Agriculture is a business that is changing rapidly and offers a variety of rich stories. Perry Beeman, senior environmental and agriculture, reporter at The Des Moines Register, explains the beat's basics.
What does a replica Civil War balloon have to do with business journalism? Well, the plight of this particular replica, which New York’s Genesee County Museum hopes to launch this year as part of commemorative ceremonies, has lit up focus on our national helium shortage. Who knew? But the helium story is real and one [...]
People sometimes ask me why I listen to the truckers’ network on satellite radio. Mainly, I do it because tuning in to those news segments and call-in programs — with participants with names like Stormchaser in Oregon or Road Warrior from North Carolina chiming in from their rigs — distracts me from the same-old, same-old Michigan highways [...]
Food safety issues are rearing their … microbes, lately, prompting a new set of related business story possibilities.
The tornado alerts have waned for the time being after last weekend’s deadly storms. But given the track record so far this year, and severe spring weather outlooks from AccuWeather and other forecasters, it’s probably a good idea to determine how you’ll cover any outbreaks from a financial point of view. Storms, flooding, high winds, [...]
Sunday is Earth Day 2012, and while the four-decades old observance isn’t getting the attention it did on its 40th birthday in 2010, it’s still a decent news peg for a green business, finance or consumer piece. The theme of this year’s Earth Day is “Mobilize the Earth,” and social media campaigns will play a [...]
What do the prices of potash, nitrogen and phosphates have to do with your readers’ pocketbooks? The zooming cost of these fertilizer components are just one part of the complex mix that affects the U.S. (and global) agriculture economy and in turn everything from the price of jeans and hot-dog buns to sales of heavy [...]
Agriculture may seem like a simple job. Prepare the soil, apply chemicals, plant, harvest, repeat. Right? In fact, it’s a complicated endeavor in the best of circumstance. Farming is bedrock industry that is directly affected by weather, natural disasters, climate change, and market forces that landowners can’t control. Farmers, at least those still running largely independent, smaller-scale [...]
Covering agriculture presents some challenges, like any other business beat. Here are a few things to watch. Don’t oversimplify. Agriculture stories can be complicated. Think about how the news you are covering affects different sectors of the ag industry, and, of course, various consumers. A rise in grain prices probably means higher meat prices. Grain [...]
Agriculture stories are everywhere. Perhaps more so than on other beats, though, it pays to get out of the office. If you are reporting in a rural area, you should stop by a local café where farmers have breakfast. You should pop by the grain elevator and strike up a conversation. Or, to the extent [...]
