Food & Farming

High school students from LeRoy learned how to stay safe when they see farm equipment on the road this fall.

The 61-year-old organic grower, who survived a catastrophic tractor accident last year, returns to predawn harvests and Saturday markets.

The Sunflower Days Festival at Rader Family Farms in Normal is for the community to admire, take photos and pick their favorite flowers.

The massive legislation extends tax cuts and increases safety nets for farmers who grow commodities, like corn, wheat and rice. But deep cuts to federal food assistance spending could hurt specialty growers who benefit from programs like Double Up Food Bucks.

A draft McLean County Land Use Plan is getting pushback from various stakeholders. Regional Planning Commission staff now say they'll change the process.

The CyberTractor Challenge is a weeklong event for university students to learn about cybersecurity for agricultural equipment. Experts say the threats are evolving and becoming more complex.

A dust storm, also known as a haboob, forms when strong, straight-line winds meet soil residue sitting among crops, collecting the dust there, rising it from the ground and bringing it together to form a wall-like cloud.

The Trump administration cut off nearly all funding for food and agricultural research at universities across the country as part of the Feed the Future Initiative. While some hope Congress will restore the funding, the global research continues on a much smaller scale, funded by private donors and individual universities.

The Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health have provided resources to farmers for decades. But heads of the regional research programs say their federal funding for on-farm studies and training will abruptly end this fall.

Compeer Financial of Bloomington is making the donation for the Children's Discovery Museum exhibit space called “From the Farm to a Healthy Me."

Students at the Regional Alternative School in Bloomington are getting their hands dirty as they learn the importance of gardening and agriculture by growing their very own food.

Farmers continued to take on more debt through the first quarter of 2025, prolonging a trend from last year. That’s as farm incomes have shrunk over the last couple of years, and some worry President Trump’s tariffs could make economic conditions tougher.