Food and farms

Clean energy

Trump’s rural energy freeze hits Midwest, GOP districts hardest

More than three-quarters of federal Rural Energy for America Program grants over the last decade have gone to Republican congressional districts.

By Kari Lydersen . 17 July 2025
Clean energy

USDA abruptly cancels rural energy grant application window

It’s the latest setback for the longstanding REAP program, casting uncertainty over the future of a resource that helps farmers save on energy and install solar.

By Kari Lydersen . 15 July 2025
Food and farms

Biden’s climate-smart ag program was better than nothing. Trump killed it.

In a climate-dumb move, the Trump administration ended a flawed but necessary program aiming to lower agricultural emissions. We can still draw useful lessons from it.

By Michael Grunwald . 4 June 2025
Solar

Farmers are making bank harvesting a new crop: Solar energy

In California's water-stressed Central Valley, farmers are fallowing land and installing solar, providing financial stability and saving water.

By Matt Simon . 5 May 2025
Food and farms

NYC hospitals are nudging patients toward plant-based meals. It's working.

New York City is cutting emissions and saving money by making vegetarian meals the default in public hospitals. It's successful because most people go with the flow.

By Michael Grunwald . 16 April 2025
Clean energy

Trump moves goalposts for farmers counting on clean energy grants

The USDA is demanding grant rewrites favoring fossil fuels over renewables, leaving some rural recipients doubtful they’ll ever see the money they were promised.

By Mario Alejandro Ariza, Ames Alexander, Joe Engleman . 31 March 2025
Food and farms

The Trump climate story is boring — except this part

We won’t see national progress on clean energy policy over the next four years. But interesting things could happen in the food-climate nexus.

By Michael Grunwald . 20 March 2025
Solar

This farmer was skeptical about solar — until he began grazing sheep

Illinois farmer Trent Gerlach had misgivings about solar panels taking up cropland, but he saw a chance to try agrivoltaics, a practice catching on around the US.

By Kari Lydersen . 15 October 2024
Policy & regulation

California could lock in disastrous dairy methane rules, advocates warn

CARB could finally regulate methane emissions from the state’s huge dairy farms and eliminate the special treatment dairy biogas gets via its clean fuel program. Or not.

By Jeff St. John . 14 October 2024
Solar

6,000 sheep will soon be grazing on 10,000 acres of Texas solar fields

The largest solar grazing project in the U.S. will reduce mowing costs and emissions — and make for some happy sheep.

By Carrie Klein . 16 August 2024