Amy Mayer
Amy Mayer is a reporter based in Ames. She covers agriculture and is part of the Harvest Public Media collaboration. Amy worked as an independent producer for many years and also previously had stints as weekend news host and reporter at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts and as a reporter and host/producer of a weekly call-in health show at KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska. Amy’s work has earned awards from SPJ, the Alaska Press Club and the Massachusetts/Rhode Island AP. Her stories have aired on NPR news programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition and on Only A Game, Marketplace and Living on Earth. She produced the 2011 documentary Peace Corps Voices, which aired in over 160 communities across the country and has written for The New York Times, Boston Globe, Real Simple and other print outlets. Amy served on the board of directors of the Association of Independents in Radio from 2008-2015.
Amy has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from Wellesley College and a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
Amy’s favorite public radio program is The World.
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Even though the Midwest is tops in field corn production and grows row after row of it, these states don’t stand out when it comes to national...
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Midwestern fish farmers grow a variety of species, such as tilapia, salmon, barramundi and shrimp, all of which require a high-protein diet. The region...
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American farmers rely heavily on selling their goods overseas. As the trade war heats up again, many Midwest soybean farmers have huge surpluses and are receiving government aid.
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At Hummel’s Nissan in Des Moines, Kevin Caldwell sells the all-electric Leaf. Driving one is basically the same as driving a typical gasoline or gas...
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The Department of Agriculture publishes the price, sales and inventory of the country's many agricultural products. Because of the partial government shutdown some of those reports aren't happening.
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The partial government shutdown means farmers and other rural residents will be waiting for services they can usually rely on.
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A daunting trifecta is threatening many Midwest farmers' profit margin: wet fields, stubbornly low crop prices exacerbated by a trade war with China — and some twists from the new tax law.
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When communities watch young people grow up, go off and never return, remaining residents and politicians often bemoan there’s been a “brain drain” —...
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Bruce Carney raises cattle, poultry and a few sheep on his 300-acre farm in Maxwell, Iowa. He no longer grows any grain, but is preparing for new crops...
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One farmer says he has seen hog prices drop to the point where it may cost some farmers more to raise a pig than they can sell it for — and he worries about lower sales.