2026 Interns

Paloma Sanchez-McGee, Investigate Midwest

2026 summer audience engagement intern

Articles and bio

Caspar Dowdy, Investigate Midwest

2026 summer reporting intern

Articles and bio

Government

USDA wants to revive the cotton industry. Experts aren’t sure that’s possible.

Meat industry

Major meatpackers have taken in more than half a billion in tax subsidies since 2006

Alumni

This includes past staff members and interns.

Pam Dempsey, Investigate Midwest

Executive Director

Articles and bio

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: How Midwest farms use computers

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Remember the Midwest drought of 2012? This is how one corn state stacks up against the current drought in the West.

Agribusiness

GRAPHIC: Knee high by Fourth of July?

Suzanne Behnke, Investigate Midwest

Digital Editor

Articles and bio

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Dairy cows produce millions of pounds of milk in a day

Meat industry

GRAPHIC: Meat and poultry production workers make up largest share of US food and beverage workforce

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Iowa leads numbers in ongoing outbreak of bird flu

You can't gaslight food affordability

Agribusiness

Expect more turmoil and change for the 2026 ag sector

Agribusiness

Agriculturally speaking, 2025 has been one huge food fight

Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest

Editor in chief

Articles and bio

Data Harvest

While Western grocery inflation cools, food costs reach critical highs in some emerging economies

Health

Five things to know about pesticides, cancer and a pending Supreme Court ruling

Agribusiness

In Illinois, cancer and pesticide rates typically rise together

Pramod Acharya, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Data Visualizations/Reporter

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

GRAPHIC: Facing challenges, honeybees' production has dropped in the U.S.

Agribusiness

GRAPHIC: The U.S. still uses many pesticides banned in other countries

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: What share of retail sales returns to farmers? Depends on the product.

Ignacio Calderon, USA TODAY Network Agriculture Data Fellow, Investigate Midwest

USA Today Agricultural Data Fellow

Articles and bio

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Rainfall and fertilizer runoff are linked. This county shows how.

Environment

Fertilizer washes off Midwest farm fields and taints communities' drinking water, poisons Gulf of Mexico

Labor

‘Temperatures continue to rise and farmworkers continue to be at risk’

Da Yeon Eom, Investigate Midwest

Department of Journalism at the College of Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Intern

Articles and bio

Health

COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates Illinois’ ‘quiet curse’ of food insecurity

Agribusiness

Carolina del Norte está impulsando gran parte del crecimiento del programa de visas H-2A. Eso significa más exposición a lo que los trabajadores llaman el "monstruo verde".

Agribusiness

North Carolina is driving much of the H-2A program’s growth. That means more exposure to what workers call the 'green monster.'

Frank Hernandez, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

The CDC recommended states prioritize farmworkers for the COVID-19 vaccine. A few large agricultural states have not.

Labor

Without federal oversight, some states protect workers from COVID-19, others shield businesses from lawsuits

Coronavirus

USDA continues to fund companies with no food service experience to help feed needy families

Johnathan Hettinger, Investigate Midwest

Investigative Reporter

Articles and bio

Español

EPA posts databases of pesticide harm to people, pets and wildlife for first time in agency history

Acton H. Gorton

Data Reporter

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Measuring crop health from the sky just became a lot easier

Mitchell Lierman, Investigate Midwest

2024 Gary Marx Journalism Fund Fellow

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

As the agricultural drone industry takes off, federal regulators struggle to keep up

Environment

GRAPHIC: Insurance spending gap between corn and other crops at widest ever in 2023

Evy Lewis, Investigate Midwest

2024 Dow Jones News Fund Data Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Syngenta spent decades attempting to quiet health concerns about its profitable herbicide.

Agribusiness

GRAPHIC: Most corn planted in the US is engineered to resist herbicides and kill insects

Kendall Little, Investigate Midwest

Gary Marx Journalism Fund Intern

Articles and bio

iowawatch

'No excuse why they're taking so long': Iowa farmers are fed up with lengthy pesticide misuse investigations

Agribusiness

Big Ag companies largely silent in wake of Roe v. Wade reversal

Meat industry

GRAPHIC: Beef and pork producers are earning less while meat consumers are paying more than a year ago

Madison McVan, Investigate Midwest

Investigative reporter

Articles and bio

Government

Secret Acres: Boom or bubble? High farmland prices encourage investors, concern farmers

Meat industry

OSHA should strengthen rules to protect meat and poultry workers from infectious disease, government watchdog says

Labor

Minnesota opens investigation into possible wage theft at recently-closed HyLife Foods plant

Mary Norkol, Investigate Midwest

Gary Marx Journalism Fund Fellow

Articles and bio

Meat industry

She says her passion is teaching. Congress called her the meatpacking industry’s ‘go-to fixer.’

Agribusiness

Big Ag companies largely silent in wake of Roe v. Wade reversal

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Wheat, rice and milk prices have increased since last year

Claire Hettinger/ Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Illinois Humanities Engagement Fellow

Articles and bio

Environment

Midwest Center sensors find potentially hazardous pesticides near schools, parks and homes

Coronavirus

Reporter's Diary: Illinois Farm Bureau encourages farmers, ag business be considered essential business

Health

Seeking a Cure: Mental health access scarce in rural, farming communities

Eli Hoff, Investigate Midwest

Gary Marx Jounalism Fund Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

The Iowa Farm Bureau is a small nonprofit. It's sitting on a huge business empire.

Agribusiness

‘Is this legal?’: Why an obscure data service has been sued nearly 100 times for facilitating anti-competitive behavior

Meat industry

GRAPHIC: Meat processing workers earn an average of $15.53 per hour, with state-level variation

Mary Hennigan, Investigate Midwest

Dow Jones News Fund Data Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

'Women in the industry have to work that much harder'

Agribusiness

A consolidated market leaves ranchers wondering what’s next

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Very few farmers are millennials, and, of those, the vast majority are white

Amanda Perez Pintado, Investigate Midwest/Report for America

Report for America

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

How Illinois’ ‘fragmented system’ of monitoring pesticide exposure ‘allows individuals to get poisoned over and over without any brakes’

Agribusiness

Shuttered offices, potentially high fertilizer costs: Here’s what the situation in Ukraine means for U.S. agriculture

Meat industry

GRAPHIC: Food prices — especially meat — are outstripping historical inflation

Madeline Perry, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Amid price-fixing indictment for poultry processors, growers say they continue to struggle

Labor

Feds could do more to investigate forced labor claims in the seafood industry, GAO report finds

Agribusiness

Cows likely to be culprit in 2019 E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, FDA finds

Marissa Plescia, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Illinois billionaire Shahid Khan investing in thousands of acres of the state's farmland

Health

Farmers already felt isolated. The COVID-19 pandemic made it worse.

Health

Long distances and stigma: Telehealth seen as way for farmers to access needed mental health assistance

Danielle Rhody, Investigate Midwest

Department of Journalism at the College of Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign intern

Articles and bio

Heather Robinson, Investigate Midwest

Gary Marx Journalism Fund Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Big Ag companies largely silent in wake of Roe v. Wade reversal

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Americans want more honey. Domestic production hasn't kept up.

Heather Schlitz, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Dow Jones Business Reporting Intern

Articles and bio

Español

Empleados de la industria cárnica aseguran que la política de asistencia los obliga a trabajar con posibles síntomas de Covid-19

Meat industry

Meatpacking workers say attendance policy forces them to work with potential Covid-19 symptoms

Español

Plantas avícolas de Arkansas luchan contra el Covid-19. Los trabajadores hispanos enfrentan lo peor.

Marley Schultz, Investigate Midwest

Gary Marx Journalism Fund Fellow

Articles and bio

Environment

SEC proposal could shine a light on Big Ag companies' supply chain emissions

Agribusiness

Big Ag companies largely silent in wake of Roe v. Wade reversal

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Sales of cows' milk continues decades-long decline

Aruni Soni, Investigate Midwest

Dow Jones News Fund Data Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Congress could beef up meatpacking oversight this fall. But obstacles to enforcement remain.

Agribusiness

Big Ag companies largely silent in wake of Roe v. Wade reversal

National

Chair of Congressional subcommittee investigating Seresto collars asks EPA to take product off market — again

Samuel Trilling

Dow Jones Editing Intern

Articles and bio

Luis Velazquez, Investigate Midwest

Gary Marx Journalism Fund Intern

Articles and bio

Agribusiness

Las empacadoras de carne han dependido durante mucho tiempo de la mano de obra inmigrante. Ahora, algunas están recurriendo a trabajadores extranjeros.

Agribusiness

Meatpacking plants have long relied on immigrant labor. Now, some are turning to foreign visa workers.

Data Harvest

GRAPHIC: Big commercial farms got 10x more government assistance than family farms

Christopher Walljasper, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Investigative Reporter

Articles and bio

Government

Nearly two years after ICE came to town, trauma still haunts these Iowa families

Labor

Nearly two years after ICE came to town, trauma still haunts these Iowa families

Government

Crop insurance, farm safety programs get big cuts under Trump’s budget

THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS

Reva & David Logan Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation, Lumpkin Family Foundation, Builders Vision Philanthropy, Gary Marx Journalism Fund, Kirkpatrick Foundation, Chicago Region Food System Fund, Illinois Food Movement Fund, GRACE Communications, Good Chaos, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Fund for Investigative Journalism, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Rural News Network, Google News Initiative, Data-Driven Reporting Project, Arnold Ventures.

We are proud to hold the Candid Seal of Transparency, demonstrating our commitment to openness and accountability in all that we do.

2026 Interns

Alumni

THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS

MEMBER OF