Chris Costa and one of her chickens on her farm in Downingtown, Pa. Costa and her partner, T.J., found the land for this farm through a sustainable agriculture program. Emma Lee/WHYY hide caption
agriculture agriculture
Orchards like this one in Adams County, PA, and other U.S. farms face worldwide competition for their apples and apple products due to imports. Brad C. Bower/AP hide caption
American apple growers realized that if they used dwarfing rootstocks and planted their trees closer together, they could increase their harvest of apples per acre by 200 to 300 percent. Catalin Petolea/iStockphoto.com hide caption
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., talk to reporters about the farm bill at the U.S. Capitol in June. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption
Scientist Robert Koch holding a post-mortem on an ox thought to have died of rinderpest, circa 1900. Reinhold Thiele/Getty Images hide caption
A shopper surveys the produce at Pacifica Farmers Market in Pacifica, Calif., in 2011. AP hide caption
Grandpa Traub — corn former and millionaire. Chana Joffe-Walt/NPR hide caption
Sweet potato evangelist Maria Isabel Andrade from the International Potato Center drives around Mozambique in her orange Toyota Land Cruiser. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption
Check out some of the world's most important - and threatened - aquifers. Click to see a high-resolution version of this map. Nature hide caption
Potatoes come in all colors, like these Red Erik, Snowball, Cariboo, Purple Peruvian, Caribe and French Red varieties. David Cavagnaro/Corbis hide caption
These piglets on the Hardin farm in Danville, Ind., are going to cost more to feed than they will fetch at market. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption