Press Release - New feature film explores the people, research, collaboration and identity shaping Virginia wine

Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta, and BASF dominate the global seed market. Growers in Italy are saving and trading seeds outside that system.

From reforming subsidies to treating ag policy as public health policy, here is roadmap for a regenerative, soil-health revolution.

National output could sink to a nearly 70-year low.

Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks Fifteen years after its launch, 50 D.C. corner stores are taking part in D.C. Central Kitchen's Healthy Corners program. (Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks) Show more Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks An unidentified shopper at Stanton Market, 1453 Howard Road SE, a Healthy Corners store. (Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks) Show more Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks D.C. Central Kitchen delivers to participating Healthy Corners stores three times a week. (Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks) Show more Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks When the Healthy Corners program began, corner store customers needed assurances the food they purchased could be stored and prepared easily. (Courtesy D.C. Central Kitchen/Kanard Brooks) Show more Previous Next 4 OF 4 __ Previous __ Next Corner stores aren’t usually known for being fresh fruit and vegetable hubs. D.C. Central Kitchen has spent 15 years working to change that in the District, with a focus on lower-income neighborhoods without easy access to the healthy choices found in other parts of D.C. * * * #### Related stories * Neighbors fundraise to reopen historic grocery store on Capitol Hill * DC Italian grocery and deli crosses the century mark * DC’s World Central Kitchen helps feed Venezuelans after earthquake * * * “We started it in August 2011, trying to create more reliable access to healthy, affordable foods at D.C. corner stores,” said Alexander Moore, the nonprofit’s executive vice president and chief development officer. At first, Moore said, there was hesitation — on two fronts. Small business owners were nervous about whether there was real market demand for fresh, perishable fruits and vegetables. Customers weren’t sure that corner stores were places where they could reliably shop for healthier foods. “We worked on both sides of that coin to identify the real gaps that were facing folks,” Moore said. He added that shop owners needed two things: “Someone who would deliver to them, and then they needed refrigerators to hold that fresh produce.” And customers needed assurances the food they purchased could be stored and prepared easily. “So we did customer outreach, nutrition education, tasting demonstrations in small stores to get customers excited and confident in what they could find at these participating stores,” Moore said. Fifteen years later, 50 D.C. corner stores are Healthy Corners sites, and D.C. Central Kitchen delivers to those stores three times a week. “We are serving more than 27,000 SNAP customers per year through this program, and we have now brought more than three million units of fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables to these small corner stores,” Moore said. The food is available to any customer, not just those receiving SNAP benefits, and D.C. Central Kitchen’s broad network of suppliers and large-scale purchases keeps prices low. “We’re helping people use their federal benefits, spend those dollars locally in their own neighborhoods and help small businesses put those resources back to work. It’s a win-win all the way down,” Moore said. Its purchasing power and network also helps D.C. Central Kitchen ensure its food isn’t subject to the kinds of safety issues seen in produce on the national scale. “We’re able to control our food supply chain, we’re able to be proactive in the partners that we work with to obtain our food and we’re able to have incredibly high levels of food safety,” Moore said. _Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing uphere._ © 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Worker advocacy groups celebrated the ruling against the Department of Labor, while agricultural employer groups called the decision an ‘existential threat’ to farmers.

As costs rise, Northern Michigan's cherry farmers face a choice: adapt or sell.

Farmers have relied on plastic since the 1960s, when the mass production of affordable agricultural tools derived from petrochemicals made them widely accessible. Plastic mulch quickly became a cornerstone of crop production, helping farmers boost yields of everything from corn to tomatoes by stabilizing soil temperature and controlling diseases and weeds with fewer pesticides. Now […]

Corn and wheat futures have surged to their highest levels in more than three years. But the reasons for these recent rallies are notably different.

Rising CO2 is the likely culprit for fewer nutrients like zinc, protein, and iron in our food, but experts say more research is needed.

Champagne producers are racing to pick grapes as the region experiences its earliest harvest on record.

Burgundy is seeing its earliest harvest in nearly 500 years, it has been revealed, with Domaine Leflaive confirming it began picking its parcel in Grand Cru Le Montrachet on Thursday, 13 August.

Taxpayers subsidies meant to help farmers raise their crops instead flow to a few powerful companies who control the seeds—and the prices.

Across the country, farmers who grow apples, peaches, and plums had catastrophic losses tied to freezes and a changing climate.

Over the past 10 years, interest in Aligoté has been rising in Bourgogne–and so have prices. Charlie Geoghegan examines the ascendency of this...

The New York Times - He helped establish a windswept part of California as a source for great American pinot noir and chardonnay grapes, and later built his own winery. David Hirsch, who was among the...

A raging wildfire in southwest France has forced the evacuation of 55,000 more people overnight. This brings the total to 220,000 in one region alone, as flames have crept closer to the wine region city of Bordeaux.

Factors such as erosion, dehydration and soil compaction are jeopardizing food supplies for broad swaths of the world's population, according to a study by the University of Bonn, the University of Minnesota, the University of Basel and Hamburg University of Technology. If human-made soil degradation were reversed by 10%, Earth's arable land could feed an extra 70 million or so people in purely mathematical terms. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Food.

American farmers would prefer not to use H-2A, and farmworker advocates say the program enables abuse. So how did it become agriculture’s go-to option?

Après un printemps des plus favorables, canicules et sécheresse pèsent sur la vigne partout en France, où la croissance du raisin est parfois suspendue, ont indiqué vendredi des représentants du secteur.

Iridescent green beetles native to Japan have invaded Italy, damaging orchards and vineyards. Known as Popillia japonica, they were first detected in Europe in 2014 near Milan.

Meet the “scrappy” women putting small-scale wineries on the map in Oregon and Washington’s wild and windy Columbia River Gorge.

The Trump administration’s push to deport undocumented immigrants has left some farmers unable to plant and harvest crops in California and elsewhere, _Reuters_ reported. Sixth-generation farmer Lisa Tate estimated 70% of her workforce has failed to show up, fearing raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work,” Tate told _Reuters_. “Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.” Farming is a more than $1.5 trillion industry, and estimates indicate 70% of the workforce is made up of migrant workers. Of that 70%, 40% are undocumented, and fear of ICE apparently is keeping even those in the U.S. legally out of the fields. > Experts said the lack of workforce likely will lead to shortages and price hikes. During a visit July 1 to the site of “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, where the administration is planning a detention center, President Trump said the administration is working on exemptions for farmworkers and hotel workers, as long as employers can vouch for them. “We will take care of our farmers and hotel workers and various other people. We are working on it right now,” Trump said, adding that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be involved in the process. “We have a case – we have a lot of cases – where ICE will go into a farm, and a guy has been working there 10-15 years. The farmers know them. It’s called farmer responsibility – owner responsibility.” Trump said a system will be put into place where the workers will be registered and pay taxes, but they won’t be allowed to become citizens. He said he doesn’t want a situation where there will be no workers in the fields. Nonetheless, migrants are reluctant to take the chance of being hauled off to detention. “Nobody feels safe when they hear the word ICE, even the documented people. We know that the neighborhood is full of a combination of those with and without documents,” central California farmer Greg Tesch told _Reuters_. “If things are ripe, such as our neighbors have bell peppers here, (if) they don’t harvest within two or three days, the crop is sunburned or over mature,” said Tesch. “We need the labor.” ### **Meanwhile, in Other Agriculture News:** **New World Screwworm:** The USDA announced a new facility to produce millions of sterile flies to prevent the New World screwworm from spreading northward. Ground was broken in June on an $8.5 million fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base in Texas. The USDA already has renovated a fruit fly production facility in Metapa, Mexico, which will produce 60 million to 100 million sterile flies a week. More than 100 million already are produced weekly in Panama. **Lifestyle Farms:** Small to mid-size farms need to balance multiple income streams and leverage time to build sustainable operations, wrote David Kohl, professor emeritus of agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech, in _Farm Progress_. Some 80% of agriculture output comes from large, consolidated operations, leaving little room for small operators, what Kohn dubbed lifestyle farmers, outside jobs need to be balanced with on-farm responsibilities. Kohl said the result in more innovation and creativity in incorporating technology with human resources. **Crop Insurance:** Farmers growing anything but the nation’s four major crops – corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton – are finding it difficult to tap into the federal crop insurance program, the _Chicago Tribune_ reported. In Illinois, for example, just 10 policies were sold to specialty crop farmers last year. By contrast, 147,000 were sold to corn and soybean farmers. Ed Dubrick, who worked at a crop insurance agency for two years while setting up his fruit and vegetable farm about 100 miles south of Chicago, told the _Tribune_ the system for obtaining coverage is too complicated. * * * ### The Food Institute Podcast Several economic headwinds indicate the consumer is being financially stretched, but we all need to eat – so what are consumers actually buying at the grocery store? **Nik Modi** of **RBC** returns to _The Food Institute Podcast_ to discuss channel differentiation, consumer product selection, and other macro trends.

Scientists and farmers are now seeking to stop the spread of a farm-raised golden oysters mushrooms into the wild.

Farmers are experiencing shorter planting windows and potential loss of crops because of periods of early-season heat followed by a freeze.

In the heart of Colorado wheat country, only about half the typical precipitation has fallen this year, forcing farmers to make hard choices

Wheat is a fundamental food source, estimated to make up 20 percent of the world’s calorific intake.