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Farm and ranchers receive only a small portion of total food costs, agriculture may be one of the first industries to meet net-zero emissions goals, and how conservationists and ranchers are working together to save grassland bird populations.

New York may become the first state in the country to ban the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds, Congress takes steps to prevent China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran from buying U.S. farmland, drought conditions are affecting many farmers in the upper Midwest, and the Colorado Department of Agriculture begins its annual monitoring season for agricultural pests.

Lab-grown meat's carbon footprint, hay harvest yields are looking good in the Four Corners, and breaking down the cost of a 4th of July cookout meal.

On Saturday, Navajo families held a walk in remembrance of the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history. In July of 1979, a dam holding back uranium mill waste in Church Rock, New Mexico, broke and released millions of gallons of radioactive water and debris into the Puerco River. The Red Water Pond Road community is made up of Navajo families who live in the Church Rock mining area, where the uranium waste spill occurred. They say they’re still suffering from the impacts of the disaster 44 years later. And Governor Jared Polis will serve as vice-chair of the National Governors Association.

Drought conditions return in the Four Corners Region after weeks of hot, dry weather, beekeepers in the United States lost over 48% of their managed honey bee colonies over the past year, and how native bees and insects play an important role in floral diversity and promote better results for fruiting.

The city of Cortez is participating in a grant from the U.S. EPA to identify so-called brownfield properties for potential reuse and revitalization. Brownfield sites are properties where expansion or development may be complicated by the presence of pollutants or hazardous waste. In 2022, the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment awarded Cortez, Firestone, Longmont, and Lyons a collective $2 million brownfields grant to cover the costs of initial site assessments and studies. Some properties in Cortez – like KSJD’s own Sunflower Theatre – have benefited from brownfield cleanup and community revitalization in the past. And a preliminary settlement was reached late Tuesday in a lawsuit over alleged transparency violations in the Colorado State House of Representatives.

The USDA is projecting that net farm income will drop sharply in 2023, low water levels in the Mississippi River cause increase in barge shipping rates, and how livestock producers can adapt to a changing climate that may affect those who rely on pasture and rangeland plants.

The creative writing department at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, will hold a virtual writing discussion on Wednesday led by freelance journalist Cyrus Norcross. Norcross is a writer and creative writing student from the Navajo Nation whose reporting has so far focused on missing and murdered Indigenous people. At the Zoom discussion, he says he’ll read from a memoir-in-progress about his time as an activist at the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The memoir traces Norcross’s progression as a writer starting with his time at the Standing Rock protests, an experience that inspired him to pursue a career as a journalist, he says. The event will go from 5-6 p.m. on Wednesday. And Democrats in the Colorado Senate chose a new Majority Leader last week.

In the last month, an advocate for Indigenous people who’ve been targeted by fraudulent sober living facilities says she’s helped dozens of displaced victims from tribal communities like the Navajo Nation return home. In May, the governor of Arizona announced the state would crack down on these fake sober living homes in coordination with the Navajo Nation government, which launched an effort to return Navajo citizens from the Phoenix area to their homes. Since many of the fraudulent facilities are now shutting down, victims advocates in the Phoenix area have noticed an increase in the number of unsheltered Indigenous people who have needed bus fare to return to their communities. And two new state laws that give Colorado renters extra protections go into effect this month.

The number of farmers markets in the U.S. has more then quadrupled since 1994, U.S. senators announce the creation of the Senate Veterinary Medicine Caucus, a new study suggests that the world could lose half of all farms within 80 years, and global food fraud raises questions about the authenticity of certain high priced food items.