Agri-Pulse Associate Editor Noah Wicks won two first places in the North American Agricultural Journalists annual contest, with one award for a multi-part series investigating the nation's conservation delivery system and the challenges facing farmers in getting the help and advice they need to select, plan and implement practices.
As part of the “Getting Grounded” series, Wicks used “an aggressive dive into USDA employment records” to detail the difficulties USDA has had keeping experienced – or just enough – staff, and how that has often left farmers unable to find credible help with their conservation projects,” the judge said.
The series “was such a valuable public service it deserves the first-place award,” the judge said.
Wicks also won first place in the spot news category for his report on a House Agriculture Committee hearing where farmers, retailers and lenders appealed for a new farm bill.
A four-part package of stories on the Biden administration’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, reported by Wicks, Associate Editors Rebekah Alvey and Chloe Lovejoy, and Agri-Pulse contributor Desmond Keller, won third place for special projects. Those projects account for more than $2.6 billion of the USDA funding for the initiative and $982 million of the non-federal spending.
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Keller and Agri-Pulse Trade Editor Oliver Ward received honorable mention for a series, “Ag Trade’s Uncertain Future,” which examined the impact of agricultural exports on the U.S. economy and the risks and promise for ag trade going forward.
Wicks placed third in the technical writing category for a story that reported on how an episode of solar eruptions disrupted GOP and satellite systems that farmers rely on, right in the middle of planting season.
Wicks also won third place in the next generation/young category for three stories, “Solar storms throw off farmers’ GPS systems in heat of planting,” “Shuttered Iowa poultry plant leaves birds unfed, producers uncertain,” and “Getting grounded: Inside USDA’s efforts to staff up to meet farmers’ environmental challenges.”
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