bob Greene, appear on the cover of the June issue of The Oprah Magazine, standing in what looks to be a field of kale.

"Oprah's New Farm!" reads the headline splashed across the pair's checkered shirts.

In Missouri, Days Of Drought Send Caretakers To One 'Big Tree'

Peggy Lowe — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:43:00 +0000

The devastating drought in the Midwest last summer is a story often told by the numbers, with statistics on large crop failures, days without rain and thousands of parched acres.

This story is also about a tree — a bur oak in rural Columbia, Mo., that everyone calls "The Big Tree." Although it's survived all kinds of punishments during its 350 years on the prairie, last year's record drought was especially tough.

It doesn't feel like spring as John Sam Williamson meets up with Chris Starbuck, a retired plant science professor, at The Big Tree.

Farmers And Their Cooperative Settle Lawsuit On Fixing The Price Of Milk

Peggy Lowe — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:33:00 +0000

Farmers who had hoped to get some answers on why prices for their raw milk went into free fall a decade ago were disappointed Tuesday by the settlement of a case accusing Dairy Farmers of America Inc. of creating a milk monopoly in the Southeast.

Dairy farmers and industry observers had hoped for their day in court after years of delays in the large class-action suit.

Unlike Chicken And Pork, Beef Still Begins With Small Family Ranches

Peggy Lowe — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:25:00 +0000

In the chicken and pork industries, nearly every aspect of the animals' raising has long been controlled by just a handful of agriculture conglomerates. But the cattle industry is still populated by mom-and-pop operations, at least at the calf-raising level.

Barbara McIntire Roux likes to say that she was born into the cattle business.