Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 46% in 2025 — to 315 filings compared to 216 in 2024, marking the third year in a row that filings increased, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. 

The Midwest accounted for 121 filings, followed by the Southeast with 105, and together representing more than two-thirds of cases nationwide. Filings in both regions increased by roughly 70% compared with the previous year, based on the AFBF’s analysis of U.S. courts data.

The increase comes at a time of expanded borrowing, too: Operating loan volumes rose sharply in 2025, and the average size of farm operating loan increased by 30% from the year before, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The survey found that farmers took on more credit as production costs rose and cash on hand tightened.

The rise in filings follows a period of historically low farm bankruptcies. Chapter 12 bankruptcy rates in 2022 were the lowest recorded since 2004, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. As borrowing increased and costs remained elevated in subsequent years, the rebound in filings points to growing pressure for producers heading into 2026.

The post Farm bankruptcies jumped 46% in 2025 as debt loads and costs rise appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

When Kim Hagemann moved to Iowa in the late 1980s, the state’s lakes and parks were among the first places she explored.

She had come from Wisconsin to attend graduate school at Iowa State University, newly married and short on money. For recreation, Hagemann and her husband drove to public lakes and parks across the state, places that, on paper, defined Iowa’s natural landscape.

But the outings quickly became discouraging. “After you’ve gone to your third park and it’s smelly and there’s nobody on the beaches, you start to get discouraged,” she recalled.

Nearly four decades later, Hagemann, now retired and living in rural Polk County, said her view of Iowa’s water has not improved. “Here we are in 2025, and the water is actually worse,” she said during an interview last month.

Hagemann’s experience mirrors what state data shows.

An analysis by Investigate Midwest, based on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ biennial impaired and delisted waters lists, shows that progress in removing river segments from the impaired waters list has been limited over the past eight years.

While 2018 marked a high point, when 12% of impaired river segments were delisted, subsequent cycles saw far smaller shares, with about 2% delisted in 2020 and roughly 7% in 2022.

Lake segments showed a different pattern. Beginning in 2020, a higher proportion of impaired lake segments were reported as partially or fully recovered, with 32% delisted in 2020 and 35% in 2022.

However, being removed from the impaired waters list does not necessarily mean a river or lake has fully recovered.

Of the 17 rivers and lakes removed from the 2016 impaired water report, seven showed only partial improvement, continuing to struggle with certain uses or pollutants even as conditions improved elsewhere. A similar pattern emerged in 2022. Of the 54 river and lake segments removed after meeting water-quality standards, 22 had not fully recovered. 

In those cases, impairments persisted across multiple designated uses, within a single use affected by more than one pollutant, or across multiple uses affected by multiple pollutants.

The analysis excluded fish kill events, which are considered isolated incidents rather than indicators of long-term water-quality conditions.

Michael Schmidt, general counsel at the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC), said the pattern reflects how water pollution is — and is not — regulated.

Under the federal Clean Water Act, most farm field runoff is treated as nonpoint-source pollution and is generally exempt from the permit requirements that govern industrial and municipal “point source” discharges. As a result, Schmidt said, improvements tied to regulated point sources tend to persist, while pollution from agriculture can fluctuate with weather and farming practices.

Polluted runoff occurs when rain or melting snow flows across the land instead of soaking into the soil, carrying fertilizers, manure and other contaminants along the way. Those pollutants are eventually washed into rivers, lakes, wetlands and other waterways, and in some cases into underground sources of drinking water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, runoff from agricultural land is the leading cause of impairments in rivers and lakes.

“You might have water that is cleaner in dry years, so it gets delisted, and then is more polluted in wet years and gets relisted,” Schmidt said.

One lake, Schmidt said, illustrates how those wins can crumble.

At Lake Darling in southeast Iowa, the state undertook a major restoration project funded by federal, state and local sources, investing about $13 million, including almost $7.3 million for watershed and in-lake improvements.

A 2024 study by Drake University, commissioned by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, found that conditions within the lake,  including low oxygen levels and elevated phosphorus near the bottom during summer months,  may be contributing to recurring algal blooms. 

“The growth of cyanobacteria in the lake and E. coli in beach sands is likely being driven by nutrient loading from the watershed,” the report said, adding that the implementation of best management practices would help ensure long-term water-quality improvements.

The problem, Schmidt said, was not the work done within the lake itself, but what remained upstream.

“We just addressed what was in the lake,” he said, but “we didn’t clean up the pollution sources upstream.”

Last year, Investigative Midwest reported that nearly eight out of 10 river segments in Iowa have remained continuously impaired for at least a decade, according to an analysis of state reports. During the same period, 43% of lake segments experienced similar long-term impairment.

In fact, 65 river segments (15%) and six lake segments (11%) have fallen short of a key water quality standard for a specific use and impairment for at least 20 years.

Taken together, the data suggest that while some Iowa waters show signs of improvement, lasting recovery remains elusive, and that for many rivers and lakes, coming off the impaired list is not the end of the story.

State monitoring captures only part of what is happening in Iowa’s waterways.

The Iowa DNR assesses slightly more than half of the state’s designated water bodies. In 2024, 27% of these segments were classified as healthy waters, while just over half were categorized as impaired. Meanwhile, slightly more than one-fifth require further investigation, as they are identified as “potentially impaired.”

Heather Wilson, the Midwest Save Our Streams coordinator at the Izaak Walton League of America, a nonprofit focused on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, said Iowa’s water pollution crisis is not new, but that last year feels different.

She said the issue has drawn an unusual level of public engagement.

“More than any year [2025], citizens and people who are part of these grassroots organizations should feel more empowered than ever,” Wilson said. “More and more people are becoming engaged.”

Wilson pointed to a surge in public participation following a series of high-profile events, including the lawn-watering ban in central Iowa, the release of the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment, and the fish kills in the Nishnabotna River in southwestern Iowa. Through the league’s Nitrate Watch program, she said, the number of volunteers requesting test kits and reporting data has increased significantly.

“What that represents is people who are becoming more informed,” she said. “They’re learning about their local water quality and the impacts that that might have on their health.”

Lawmaker changes strategy in pushing for new regulations to improve Iowa lakes and rivers

Despite years of analysis and repeated findings, Schmidt said, many of the policy debates around water quality have gone unresolved.

“The legislature has not been interested in doing more, at least the legislative leadership, or the majority of the legislature, has not taken action,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the state has long known what would reduce nutrient pollution. Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, adopted in 2013, outlined a path forward, but progress has been limited and legislative action has not followed.

The strategy aims to cut annual nitrogen and phosphorus losses by 45%. For agriculture, which is considered a nonpoint source of pollution, the strategy relies on the voluntary adoption of conservation practices intended to reduce the amount of nutrients that leave farm fields into nearby waterways. For point sources, including certain municipalities and industrial facilities, the strategy calls for evaluations of existing nutrient controls and, where feasible, upgrades to treatment capacity.

“We identified what we should do to reduce nutrients in 2013,” Schmidt said. “We are not making great progress, so we need to be doing more.”

That lack of movement has been visible in recent legislative sessions. Last February, Sen. Art Staed, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, again introduced the Clean Water for Iowa Act, a bill he had previously proposed that would require large animal feeding operations to obtain water pollution permits and conduct effluent monitoring. As in prior years, the proposals did not advance.

For 2026, Staed said he is trying a different strategy after repeated legislative setbacks. Instead of reintroducing a single water-quality bill, he said he is breaking the proposal into at least a dozen narrower measures, focused on better monitoring of the water-quality system, stricter enforcement, giving the Department of Natural Resources more authority and improved field practices, including buffers between row-crop farmland and waterways.

Staed said the bills are still being drafted and that the volume of legislation this year has slowed the process, but expects most to be ready to file next week. The goal, he said, is to move individual provisions that could attract bipartisan support, as broader reforms have continued to stall.

“It is my fundamental belief that all Iowans deserve access to clean water. If there’s one bit of silver lining to come from our state’s current predicament, it’s that water quality is now front of mind for far more Iowans than in recent memory,” he said. 

“The question now to lawmakers in 2026 is whether or not we can meet the moment.”

Concerns about water quality have increasingly intersected with broader public-health anxieties in Iowa. The state has the second-highest age-adjusted rate of new cancers diagnosed and is one of only two states with a rising age-adjusted rate of new cancers. While advances in treatment have increased the number of cancer survivors, researchers and physicians have warned that the trend also brings rising costs and renewed urgency to better understand potential environmental risk factors.

Those concerns gained momentum in 2025 among community groups, researchers, advocates and lawmakers, as questions mounted about how pollution could affect long-term health outcomes. This month, at the opening meeting of the Iowa Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee, water quality dominated lawmakers’ remarks.

Staed, a member of the committee, said the heightened attention reflects growing political awareness but no meaningful change. “They’ve done a lot,” he said, referring to state leaders’ water-quality initiatives. “But it’s not enough to change the trajectory of nitrates in the water, the quality of water, and of course, rare cancer rates, and so on, that might be part of it.”

Looking ahead to the 2026 legislative session, which began Jan. 12, advocacy groups including the IEC have outlined a short list of priorities they say could shape the debate over water-quality policy.

At the top of the list is restoring funding for Iowa’s water monitoring network, the Iowa Water Quality Information System. The network, led by the University of Iowa with support from federal agencies, uses real-time sensors to track nitrates, phosphorus and other pollutants at about 60 sites statewide.

State funding for the system ended in 2023, forcing the network to rely on temporary private and local support. Sensor coverage has since declined, and university officials have warned the system could be shut down by mid-2026 without new funding.

The council is urging lawmakers to restore funding for the Iowa water monitoring network. About $600,000 a year is needed to support the system. The original appropriation was $500,000, which would not be sufficient to fully reinstate the network’s previous capacity of 70 sensors; the IEC cited inflation as the reason the higher annual amount is now required.

Kerri Johannsen, senior director of policy and programs at the IEC, said restoring funding for water monitoring network is the group’s top priority this year.

“It’s common sense,” Johannsen said. “[It’s] essential to even have a benchmark …  know where we’re going and if what we’re doing is working.”

Johannsen said the council is also pushing for expanded monitoring tied to pollution sources, including closer oversight of large animal feeding operations to detect whether waste is leaking into groundwater. Without consistent monitoring, she said, it is difficult to identify problems early or stop pollution where it is occurring.

Another priority is protecting Iowa’s waterways from coal-plant pollution, including proposals to restrict or prohibit coal-ash discharges into state waters.

Staed said public pressure on water quality issues is unlikely to fade.

“This issue isn’t going away,” he said. “Our farmers want to be good stewards of the land, and their voluntary efforts have helped, but the state needs to do more. More and more Iowans are speaking up on this issue and I’m hopeful that their voices can finally lead to a shift at the Capitol; that we can finally begin to address the problem and bring clean water to Iowans in every corner of the state.”

The post In Iowa, many rivers and lakes improve briefly, then fall back into impairment appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

Every state in the country has seen an increase in temporary agricultural visa workers since 2018. These workers enter the country on H-2A visas, which allow companies and farms to hire seasonal labor. 

Southwest states such as Texas and New Mexico have seen drastic increases in the number of workers actively laboring in the state since workplace data became available in 2018. New Mexico started with just 308 visa workers harvesting crops in 2018. Last year, the state had 2,431 H-2A workers.

H-2A visas continue to increase year over year, but the program’s overall number of new visas slowed from 2024 to 2025, when the increase was less than a single percentage point.

These visas have a documented history of wage theft and poor working conditions. Workers come to the country under the visa program and rarely speak out about labor abuses, as their status is directly tied to their employment.

The Trump administration has supported H-2A visas and other temporary visa programs. Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor created an Office of Immigration Policy to help employers meet labor needs.

This slowdown in new visa holders comes at a time when the administration has carried out deportation raids across the country, many of which have affected agricultural and food processing operations. The Trump administration has also announced bans on visa programs affecting dozens of countries worldwide.

The post Midwest and Southwest states see major increase in temporary H-2A workers, despite slow growth in program appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

Why this matters

Managers unaware: Newly obtained recordings of OSHA interviews with ADM personnel show top managers at a Nebraska plant were unaware of federal safety standards related to grain dust.

Little discipline: Few, if any, ADM employees were disciplined for unsafe behavior.

Potentially unsafe behavior: The new OSHA records show the agency was told ADM employees were using compressed air to clean dust while machinery ran, which would be a violation of safety requirements.

On Christmas Eve 2022, parts of Archer Daniels Midland’s Fremont, Nebraska, grain processing plant were damaged in an explosion. A mechanical malfunction had created a spark and combustible grain dust caught fire.

No one was injured, but the incident “could have been a hell of a lot worse,” as a federal safety inspector noted to plant managers.

That’s because, in the room where the fire started, grain dust had been allowed to accumulate to about an inch, according to the inspector’s observations. The federal government requires facilities to clean once combustible dust reaches an eighth of an inch.

The fire started in a room where soybeans are ground up, which produced large amounts of dust. Attached to the grinding machine was a bag that collected dust, but the bag had been leaking for an unknown amount of time.

A smolder began in the bag, but the flames escaped through the ducts into other areas of the plant. This left the room covered in dust untouched.

As OSHA investigated, the inspector asked plant management how long it would take for an inch of dust to accumulate, but they didn’t answer. “To me,” he said, “it looks like it hasn’t been touched in a while.”

Hours of interviews with plant employees by Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors, as well as hundreds of pages of notes, detail what led to the 2022 fire. The records were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Investigate Midwest, as part of its ongoing coverage of dust explosions in ADM facilities.

The recordings show that senior staff were unaware of longstanding federal standards related to grain dust; that few, if any, workers had been disciplined for safety lapses related to dust; and that employees used compressed air to clean dust while machinery ran — a potentially dangerous situation.

The newly obtained records add more insight into the company’s safety policies and how those policies are implemented. Across its Midwest plants, ADM has allowed dust to reach unsafe levels, failed to maintain equipment designed to prevent explosions and did not develop procedures to safely remove dust, Investigate Midwest reported in May.

ADM did not respond to requests for comment.

John Newquist, a former OSHA administrator who now trains companies on dust explosion prevention, said facilities should be able to keep dust under control.

“I have seen much worse (than one inch) but I’ve also seen people keep it under the 8th inch,” he said in an email.

Between 2018 and 2024, ADM facilities experienced at least eight dust explosions, according to figures maintained by Purdue University researchers. Numbers for 2025 are not yet available, and there have been no media reports about explosions at ADM facilities in 2025.

ADM is a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of processing facilities in North America. However, only two other companies had more than one dust explosion during the same time frame, according to Purdue’s data. 

In total, one person has died, and 15 others have suffered severe injuries from dust explosions at ADM plants.

At the Fremont facility, a third-party contractor was responsible for cleaning dust. When OSHA began investigating the 2022 incident, the plant’s top manager told the agency he had brought concerns about the contractor to ADM’s corporate office but nothing had been done. For its part, the contractor told OSHA that ADM did not fix anything “until it was broken.”

When asked about the contractor, David Frazelle, a longtime safety executive, told OSHA, “I’m going to say something that our attorney isn’t going to like. (The manager) has been trying to get rid of the maintenance company for quite some time.”

In early 2023, ADM hired a new maintenance contractor for the Fremont plant. The contractor told OSHA that the plant’s top manager, Eric Stanley, was “trying to make a difference.”

The new records show that there were more opportunities for dust explosions at the Fremont facility than previously known. Even small accumulations of dust can lead to large explosions if an ignition source is present.

Between 2021 and 2023, just two fires had been publicly reported. But OSHA documented eight smolders or fires during that time frame.

Ultimately, ADM agreed to pay a fine of about $41,000 for its actions related to the 2022 fire. No individual ADM employees were accused of any wrongdoing. Because of this, Investigate Midwest is withholding most of their names.

But the interviews with ADM employees show how plant staff thought of corporate safety plans.

For instance, during one interview, OSHA inspectors quizzed the plant’s top manager, Stanley, on ADM’s housekeeping practices that were intended to keep the plant free of combustible dust.

“How is the housekeeping (program) … working for your facility?”

“It’s subjective,” he said. 

“Is it effective?” 

“I don’t think any document is ever perfect.”

An inspector asked again if the program was effective.

“It’s pretty subjective,” Stanley replied. “I don’t honestly know how to answer that.”

The inspectors then changed the subject, saying there was no point to go “in circles.”

Compressed air can be a potentially dangerous situation

Cleaning combustible dust inside grain processing facilities requires constant vigilance. Many facilities, including ADM’s Fremont plant, grind up grain 24/7, which flings large amounts of dust into the air.

One way the plant tried to deal with the issue was using compressed air to blow the dust away. However, that just pushed the dust onto the walls.

This practice was in effect until at least January 2023, when OSHA began investigating the Fremont facility following the Christmas Eve fire.

At some point, “upper management (at ADM corporate) said no air,” a plant manager told OSHA, but he said he couldn’t remember when the edict came down.

In order to use compressed air, all machinery must be turned off, according to OSHA standards. This is because an explosion could occur if the unsettled dust touches an ignition source, such as an engine or a heated surface.

Another issue, Newquist said, is “compressed air tends to blow up microfine dust, which can cause a lot of problems in an explosion.” The fine dust can be inhaled and cause serious health problems.

However, the OSHA inspector said he had been told ADM employees had used compressed air to clean dust while machinery was operating. 

In the recording of the exchange, the inspector reminded the manager there are protections for whistleblowers. Then, an attorney for ADM — who works for Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of the largest law firms in the U.S. — interrupted, asking if the inspector was accusing the manager of wrongdoing. The inspector said no.

“Are you blowing off equipment, with air, while it’s running?” The inspector asked.

“The rules are we are not supposed to be blowing off any equipment while running,” the manager replied. “When we’re not around, I would say, somebody grabs an air gun and blows off that equipment, that’s something out of my hand.”

Senior ADM plant staff unaware of OSHA standards

All employees receive safety training when they are hired, followed by yearly “refresher” training, managers told OSHA. It’s unclear what exactly is in ADM’s safety training. It’s considered a business secret and redacted in the OSHA records.

Senior managers at ADM’s Fremont facility seemed to be unaware of federal standards related to grain dust management, however, according to the recordings.

At the facility, supervisors oversee several employees during a shift and report directly to the top plant manager. OSHA asked one supervisor, who had been in his position for about three years, if he knew the dangers of grain dust. 

“Yes,” he said. “We don’t want to see a footprint. Can lead to fire, explosion.”

“What’s your understanding on how much dust you’re allowed in high-priority areas?” The OSHA inspector asked. 

After a few seconds of silence, the supervisor replied, “I can’t remember. I just know that you can’t have accumulated dust anywhere.”

The inspector then told him the standard is an eighth of an inch.

The inspector asked another senior manager if he knew if “soybean dust” was combustible. (It is.)

“I’m sure it can,” he replied. “You always want to be better safe than sorry.”

The inspector then asked if the company had a policy that helped them gauge if the dust was getting too thick.

The manager, who had recently been promoted, said, “It could be improved.”

Few disciplinary actions taken for safety lapses

Prior to the 2022 fire, the Fremont plant struggled to retain workers. About 20 people were on-site during a shift. Many people would apply, but many would stop showing up to work after a while, according to the recordings.

In the recordings, the plant’s top manager said trying to staff the plant “properly” was a challenge. Another manager told OSHA, “At one point, we didn’t have any labor.” The records are unclear on when or for how long.

ADM did not answer questions about whether high turnover contributed to the few disciplinary actions related to safety.

While discussing the use of compressed air, the OSHA inspector asked the plant supervisor — the one who said if employees use air while he’s not around that’s out of his hands — if he had ever “disciplined any employees for not following safety practices.” This included verbal or written warnings.

“I can’t remember,” the manager said. 

“Have you ever been personally disciplined for not enforcing safety practices?” 

“No.”

In a different interview, the OSHA inspector asked Stanley, the plant’s top manager, if he could remember disciplining any of his direct subordinates over safety concerns. He provided one example of an “administrative error” involving paperwork.

The inspector then asked what ADM’s policy on safety discipline is.

“We handle it on a case-by-case basis,” Stanley said.

“Is there a three-strike rule? Is there anything black and white written (down)?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

ADM’s attorney then jumped in. There is a written disciplinary policy, he said.

“But Eric’s right,” the attorney continued. “It’s case by case,” including termination based on the infraction’s severity.

The post ‘Could have been a hell of a lot worse’: At Nebraska plant, ADM allowed dangerous dust to build up beyond safe levels, recordings show appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

While nearly the same amount of corn and soybean acres have been planted every year since the mid-1990s, the use of pesticides in Illinois has increased exponentially, according to USDA data. 

Synthetic pesticide use has been a dominant agricultural practice since the 1950s, but use escalated dramatically in the mid-1990s when Monsanto, now Bayer, first released its Roundup Ready soybean and corn seeds, which allow farmers to spray directly on their crops, killing weeds without harming their harvest. 

Before the commercial release of the genetically engineered seeds, glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, accounted for a fraction of a percent of the total herbicides used on corn in Illinois. But by 2010, just over a decade after the commercial launch of glyphosate-tolerant corn seeds, glyphosate use accounted for more than 28% of all herbicides used. 

That’s because after only five years of commercial use, dozens of weeds had evolved widespread resistance to glyphosate, becoming what some call superweeds. In response, farmers used more of the herbicide or switched to other products, such as 2,4-D and dicamba.

However, a 2024 study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign indicates that the increase in pesticide use is causing significant damage to prairie grasses and trees across the state, particularly native oaks, hickory and box elders.

Researchers found a direct correlation between surrounding agriculture and damaged native vegetation. Field workers collected hundreds of leaf and soil samples at nearly 200 non-agricultural sites, like nature preserves, forests and wetlands, all within 10 kilometers of corn or soybean operations. They found at least one agricultural chemical at 97% of the locations, and observed visual signs of damage at every site. Chemicals from row crop fields, which can drift and harm unintended targets nearby, were the culprit. 

Sample data from the sites date back five to 25 years, indicating that the increase in pesticide damage coincides with the massive increase in pesticide use. 

The symptoms of pesticide damage in trees include cupped, curled, or twisted leaves, and they become more susceptible to stress from drought, infestations or disease. Repeated chemical exposure has even anecdotally led to tree deaths in some of the state’s oldest landmarks.

By 2023, about a pound of glyphosate was used on every acre of corn and soy planted in Illinois. Despite weed resistance and the rise in the use of other chemicals, it’s still the most widely used pesticide in the state.

The post Increased pesticide use in Illinois is killing native oaks appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

This past year, China has significantly reduced purchases of U.S. agricultural exports in response to President Trump’s tariff hikes. U.S. farmers are struggling as Chinese companies have sought soybeans and other products from countries such as Brazil. 

But this month, Investigate Midwest’s Monica Cordero took a closer look at just how much China has shifted and how its recent investments in Latin America could mean a long-term drop in U.S. purchases. Here are five takeaways from that investigation: 

Soybeans take the biggest hit  

The biggest hit to U.S. farmers has been China’s near-total halt to soybean purchases. Soybeans are a cornerstone of American agriculture, as more than 270,000 farms grow the crop, according to the latest Census of Agriculture. In 2024, more than 40% of U.S. soybean production was exported, with about half going to China.

China has mostly turned to Brazil

Brazil has stepped in as China’s biggest supplier of soybeans, which are used to feed livestock to support protein demand. As of October, Brazil had exported a record 79 million metric tons of soybeans to China, nearly 80% of its total soybean shipments during the period, according to a farmdoc Daily analysis of data from Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretariat.

More than just seaports

In addition to building more seaport terminals, Chinese companies are building rail lines, tunnels, and other infrastructure to transport more agricultural products from Latin American farms to their ships. These types of investments mean Chinese companies are prepared to buy Latin American products for many years to come. 

“What are the signs that China’s here to stay [in Latin America]? Really, the infrastructure,” said Henry Ziemer, an associate fellow with the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. nonprofit policy research organization that reports 23 ports across Latin America have some degree of Chinese investment.  “Ports, railways, roads, bridges, metro lines, energy, power plants are probably the best signs that China has a long-term commitment … These are long-term projects.”

China’s shift hits American seaports

The drop in exports to China has also reduced traffic at some key U.S. ports. At the New Orleans District — a dominant grain corridor — soybean exports grew by less than 3% between September 2024 and September 2025, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Shipments through the Los Angeles District fell almost 15%, while the steepest drop came in the Seattle District, where exports plunged 81%.

“Exports in general have been very soft and we attributed it to the retaliatory tariffs that have been put in place by China,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. “Our single biggest export sector is agriculture … of that, soybeans are the number one export commodity.”

New agreement still falls short

In November, China agreed to buy more U.S. soybeans but it would still fall short of recent norms. Even if China buys at least 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually over the next three years, that volume would remain about 14% below the five-year average shipped to China from 2020 to 2024, according to an analysis from Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture and farmdoc Daily.

Some purchases have started rolling in. But April Hemmes, an Iowa soybean farmer who has promoted increased trade with China, said the agreement would be difficult to fulfill, noting that delivering 12 million metric tons of soybeans by early next year is “not very realistic.” 

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The post 5 things to know: Our investigation into China’s shift to Latin American agriculture appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

Investigate Midwest is a data-centric newsroom. Our weekly Data Harvests aim to visualize key agricultural statistics, and our investigative stories are often rooted in original data analysis.

Of the dozens of charts and maps we published in 2025, here are 17 that give a closer look at the state of the nation’s agriculture industry and food system.

America’s changing cattle industry

The U.S.’s cattle herd has shrunk in recent years, largely due to climate-change-fueled droughts, along with with other market disruptions.

This chart shows cattle loss in the nation’s largest beef-producing states.

In recent years, drought conditions have hit the top cattle counties hardest.

As the nation’s cattle herd shrinks, more beef is being imported, especially from Brazil.

Worker safety

Nearly half of all child labor violations in the agriculture industry since 1995 have occurred in grain, fruit and vegetable farming, according to a review of Department of Labor data.

Investigate Midwest compiled more than two decades of Department of Labor violations data into a searchable database, which you can find here.

As part of an investigation into grain dust explosions, this map shows known incidents at Archer Daniels Midland plants.

Bailouts and farm income

President Trump recently announced plans for a $12 billion bailout for U.S. farmers hurt by his tariff hikes and the responding trade war. When he issued billions to farmers during his first term, some criticized the uneven distribution. This chart shows how various producers fared during Trump’s last farmer bailout.

Due to rising production costs, low crop prices and the effects of the trade war, economists project that growers could see roughly $44 billion in net cash income losses from their 2025–26 crops. This chart shows the projected loss facing corn, wheat and soybean farmers.

This chart shows the rising costs of farming essentials like fertilizer, seed and fuel.

Black farmers, immigrants and diversity programs

While the total number of farms has decreased over the past hundred years, Black farmers have suffered disproportionately. This chart shows that in 1920, Black-owned farms made up about 15% of all operations. In 2022, the figure was 1.5%.

While the number of farms in America has long been on a steady decline, 13 of the nation’s 30 largest cities have added farming operations, based on county-level data. The data indicate that much of the growth is from small urban farming operations, as shown in this map. 

Trump’s rollback of DEI initiatives has cast uncertainty over USDA programs vital to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. From 2019 to 2023, the U.S Department of Agriculture provided $2 billion in critical financial support to these farmers and ranchers – those of color, women, and other underserved groups – in Midwestern states to support farming operations and farmland development, according to USDA data.

The Trump administration ended work permits for more than 530,000 immigrants through a humanitarian parole program, a move that could have far-reaching economic consequences for the country’s agricultural sector. This chart showed which industries these immigrant workers were employed in.

The rural economy

Independent grocery stores are disappearing as the number of large national chains grows, especially in rural communities, as this chart shows.

While the national food insecurity rate has dropped slightly over the last decade, farming-dependent counties have seen an 11.7% increase, as shown in these two graphics.

Climate change

Dust storms have become increasingly common in the U.S., according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. But the increase has been especially sharp in key agricultural states, as this chart shows.

Less than half of residents in farming-dependent counties say they are worried about climate change, well below the 63% national average. But in farming counties that have faced some of the most extreme weather events, concern is often greater, as seen in this chart.

The post These 17 charts tell the story of the US food system in 2025 appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

From a new presidential administration and sweeping changes at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to the world’s largest retailer entering the beef industry and unchecked water use by a giant poultry producer, 2025 was a year of investigating power across the agricultural industry.

Here are some of our biggest stories from the past 12 months.

Politics, federal and state

President Trump’s impact on the agriculture sector was significant, but state lawmakers also played an important role in shaping the nation’s food system.

Worker safety

From farms to factories, work in the food system can be dangerous. These stories examined how both corporations and government regulators failed to keep workers safe.

Immigrant workers

The food system, which heavily relies on immigrant workers, was upended this year by the Trump administration’s push to deport thousands of undocumented residents and end legal programs.

Corporate control

These stories investigated some of the most powerful corporate players in the agriculture sector and their impact on the environment, consumer prices and government regulations.

Rural life

From fights over Big Ag’s water use to rising hunger rates in farming communities, these stories provide an on-the-ground look at some of the challenges across the heartland.

Pesticide use

Pesticide use has increased across the Midwest, raising questions about regulations and safety.

The post Our biggest stories in 2025 appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

From the docks of the Port of Santos, a 58-terminal complex covering an area the size of 1,500 American football fields, ships loaded with soybeans prepare to set sail for China. 

Less than 45 miles from São Paulo, the port services nearly a quarter of Brazil’s soybean exports. For decades, U.S. agribusiness giants like Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill have operated facilities at the port. 

Today, they share space with COFCO International, China’s state-owned food conglomerate, which has invested around $285 million in recent years. The expansion will make it the port’s largest dry bulk terminal.

And Santos isn’t alone. In the west, the Port of Chancay is rising on Peru’s central coast.

COSCO Shipping, a state-owned Chinese company, is investing at least $3.5 billion to construct 15 berths, logistics facilities, and a 1.1-mile tunnel, enabling cargo to be channelled directly from the port to nearby highways.

Once fully operational, Chancay will function as a regional redistribution hub for exports from Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia: from copper and lithium to soybeans and other agricultural products. Upon completion around 2035, it is expected to become the region’s third-largest port.

These and other recent investments across the region have positioned China to source more agricultural products from Latin America as it pivots away from U.S. farmers in response to President Trump’s higher tariffs. 

China first began that pivot in 2018, when Trump’s first-term tariff hikes ignited a global trade war. But since returning to office, the president has renewed that strategy, and China’s investments signal a generational shift that may not reverse if and when the trade war subsides. 

“What are the signs that China’s here to stay [in Latin America]? Really, the infrastructure,” said Henry Ziemer, an associate fellow with the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. nonprofit policy research organization that reports 23 ports across Latin America have some degree of Chinese investment.  

“Ports, railways, roads, bridges, metro lines, energy, power plants are probably the best signs that China has a long-term commitment … These are long-term projects.”

Daniel Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, said that when a country gains control over ports that make trade faster, cheaper and more reliable, such as the Port of Chancay, trade flows tend to “lock in.” Reversing that trend, he warned, would require the United States to narrow its efficiency gap, noting that none of its container ports rank among the world’s top 50.

“It could entrench patterns,” Munch said.

This is bad news for American farmers, particularly soybean growers. 

Soybeans are a cornerstone of American agriculture, particularly in the Midwest. Nationwide, more than 270,000 farms grow the crop, according to the latest Census of Agriculture. In Illinois, nearly half of all farms depend on soybean production, and in Iowa and Minnesota, about four in 10 do.

In 2024, more than 40% of U.S. soybean production was exported, with about half going to China.

But tensions between the United States and China have risen this year – Trump has increased tariffs and recently threatened a 157% tax on all Chinese imports, while China responded by reducing U.S. soybean imports to near zero for six months. 

A trade deal announced in November ends the suspension and includes commitments for China to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the final two months of 2025 and at least 25 million metric tons annually through 2028, according to Purdue University and farmdoc Daily. 

Brazil has stepped in as China’s biggest supplier of soybeans, which are used to feed livestock to support protein demand. 

China has become one of the two main export markets for at least 10 nations, most of them in South America, according to the International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2023 report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

From 2010 to 2022, the region accounted for nearly one-third of China’s food imports. Brazil alone supplied about 21% of those imports over the same period.

“In recent years, there has been significant growth in telecommunications projects and across all areas of transportation – including airports, ports, roads, railways, and subways – as well as in sanitation and urban mobility. These sectors account for nearly 60% of the total number of projects,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, executive secretary of ECLAC, who highlighted the scale of China’s involvement during the 2024 International Seminar on Contemporary China Studies in Costa Rica.

China has viewed Brazil as a strategic partner for several years, primarily because of its soybean supply, and has responded with infrastructure investments, according to Fernando Bastiani, a researcher with ESALQ-LOG, the Group of Research and Extension in Agroindustrial Logistics at the University of São Paulo.

“Today, COFCO has direct access to farmers, purchases soybeans, and oversees the entire commercialization chain, including storage and transport to China,” Bastiani said. “In recent years, [COFCO] has also realized it needs to control logistics systems and infrastructure, because that’s a key part.”

In Brazil, Bastiani explained, logistics costs account for 20% to 25% of the final soybean price, mainly due to the long distances between farms and ports and the high cost of trucking. “China understood that by investing in infrastructure, it could help make Brazil more competitive,” he said.

In May, the two countries signed new agreements to deepen their agricultural trade ties, granting Brazil authorization to export meat and ethanol byproducts. 

“Amid the changing and turbulent international landscape, China and Brazil should remain committed to the original aspiration of contributing to human progress and global development,” said President Xi Jinping during the meeting.

China’s pullback squeezes U.S. port volumes 

While Latin America has seen growth, many U.S. ports have experienced a significant decline in business.

At the New Orleans District — a dominant grain corridor — soybean exports grew by less than 3% between September 2024 and September 2025, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Shipments through the Los Angeles District fell almost 15%, while the steepest drop came in the Seattle District, where exports plunged 81%.

Nearly half of all U.S. corn, soybean and wheat exports move through the Mississippi River system, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Market Intel report.

This major inland trade artery connects the Midwest’s farming regions to the Gulf of Mexico, carrying an average of 65 million metric tons annually of bulk agricultural products by barge over the past five years to export terminals near New Orleans, where shipments depart for international markets.

“The facilities that purchase soybeans from farmers extend to our freight railroads, where they don’t have as much volume that they’ve been moving, at least for soybeans,” said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition. 

Steenhoek noted that corn exports have remained strong, which has helped sustain some port activity — but it hasn’t solved the underlying problem: “China imports more U.S. soybeans than all of our other international customers combined,” he said.

At the Port of Los Angeles, the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere, agricultural exports have also weakened as trade with China cools.

“Exports in general have been very soft and we attributed it to the retaliatory tariffs that have been put in place by China,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. “Our single biggest export sector is agriculture … of that, soybeans are the number one export commodity.”

Before the first tariffs were introduced in 2018, China accounted for about 60% of the port’s business. Today, it’s closer to 40% and falling, as trade flows and sourcing shift toward countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. 

“We’ve been very aggressive in finding cargo out of other countries,” Seroka said. “But there is no doubt in my mind that we are concerned every day that these policies could impact the amount of cargo that comes to Los Angeles.”

The decrease in exports is not just a hit to farmers, but also to port workers; each four containers handled at the port generates one job, according to Seroka.

“In Southern California, one in nine people has a job related to this port,” said Seroka, referring to dockworkers, truck drivers, brokers and warehouse employees. “It truly is a conversation of national significance.”

U.S. port traffic isn’t poised for a quick rebound despite a recent trade agreement that ends China’s suspension of U.S. soybean imports. After six months of near-zero shipments due to retaliatory trade measures, Beijing in November agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the final two months of 2025 and to commit to annual purchases of at least 25 million tons through 2028.

A recent analysis from Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture and farmdoc Daily said the announcement offered some relief to U.S. farmers at the tail end of harvest, but overall exports to China this year are still on track to be the weakest since 2018, when trade tensions during the first Trump administration slashed volumes to 8 million tons.

“It is very difficult to take a market [China] of over a billion people and replace that,” said John Bartman, a soybean farmer from Marengo, Illinois.

By October, Brazil had exported a record 79 million metric tons of soybeans to China, nearly 80% of its total soybean shipments during the period, according to a farmdoc Daily analysis of data from Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretariat. Brazil’s total soybean exports reached about 100 million tons between January and October, already surpassing the country’s full-year total for 2024, which was just under 99 million tons.

“U.S. soybean farmers are standing at a trade and financial precipice,” Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association, wrote in a statement. 

US trade strategy remains unsettled as China moves ahead

While China builds long-term infrastructure to secure its supply chains, Washington is still struggling to define its trade strategy and to contain the political fallout of renewed tariffs.

In mid-September, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives moved to block Congress from influencing Trump’s tariff policy, even as Senate Democrats prepared to force votes challenging his trade war, The New York Times reported. The maneuver effectively stripped lawmakers of the ability to advance measures to lift tariffs until March 31, 2026, extending a prohibition first imposed in the spring to spare members from taking a politically difficult vote.

“Tariffs not only cause farmers to pay more for their inputs, but they have also seen tariffs reduce markets for U.S. farm products,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, during an October session.

If the November soybean agreement between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping holds, Beijing’s purchases would still fall short of recent norms. Even if China buys at least 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually over the next three years, that volume would remain about 14% below the five-year average shipped to China from 2020 to 2024, according to an analysis from Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture and farmdoc Daily.

Some purchases have started rolling in. But April Hemmes, an Iowa soybean farmer who has promoted increased trade with China, said the agreement would be difficult to fulfill, noting that delivering 12 million metric tons of soybeans by early next year is “not very realistic.” 

As China establishes new trade routes across Latin America, every new port or shipping lane makes a future recovery for U.S. farmers more challenging.

Despite the tensions, Hemmes still views China as an essential market. 

“I don’t think our relationship with China has been damaged,” the Iowa soybean farmer said. “China is a low-cost buyer and will need soybeans from the U.S. for a long time. But we will never be their number one source.”

For her, the changing politics and policies have made the United States an “unreliable trading partner.”

“The only way that we become their top choice would be if our soybeans were far cheaper than South America’s.”

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It’s pumpkin season – from spiced lattes to Halloween decorations on the porch – and chances are it was grown in Illinois. 

Just over a third of all pumpkins in the United States – 485 million pounds – come from Illinois, according to annual USDA surveys.

Much of that production centers on Morton, a village in Tazewell County that proudly calls itself the “Pumpkin Capital of the World.” About 85% of the world’s canned pumpkin is packed at the Nestlé/Libby’s plant in the middle of town.

Indiana ranks second in production, but Illinois grows roughly three times as many pumpkins, even after its production fell by 30% last year. That decline came even though the harvested acres remained steady; acreage had already dropped by nearly 18% in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Despite their hard exterior, pumpkins are highly susceptible to adverse weather conditions.

Depending on the location, farmers typically begin planting between late May and early July, allowing the pumpkins approximately four months to mature for a fall harvest.

A late spring frost can wipe out young plants before they have a chance to take root. At the same time, extreme summer heat can cause blossoms to fall before they are pollinated, according to a 2024 publication from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Excessive rainfall can also delay planting in spring or harvesting in autumn, and leave crops more vulnerable to disease.

According to USDA Economic Research Service data, Illinois not only leads the nation in pumpkin production acreage but also devotes most of its fields to processing varieties, the kind used in pies and canned filling. 

Nearly 70% of Illinois’ pumpkin acres are dedicated to pie filling and other processing uses, compared with just 3% in Pennsylvania and even less in Washington, Indiana, and California. This focus helps explain why Illinois outpaces other states in both yield and price.

Other states are catching up, though. In 2024, New York, Wisconsin and Michigan reported the most significant gains, with production increasing by 49%, 43%, and 33%, respectively.

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