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KBIA's ongoing coverage of the midwest's worst drought in half a century.

Weathering the recession, drought

Corn
jungmoon
/
Flickr

In recent months, a fairly severe drought and a slowly recovering economy have thrown food businesses for a loop.

Coming up we’ll listen in on a conversation Abbie Fentress Swanson had with President Barack Obama’s top agriculture guy about the looming dip in corn exports. But first, some businesses have been able to weather the storm better than others. Jennifer Davidson has this report about one successful shop in West Plains.

Now, things aren’t so peachy for everyone in the food industry. Clearly.

The US Department of Agriculture expects corn exports to be at a 40-year low in 2013 due to a domestic corn shortfall because of the drought. Harvest Public Media’s Abbie Fentress Swanson spoke to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack about how this deficit in corn exports will affect US farm exports in the coming year. Secretary Vilsack also weighed in on whether or not he thinks the Farm Bill has a chance of passing this month.

Kristofor left KBIA in fall of 2021