Agricultural issues
Essay
Can Midwestern farmers stop the steady loss of their most precious possession--their topsoil? This writer says yes, they can.
Paintings
This painter found inspiration for her triptych in one of the Midwest's most common sights: a cornfield.
Essay
Twenty-five years from now, will fertile agricultrural landscapes look the way they look today?
Essay
Our correspondent reports on the efforts of prairie ranchers like her to bring bison back to their pastures.
Essay
Professor John Ikerd's love for rural communities has led him to ask some difficult questions.
Essay
This rancher used his diary to envision a brighter future on the land for his children.
Interview
Linda Omaña, a member of our editorial staff, sat down with the photographer when he was on Grinnell College’s campus.
Publisher's note
For our publisher, the late CEO of the Des Moines Waterworks, Bill Stowe, exemplified environmental heroism.
Essay
Dr. Laura Jackson believes the fate of the threatened Monarch Butterfly is tied inextricably to the fate of agriculture on the prairie.
Podcast
In this issue, audio producers Sonia Chulaki and Marie Kolarik talk with writer and environmentalist Cornelia Mutel.
Interview
Veterinarian Art Dunham's concern for his patients made him a world-renowned expert on the effects of Roundup herbicide on our environment.
Digital Art
It's a deceptively simple question. Our associate editor created an infographic to provide the not-so-simple answer.
Podcast
With his interview of Des Moines Waterworks CEO, our audio producer debuts our new podcast feature.
Essay
Women are coming into farming in increasing numbers. As they do, they're changing the way we think about agriculture.
Essay
Is farmwork also social activism? It was for our correspondent, during an internship at Mustard Seed Community Farm.
Paintings
An Alaska-based artist turned her eye on the prairie during an artist's residency. The result: two paintings, featured in this issue.
Essay
Urban gardens need pollinators, but where do the bees come from amid all that concrete? Enter Jana Kinsman.
Interview
Associate Editor Maya Dru interviewed Des Moines Waterworks CEO Bill Stowe shortly before his untimely death.
Interview
Here you'll find our audio recording of Maya Dru's interview with the late Bill Stowe, CEO of the Des Moines Water Works.
Photography
This Iowa Essayist--whose work we featured in our last issue--is also a striking photographer, as these images of the Dakota plains show.
Essay
Your news-feed has probably been full of the bad effects of herbicides. This contributor writes about how to do without them.
Podcast
In the first of two podcasts in this issue, plant scientist Lee DeHaan discusses the new perennial grain, Kernza.
Podcast
In Rootstalk's fifth podcast, our audio producers talk with Prof. Brandi Janssen about the complexities of sustainaable agriculture.
Essay
How do we reverse the degradation of our prairie home by industrial ag? The residents of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage think they know.
Local History
Anthropologist Don Janzen examines his own background in his essay about his father's homesteading childhood in early 20th century Kansas.
Memoir
When this Minnesota writer's family farm became a regional park, she kept her family memories.
Podcast
Wisconsin writer/activist Heather Swan talks with Associate Editor Maya Dru about her love of pollinators.
Book Review
This contributor, a soil scientist, environmental activist and farmer, reviews a new book offering a vision of rural prairie revival.
Photography
This first-time contributor's photo makes use of a familiar Midwestern setting: the shorn cornfield.
Photography
This photographer--orginally from Hawaii--found inspiration in the autumn prairie fields.
Photography
Vegetables, very tall trees, and roadtrip views are the subject's this first-time contributor provided for this issue.