Kristofor Husted

When it comes to the business of food, there’s a rivalry around every corner. You’ve got fights for prime farmland, wars over water use, even buying food at the grocery store has its competition with household bills encroaching on family budgets for the shopping list.

KBIA’s Kristofor Husted interviews Missouri state Rep. Jason Kander, who is challenging Republican Shane Schoeller for the secretary of state office in the November 6 election.

In the interview, Kander talks about how he would help build up small business in Missouri by making registration information and services more easily available and accessible. He also discusses his big difference from Schoeller when it comes to combating election fraud, namely campaign finance reform and ethics reform. Kander says his time in the Missouri House and in the Army conducting anti-corruption investigations gives him a strong foundation to fight election fraud. And – with what’s been a hot issue for the current secretary of state, Robin Carnahan – Kander addresses his ideas on the importance of clear ballot language. 

Check back every day as we continue to film interviews with Missouri candidates ahead of the 2012 election.

Flip on the TV, boot up the computer or switch on the radio and you’re destined to hear about a recall of tainted food – often due to E. coli or salmonella.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Dave Spence sues Gov. Jay Nixon for defamation
• Columbia teachers elect union representation
• Sickle cell center opens in Columbia

Remember in the film Night of the Living Dead when the protagonist, Barbra, is running through the grassy hills to the forlorn farmhouse to escape her lumbering zombie of a brother?

Well, while recently reporting for Harvest Public Media, I spent time on farmland that looked eerily similar to the backdrop of George Romero's black and white magnum opus.

In the parched, rolling hills of western Missouri, you might expect to see a desolate scene after this summer’s drought. But in this field, hip-high native grass sways across the landscape like seaweed in the ocean.

Wayne Vassar is growing these native plants for biofuel.

“They’ve had corn or soy on (this land) in the past,” he said, “and what’s happened was when you have these kinds of slope it erodes pretty rapidly and you lose a lot of your fertility as the top soil goes down the hill.”

Farmland experts call this kind of land “marginal land.” The hills make it difficult for the soil to hold onto the topsoil nutrients. And along the rivers and other flood plains, frequent flooding can deprive plants the oxygen they need to survive. It all adds up to an estimated 116 million acres in the central U.S.

Land like this might only produce a profitable harvest with traditional crops, like corn or soybeans, once or twice every five years. That’s quite a financial risk for farmers. So how can farmers avoid that risk factor and make sure such soils provide a consistent economic return?

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Clair Willcox rehired as editor-in-chief of the MU Press
• Lt. Peter Kinder loses case against Affordable Care Act
• Mo. ranks at bottom of 'Energy Efficiency Economy' list

Water use has become a hot issue among Midwest farmers after this summer's drought. Nebraska irrigates more acres of farmland than any other state in the nation. Kansas is also near the top. And that Irrigation infrastructure helped some farmers keep the drought at bay this year. Their fields stayed green long after others withered away. But as Grant Gerlock reports for Harvest Public Media, using so much water now may force some farmers to use less water in the future.

While the tables may be turning for U.S. Rep. Todd Akin as he regains some GOP support in his race for the U.S. Senate, the Democratic Party has filed ethics complaints against the congressman.  At Thursday's campaign stop in Columbia, the congressman remained positive about his campaign but vague about his definition of earmarks.

The complaints -- filed Wednesday -- allege Akin reversed his stance on earmarks to receive money from a Super PAC. Akin says he has never changed his position.

To dock or not to dock? That is the question.

Well, that’s the question some Midwest dairy farmers are debating now that the National Milk Producers Federation has taken a stand against the widespread practice of cutting off cow tails -- or tail docking. It started decades ago as a method to stop the spread of disease because the tails often becomes slimed with manure. Recent studies suggest the practice isn't necessarily effective, but many dairy farmers still employ the technique to avoid a face full of slimy cow tail.