November 10, 2000 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill profiles Frank Kutka and his farm near Mahtowa, about an hour south of Duluth. Kutka is experimenting with corn from all over the world to create a variety that will grow up north. His work is attracting attention around the country, and experts are hoping it may result in new crops that will help marginal farms.
January 25, 2001 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports on The Midwest Food Alliance, a new local organization that is hoping to convince Minnesotans to pay closer attention to the source of their food. The alliance supports and promotes the products of local farmers who practice environmentally sound, sustainable agriculture. The organization hopes consumers will search out its brightly colored stickers on produce and meats, the way some look for the organic label.
April 24, 2001 - MPR’s Erin Galbally reports on an operation to expand a 1,600 dairy cow operation, despite pollution concerns. The state's pollution control agency was served with a lawsuit for failing to order environmental testing on the site of a proposed Waseca dairy expansion.
April 25, 2001 - As part of Mainstreet Radio series "Broken Trust: Civil Rights in Indian Country,” MPR’s Mark Steil reports on funding and discrimination battles Native American farmers face with the U.S. government.
July 6, 2001 - MPR’s Laurel Druley reports on how state farmers are now trying to predict their crop yields. Typically farmers like to see corn hip-high by the fourth of July. But 2001 was not a typical year, with massive flood waters in the spring. At the start of July, Minnesota corn height averaged 21 inches. That's a foot shorter than the year before.
July 10, 2001 - MPR’s Andrew Haeg reports that the continuing decline of small agricultural communities in the Great Plains is fueling a search for ways to keep people from moving away. Increasingly, rather than looking to federal or state governments for aid, townspeople are trying to save themselves.
August 20, 2001 - North America, Australia and New Zealand are the only areas that remain untouched by foot and mouth disease. Officials at Minnesota's county fairs, and soon, the State Fair would like to keep it that way.
August 30, 2001 - MPR’s Tom Scheck reports that officials with the Minnesota State Fair have implemented some additional safety measures in the livestock and poultry barns to ensure the health of the animals and fairgoers. Each year, thousands of people walk through the animal barns. Fair officials want to make sure that no illnesses are spread through that interaction.
August 31, 2001 - In a broadcast from the MPR booth at Minnesota State Fair, Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe revisits the farmers of Chanarambie Township in Southwestern Minnesota.
November 8, 2001 - As part of Mainstreet Radio’s “Harvest of Frustration” series, Dan Gunderson reports on how sugar beet farmers in Minnesota and North Dakota are hopeful the 2001 harvest marks a turn for the better. In the past couple of years, sugar prices fell to 20 year lows, turning what was once seen as guaranteed big money into just another break even crop.