Scientists researching complex topics often come up empty-handed when it comes time to explain their findings. It’s hard to distill years of intricate, complex research into tiny bytes a layman can understand. This week, training scientists to communicate.

Did you know the most common fresh produce in Kansas City and in the Midwest is iceberg lettuce? Yes, the green that is mostly water is apparently the best get in fly-over country. At least, the New York Times thinks so.

Deadly drought, dropped agriculture legislation, high water flooding, and soaring farmland prices. It's just another year in agriculture in the Midwest.

The emerging details of the new farm bill language that up until this week have been all but speculation, and a look back at the stories we've produced on this food and field issue that will change farm policy in the years to come. 

Missouri is home to almost 400 vineyards that employ thousands of agricultural workers who pick, crush and nurture grapes like the Norton, the official state grape. Around $60 million worth of Missouri wine is sold each year. Today on Field Notes, we ask an expert to taste a little of that wine. And then we take an inside view ofthe last harvest of the growing season for Les Bourgeois Winery, the third largest winery in the state. From the vineyard, it's on to the winery, where the grapes are destemmed, crushed, fermented and aged.

Think of the most natural, pristine place you've ever visited. You might envision a national forest or state park. These locales provide a landscape of solace, peace and quiet. Now imagine your favorite hiking path or placid lake as a construction of wildlife: an outdoors reality based on someone else's idea of an anti-urban, off-the-beaten-path wilderness. 

The second warmest summer on record is coming to a close, but states like Texas and Kansas are still gripped by high temperatures and extremely low rainfall. Now, the drought has spread north to southwestern Missouri where farmers in the parched Ozark foothills haven't seen real moisture  since May. 

Farm Aid’s “Homegrown Village” came to life last weekend in a big lot around the Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan., where the musical acts performed at this year’s concert. In this episode, I’ll take you on a tour through this farmer-foodie love fest. 

Farmland along the rivers in Missouri and Iowa still influx. An update on the floodplain and farmers in southeast Missouri, and a comparison of efforts there to developments in Iowa, where farmland flooded a year ago.

This week on Field Notes, not to make you feel guilty, but, you might consider eating that bruised and battered apple, because food wasted is food lost.
 

This week on Field Notes, some of my favorite moments from the audio side of Harvest Public Media’s series on the local food movement: "Home Fields." Our editor, Donna Vestal, joins me to talk about some of the decisions behind planning for the series.

Have you ever walked down a grocery store aisle and laughed to yourself after being bombarded by outrageous food product claims and in-your-face packaging? Or, what about earnest food industry commercials on television or the radio, telling you to drink, eat and buy more because it’s healthy if they say so? We can take these marketing strategies seriously, and fight them out in public as we take them to heart, or we can poke fun at them.