Dan Charles

California has a ton of solar power. But as soon as night falls, it's gone. Today on the show: How to bottle the sun.

When a bunch of Wall Street investors sniffed out a potential price fixing scheme in the poultry business, they bet against big chicken. Then they targeted a price index published in Georgia.

Today on the show: A chicken index, some Wall Street investors, and an unlikely whistle-blower.

The state's summertime ban on the use of a popular weedkiller has dissolved, for now, as a result of court decisions. Some confused farmers are rethinking their plans for this year's crops.

Republicans in Congress have released their version of a new Farm Bill. It imposes new requirements on low-income recipients of food assistance, but continues traditional subsidies for farmers.

America's farmers are digging soil like never before. A movement for "regenerative agriculture" is dedicated to building healthier soil and could even lead to a new eco-label on food.

On a growing number of dairy farms, cows, not people, decide when they need to be milked. Robots can do the job day or night. For some farm families, the robots free them from rigid milking schedules.

The Department of Agriculture says organic-food makers can keep using carrageenan, a thickener made from seaweed. It's the second time this year that it has reversed an organic board's recommendation.

Strawberry growers are so worried about the farmworker shortage that they're testing a strawberry-picking robot. But while picking strawberries is easy for humans, machines struggle with the task.

In Arkansas, a regulatory committee of farmers and small-business owners banned the latest weed-killing technology from the giant agrichemical company. Monsanto is taking them to court.

Microorganisms play a vital role in growing food and sustaining the planet, but they do it anonymously. Scientists haven't identified most soil microbes, but they are learning which are most common.

Venison, a luxury meat sold in high-end stores also shows up on the winter menus of expensive restaurants. But venison from deer killed by hunters can't be sold, so much of it is given away for free.

During the New Deal, the government set up hundreds of public canneries in small towns. Most have disappeared, but a surviving cannery in Farmville, Va., is getting a boost from local farmers.

For the first time in history, soybeans are about to become America's most widely grown crop. Yet compared to corn or wheat, they remain curiously invisible in American culture.

Archaeologists say early civilizations in North and Central America were more egalitarian than the societies of Eurasia — and they think it's because early Americans didn't have cattle or horses.

Scientists have found evidence of ancient winemaking in Georgia, a country which prides itself on its vino. It's the earliest trace of viniculture using wild grapes similar to those used today.

Many organic tomatoes or peppers are grown in greenhouses, where they get nutrients from water. Critics say that violates the spirit of "organic." A bid to strip them of the label failed this week.

Scientists are accusing the seed and pesticide giant of denying the risks of its latest weedkilling technology. Monsanto has responded by attacking some of those critics.

Puerto Rico's dairy farmers account for about a third of the island's total agricultural production. Now they're struggling to recover their cows and get them milked.

Arkansas regulators are on a collision course with Monsanto, voting to ban use during the growing season of a drift-prone herbicide that Monsanto says is farmers' best hope for weed-free fields.