Dan Charles

Scientists are calling for efforts to protect hundreds of wild plants in the United States that are related to native foods such as cranberries and chili peppers.

Vilsack served as secretary of agriculture during the Obama administration and has been a trusted adviser to President-elect Joe Biden. But critics say his time has passed.

The two departments have a key role in supporting American households. HUD has responsibility for affordable housing, while USDA oversees food assistance programs.

Several big farm groups, traditionally hostile to environmental regulations, are now working with environmental advocates in support of farmer-friendly actions to reduce carbon emissions.

Farmworker advocates are accusing the U.S. Department of Agriculture of trying to cut the wages of farmworkers who come to the U.S. on temporary guest worker visas.

Some of the first GMOs – corn and cotton plants that have been genetically modified to fend off insects – are running into problems. Bugs have become resistant to them because they've been overused.

To end climate change, millions of homes will have to stop heating with fossil fuels. It's possible, and can even save money. Entrepreneur Donnel Baird is trying to make it happen.

Large-scale solar farms are running into opposition from people who want to save farmland. Now solar companies are trying to combine solar and farming.

The pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity in the U.S. And while the government has programs to assist struggling Americans in accessing food, it's not always enough.

A state official in Arkansas who's led a national effort to limit damage from a controversial herbicide has recently found his tractors damaged and hay bales burned.

The Trump administration has been buying food from farmers and getting it to food banks. Food banks, however, say the program was not set up to deliver food efficiently.

Rattan Lal, an Indian-born scientist, has devoted his career to finding ways to capture carbon from the air and store it in soil. Today, that idea has a catchy name: regenerative agriculture.

For more than a century, food has been getting more abundant, and cheaper. Yet people keep worrying about food shortages. Some economists say the fears actually create their own problems.

A trillion dollars worth of American farmland will change hands in the coming years. Wealthy investors are likely to buy more of it with the power to shape rural communities and the environment.

Satellite images show that a small minority of farmers are responsible for most of the deforestation in Brazil. Scientists are calling on international grain traders to stop buying from those farmers.

America's vast fields of corn and soybeans have displaced wildlife and polluted waterways. Farmers could help solve those problems, but often don't, in part because they rent that land.

Some major environmental problems in the U.S. stem from using vast tracts of land to grow agricultural crops. But farmers are often limited to reduce that damage because they don't own the land.

Bayer has agreed Wednesday to settle lawsuits from people who say that they got cancer from the company's most widely used weed killer. The company will pay more than $10 billion.

Thousands of meatpacking workers have been infected with the coronavirus. Some of their employers now are rolling out large-scale testing, and their experience may offer lessons for other businesses.

A federal court ordered farmers to stop spraying one of the country's most widely used herbicides. But the Environmental Protection Agency says farmers can use chemicals that they've already bought.