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Deportations, raids, visa access: How the presidential election could impact immigrant farmworkers
The farmworkers scattered. There was a union representative in the workers’ employer-provided housing, on an orchard in upstate New York. Their employer, major apple grower Porpiglia Farms, had hired them on H-2A, or temporary labor, visas. That day in August 2023, according to the workers’ union, United Farm Workers, the orchard’s owners burst in. The […]
Federal watchdog slams EPA effort to determine if Serestro pet collars are safe
A federal watchdog this month told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that its regulatory oversight of Seresto flea-and-tick collars, which have been linked to more than 2,000 pet deaths, was not “adequate.” Federal scrutiny of the Seresto collars started in 2021, after Investigate Midwest and USA TODAY revealed the collar was linked to tens of […]
Bayer notches win in litigation over whether Roundup has caused cancer
Agribusiness giant Bayer won a legal victory last week in long-running litigation over whether its popular Roundup pesticide has caused cancer. The case started in 2019, when a husband and wife in Pennsylvania sued Missouri-based Monsanto, which Bayer purchased in 2018, and alleged the company had violated state law by not including a cancer warning […]
Archer Daniels Midland touted nutrition, flavor business. Now the government’s investigating
In late 2020, Archer-Daniels-Midland, one of America’s oldest and most profitable food companies, predicted customers’ preference for foods with “bright and exciting” colors and “familiar, nostalgic” flavors would “shape the food industry.” ADM seemed poised to capitalize. Over the next few years, it purchased two companies specializing in crafting tastes. One creates savory dairy flavors […]
Feds are investigating more cases with child labor violations, data shows
Child labor in the U.S. has made headlines in recent months. A labor department investigation showed about 30 minors who cleaned meatpacking plants overnight, and a bombshell New York Times story detailed child laborers across the supply chain. Along with the anecdotes, data seems to support a trend: Over the past several years, the U.S. Department of Labor has recorded […]
Lawsuit alleges Roundup cancer settlement denied because of citizenship status
This story was originally published by Investigate Midwest. Litigation over Roundup — the main ingredient of which, glyphosate, likely causes cancer — has had a long tail. And the latest lawsuit involving the once ubiquitous household weed killer dropped Thursday. In 2020, Bayer announced a $10 billion settlement over claims Roundup caused cancer. One claimant was a […]
Watchdog says OSHA, USDA should have done more to protect meatpacking workers from COVID
This story was originally published by The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has food safety inspectors in every large meatpacking plant in the country. Just like the industry’s workers, the government’s inspectors entered the high-risk work spaces almost every day during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sonny Perdue, USDA’s leader during the […]