WAXAHACHIE, Tx. — There is a steady race against the clock for Steve Patman and his workers as they work to get a field of hay harvested before sweltering Texas temperatures become too much to work in.

Patman's great-grandfather first started farming the fields in Waxahachie, Texas, after World War I. But in all his 65 years, this lifelong Texan cannot recall ever seeing things so dry.

"See how the bottom leaves are all dried up, you're losing hay," Patman said kneeling down in the middle of a recently harvested hay field.

It's been more than a month since any kind of considerable rain has fallen on this part of Texas. Irrigating the fields is far too expensive for most farmers. So starved for moisture, crops are dying, forcing Patman to harvest both his hay and corn weeks early.

"It makes me debate whether I need to keep going or stop," Patman said.

At the end of the day, farmers like Patman are producing far less than they had hoped. Just to keep up with rising costs, he recently had to take out a $500,000 loan from the bank.

"I've been farming on the same money since I started. This year kicked us in the butt. You're never getting ahead. It's getting too hard I'm getting too old now," Patman added.

Farmers across the country are in extreme or exceptional droughts right now. They are squeezed between poor growing conditions and inflation costs driving up everything from fertilizer to tractor parts.

"It's terrible and it's not just me I've got farmer friends all over the United States and they're all in the same boat we're in," he said.

Ginger Mulkey managed Boyce Feed and Grain in the center of Waxahachie. She knows how hard her neighbors are working to keep Americans fed. But with each new shipment of feed and grain that comes in, she's forced to raise prices.

"At the end of the day, all I do is adjust pricing. If I'm not staying on top of pricing you're giving it away," she remarked.

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Standing in the middle of a barren farm field in northern Maine, Greg Porter walks the rows of dirt here with brown paper bags in one hand and white wooden stakes wrapped around his other.

Meticulously, he paces across this farm field, opening each numbered bag as he goes, marking down its location on a spreadsheet so that come harvest time in the fall, he knows exactly what he’s looking at.

Porter is part farmer and part researcher. He studies agriculture at the University of Maine in Presque Isle, a small rural community home to about 8,000 people that once was one of the nation’s largest producers of potatoes. They still produce plenty of spuds here, but Greg Porter isn’t farming potatoes for the money. He’s farming them for the future.

“We’re planting 45,000 different individual varieties of potatoes in this field. 45,000!” he remarked as he pulled out another handful of brown bags from his old GMC pickup truck.

Each brown bag Porter opens is filled with about 50 tubers; they’re essentially tiny potatoes. He and his research team have spent two years raising them in a greenhouse, combining thousands of different variations of potato parents to make potato offspring. Essentially, they’re trying to create the most efficient, most delicious potato out there.

These days though, the work in these fields is taking on new importance. With farmers across the country increasingly facing tougher growing conditions because of climate change, the hope is that somewhere in this field they harvest a new kind of potato that’s more resistant to climate change. Some may be able to tolerate higher temperatures and others may be able to handle more moisture.

“We’re developing DNA-based tools to stack the deck in our favor as we select them,” Porter added.

Last year, the potatoes industry in the United States was worth about $4 billion. All the more reason people like Don Flannery with the Maine Potato Board are paying close attention to the work Greg Porter and his team are doing.

“Potatoes are a high-input crop. It takes a lot of money to raise an acre of potatoes,” Flannery said sitting in his office surrounded by various pieces of potato memorabilia.

Aside from more extreme droughts and rain events, many of the varieties of potatoes being cultivated here need less fertilizer. With inflation and rising fertilizer prices, reducing any kind of costs for farmers could mean the difference between losing money and breaking even.

“If you’re not looking ahead and being proactive you’re usually behind in being reactive. Those that are gonna be successful in our business are the ones looking ahead,” Flannery added.

Back in the field, Porter and his team have started sending their potatoes to farms across the country to see how they hold up to growing conditions in states like Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. The hope is to help potato farmers across this country produce the best tasting, most lucrative crops possible.

“The hope is we produce a few out of our 45,000 that have enough good characteristics that they’re worthy of commercial investment.”

Day to day, running a farm takes a lot of work.

“You can see the soybean pods starting to form,” Lee Tesdell, a farm owner in Iowa, said.

Farms are facing more and more unknowns due to a changing climate.

“Two years ago, we had a derecho here,” he explained. “This field was corn that year and the corn got flattened, federal crop insurance paid this farmer to destroy his corn, didn't even harvest it that year.”

Tesdell showed us around his farm, which has been in the family for more than 100 years. He’s now focused on more resilient farming.

“We need to diversify more,” he said.

Just this April, a rain storm caused flooding, taking fertilizer and topsoil with it.

“We expect to see more of those severe weather events,” he said.

This is where federal crop insurance comes in.

“This crop insurance program pays farmers when they have a crop yield or revenue loss,” said Anne Schechinger, the midwest director for the Environmental Working Group.

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit research organization that does ongoing research on how much climate is impacting these payouts.

From 1995 to 2020, farmers received more than $143.5 billion in federal crop insurance, according to an Environmental Working Group analysis of Department of Agriculture data.

“The biggest causes of loss over that big time from 1995 to 2020, first was drought. That was far and above the largest cause of loss. And the other was excessive moisture, so the other side of drought,” Schechinger said.

“The federal crop insurance program has saved, financial saved, some farmers some years,” Tesdell said.

But it’s not just farmers footing the bill.

“Sixty percent of these crop insurance premiums are subsidized by taxpayers, so we all pay this bill,” Schechinger said.

“We are asking an investment from taxpayers to have a more stable farm economy and more stable food system,” Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, said.

In places like Iowa for example, where corn fields stretch as far as the horizon, crop insurance can be an important tool. Lehman said farmers should also do their part.

“I think that’s why it’s important for farmers to be involved in doing things that can mitigate climate change,” Lehman said. “Makes sense that we should do more to tie good practices to crop insurance.”

“This federal crop insurance program really discouraged farmers from adapting to climate change,” Schechinger said.

Every five years, the federal farm bill is discussed and changes are made. For the 2023 farm bill, discussions have already begun in Washington D.C.

“Our farm bill kind of sets the direction for our farm policy for the next five years, so it’s important that the discussions include crop insurance and how we can have the most effective crop insurance,” Lehman said.

A farmworker accused of killing seven people in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms will be charged with seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The charges will be filed before Chunli Zhao, 66, makes his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon, said Steve Wagstaffe, the district attorney for San Mateo County.

It was not immediately clear whether Zhao had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Authorities believe Zhao acted alone Monday when he entered a mushroom farm where he worked in Half Moon Bay and opened fire, killing four people and seriously wounding a fifth, San Mateo County sheriff’s officials said. He then drove to another nearby farm where he had previously worked and killed an additional three people, said Eamonn Allen, a sheriff’s spokesperson.

The sheriff's office said it believes the shootings were “workplace violence" but has not further detailed a motive. It was California's third mass shooting in eight days, including the killing of 11 in Monterey Park in the Los Angeles area amid Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday.

Zhao also faces a special circumstance allegation of multiple murder, as well as sentencing enhancements on each count for the use of a firearm, Wagstaffe said.

If convicted of the special circumstance, Zhao could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on executions in 2019.

Officials have not yet released the names of the five men and two women who died, nor the one man who was injured. Some were Asian and others were Hispanic, and some were migrant workers.

Servando Martinez Jimenez said his brother Marciano Martinez Jimenez, who was a delivery person and manager at one of the farms, was among those killed. Servando Martinez Jimenez said his brother never mentioned Zhao or said anything about problems with other workers.

“He was a good person. He was polite and friendly with everyone. He never had any problems with anyone. I don’t understand why all this happened,” Martinez Jimenez said in Spanish.

Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, had lived in the United States for 28 years after arriving from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Servando Martinez Jimenez said he is working with the Mexican consulate to get his brother’s body home.

Allen declined to answer questions about whether Zhao had any previous criminal history, saying, “there were no specific indicators that would have led us to believe he was capable of something like this.”

But it would not have been Zhao’s first fit of workplace rage, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In 2013 Zhao was accused of threatening to split a coworker’s head open with a knife and separately tried to suffocate the man with a pillow, the Chronicle reported, based on court documents.

The two were roommates and worked at a restaurant, and the man, identified as Jingjiu Wang, filed a temporary restraining order against Zhao that was granted but is no longer in effect. Wang could not be immediately reached, the Chronicle reported.

Video below: California Gov. Newsom speaks out against gun violence after Half Moon Bay, Monterey Park shootings

The shootings occurred at California Terra Garden, previously known as Mountain Mushroom Farm, and nearby Concord Farms.

David Oates, a California Terra Garden spokesperson, said that he did not know how long Zhao worked there and that he was one of 35 employees who had stayed when ownership changed. Oates declined to provide details of the four slain workers.

Concord Farms owner Aaron Tung said in a statement that the farm was waiting for more information before it could comment.

Half Moon Bay is a small, laid-back, coastal and agricultural city about 30 miles south of San Francisco. Its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean make it a popular spot for hikers and tourists, who flock there to surf and for an annual giant pumpkin festival.

The new year has brought six mass killings in the U.S. in fewer than three weeks, accounting for 39 deaths. Three have occurred in California since Jan. 16, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. The database tracks every mass killing — defined as four dead, not including the offender — in the U.S. since 2006.

The shootings in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park followed the killing of a teenage mother, her baby and six others at a home in California’s Central Valley on Jan. 16. Officials discussing the investigation mentioned a possible gang link to the killings.

With so much going on in the world, you might be looking for a mental health break. Why not try a farm where you can cuddle with goats?

It's fun the Strohmer family wants to share. As third-generation farmers, they have just about everything running around their 100-acre farm in Woodstock, Maryland.

"It's a lot of fun to farm," Brenda Strohmer said. "We do a lot of agri-tourism here at the farm, and me and my eldest brother run the farm."

Strohmer said when COVID-19 hit, they started doing private tours and now they are offering something new, goat cuddling.

"So, they come down, sit in the goat pen, the goats come up to them — or they don't — and that's what I tell them. Just sit there and be still and they will come to you," Strohmer said.

Everything from big goats to baby goats, they're just as curious as they can be.

For $30, you can have up to four people visit with the goats for 30 minutes. If you're willing to get up early, you can even feed "Bear," the baby calf. Strohmer said spending time with the animals is a great way to relieve stress.

"It's just relaxing because it's fun to watch them in their environment. One minute, they're sleeping, next minute they're jumping around and playing. It's just relaxing. It's just a breath of fresh air," Strohmer said.

This spring, she's bringing in a yoga instructor for goat yoga with more events planned throughout the year.

"We also do an Easter egg hunt, pumpkin patch, corn maze and we're going to do some things throughout the summer," Strohmer said.

Strohmer said the fee that you pay to visit goes to pay for things like food, vet bills and upkeep for the farm.

For more information on how to sign up to visit, go to the farm's website.

WINTHROP, Maine — Spend a little time on Craig Hickman’s farm in central Maine and it’s clear he has a passion for growing his own food, something that for him that started early.

"My dad who was a Tuskegee airman on the ground, who probably would have been a farmer in another life, decided to turn our backyard in the inner city, the segregated inner city of Milwaukee into food," said Hickman, who is a Maine state senator.

"If you were dirt poor, but you could grow your food for yourself, then nobody could push you around and tell you what," he said.

Growing up how he did, his farm is not just a means for food, it’s his equal parts church and political ideology

"I feel like food is a ministry. Feeding oneself is a spiritual activity. It's a political activity. It's resistance, it's power," said Hickman.

It’s his strong, almost poetic views of food that are the fuel behind the state of Maine’s newest addition to its constitution: the right to food.

"If you have a right to life and liberty, if you have a right to obtain safety and happiness, which our Constitution says, then how can you not have a right to food?" he asked.

With 61% of the vote, Mainers passed the first in the nation right to food, which states that the people of Maine have the right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment.

"More and more, we see if we don't write our rights down and explicitly protect them in constitutions, they can be infringed upon it anytime," said Hickman.

When you first hear of the concept it may sound like a no-brainer. However, according to research done by the University of Southern Maine, the state imports about 90% of the food Mainers consume, making it the state most dependent on outside sourcing of food.

With the pandemic tying up supply chains and stores baring empty shelves when demand shifted, Hickman sees the new amendment as giving people the power to opt-out of the commercial food chain.

"We take our food system for granted. We take our food supply for granted, but the pandemic proved to us we can't do that."

There is some opposition to the idea, including The Humane Society, which has expressed concerns about the legislation opening the door to animal welfare abuses. Hickman believes the existing language prevents that.

"We regulate, how you treat your cats and dogs, where we regulate humane and inhumane slaughter. Those things will not go away because of rights to food. There's language in the amendment that explicitly doesn't allow for the abuse of anything in the production of food, which would include animals," he explained.

The idea is picking up in other states with Washington and West Virginia working on right to food amendments of their own.

While the idea may catch on in other parts of the country, Hickman hopes more of his neighbors take steps to reclaim their power through food.

"Structures change. They don't change overnight. We have definitely thought put a different foundation under our food system. So, now, we'll see what we can build from it," he said.

EMMETT, Idaho — The holiday season is fast approaching, serving as a reminder that Santa's helpers are everywhere.

In Idaho, one young boy is making sure no kid is forgotten by raising money and delivering good cheer by the dozen.

While taking care of his chickens several months ago, 7-year-old Jayden Gabbard decided he wanted to give back to his community.

Jayden is donating eggs from his family farm to help buy toys for other kids.

"He kind of came in and said, 'Hey, I was going to sell my eggs' for his PS5, is what he wanted to save money for, and it kind of turned into, 'Can I give it to Toys for Tots?'" Jayden's dad, Mike Gabbard, said.

Earlier this year, father and son put up banners and spread the word on Facebook.

The project hasn't been without its challenges — including run-ins with predators.

"We had a fox that hit us right at the beginning of June and it wiped out 10 to 12 of our laying stock." Mike Gabbard said.

"I was, felt a little sad when my turkey died and all of my 10 chickens died," Jayden said.

Even with the setback, Jayden didn't slow down — and his cystic fibrosis couldn't slow him down either. The genetic illness damages the lungs and digestive system.

"He takes an ungodly number of pills every day," Jayden's dad said.

Gabbard says he knew even before his son was born that they would face the challenge together. They do that by bonding together on the farm, taking care of the animals, and helping those who need it.

If you would like to help Jayden and Toys for Tots this holiday season, click here.

This story was originally published by Kristen Skovira on Scripps station KIVI in Boise, Idaho.

LEE, N.H. — As the final days of fall linger, life on the farm grows a bit colder and quieter, but for Ryan Courtwright, there is still plenty of work to be done.

Courtwright is responsible for overseeing a 300-acre farm in Lee, New Hampshire. While it might look like any other commercial dairy operation, the land is owned by the University of New Hampshire. Courtwright is an employee of the university and in a way, so are these dairy cows.

Most of their lives are monitored for various research studies. One of the most recent studies is looking at how much methane these cows produce. Their methane output is measured by a small machine. Grain is placed inside the machine and as cows place their heads inside to eat, methane measurements are taken.

“There’s more methane coming from the front end of the cow than the rear end,” Courtwright said with a bit of a smile on his face.

But what these cows likely don’t realize, is that they’re on the front lines of combating climate change.

Andre Brito is a researcher at UNH and has spent the last few years feeding cows seaweed in various forms or another. What he and his team have found is that by adding even a small amount of seaweed into a cow's diet, they can reduce the amount of methane cows produce by up to 20%.

“Not necessarily replace all the hay in the diet. We are basically replacing small amounts of what’s fed to dairy cows,” Brito said.

The methane from these cows is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The harm those gasses are doing to the atmosphere is profound. By some estimates, 25% of all methane is produced directly from fermentation by cows.

“We should be looking at this now. It’s very important to be looking at solutions right now,” he added.

For farmers, the best part of all this is that even by supplementing just small amounts of seaweed into these cows’ diets, milk production and milk quality remained incredibly high.

Over the next few years, Brito and his team are hoping to study various kinds of seaweed, and measure how different types of the plant impact methane production.

It takes a lot of work to grow a Christmas tree.

“We are growing a crop that takes seven to 10 years until you can harvest it,” said Beth Bossio at Quarter Pine Tree Farm in Pennsylvania. “Every year, it grows about a foot, so that’s why it does take a long time.”

Quarter Pine Tree Farm is preparing for the busiest part of the year.

“We are a choose and cut tree farm,” Bossio said.

This time of year is spent tagging, cutting and hanging trees. It's not an inexpensive process.

“Prices are going up across the board with everything. We sold our trees two years ago for $60 and we raised them $5 last year, $5 this year so we’re selling our trees for $70 and I think that is comparable to what we’re seeing across the nation,” Bossio said.

“It creates a lot of difficulty in terms of managing the supply chain just because the lead times are long, lots of things can go wrong,” said Prakash Mirchandani, director of the Center for Supply Chain Management at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mirchandani said Christmas trees are a unique product with a short life cycle and a short period of demand. However, they also take a long time to grow, or for artificial trees, to create.

“The supply chains for both of these types of trees has gotten affected,” he said.

The main problem has to do with transportation, Mirchandani added.

“As far as artificial trees are concerned, almost all are imported," Mirchandani said. "Eighty percent come from China.”

“Big retailers haven't been able to bring all their trees in and get them through the ports,” said Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill.

Balsam Hill is an artificial Christmas tree and decoration retailer. Harman is also one of the founders of the American Christmas Tree Association, a nonprofit organization.

He said they’ve had to raise their prices at Balsam Hill around 22 percent on average to help offset transportation costs.

“If you're buying a tree that's been trucked to you or if you're buying an artificial tree there's no question that the prices are going to go up,” he said.

And for states that grow a lot of real trees, getting them to other parts of the U.S. could also be impacted.

“The availability of transportation is certainly going to affect sending the trees from Pennsylvania to other locations,” Mirchandani said.

But farmers across the country are adding to their supply for future years. It’s something Quarter Pine Tree Farm sees firsthand.

Beth Bossio’s stepfather Jim Rockis opened Quarter Pine Tree Farm in the 1990s, but it’s more than just a tree farm. They operate a Christmas tree seed orchard too -- and they are one of a few to do it.

“There’s probably five of us in the country that do it in an industrial way -- that do Christmas trees,” Rockis said. The seedlings that grow from these seeds are distributed to over 300 farms in the Northeast -- and Bossio sees them ramping up their supply.

“In the last four years farmers are planting more and more trees,” she said. “It used to be that we would start taking orders and I’d still be taking orders in February of the following year. We’re already sold out and that's because farmers are ramping up their numbers.”

While Christmas trees may have a higher price tag this season, industry experts say there will be a tree available for people to put gifts under.

“You just need to shop early,” Bossio said. “Yes supply chain issues across the board with a lot of things, but we’re never going to run out of trees. It’s just you might not find the size tree you're looking for. It may be a 7 foot instead of an 8 foot, and that tree is still going to provide the scent and the experience you want no matter what.”

For decades, Black farmers say they have been at the mercy of historically discriminatory lending practices by the U.S. government and banks that do not treat them fairly.

“Farming is really hard for white males, and if it’s really hard for white males, then it’s dreadful for anyone else,” said Zephrine Hanson, an urban farmer who grows small crops she then sells to artisan shops.

Hanson and others say the practices have led to a precipitous decline in the number of Black farmers in our country.

According to the Census of Agriculture, there were roughly 1 million Black farmers in the United States in 1920, comprising around 14 percent of the total number of farmers in the United States.

In 2020, according to the same data, the number of Black farmers in the U.S. had fallen to 45,000, comprising only 1.4 percent of all farmers.

“You know, when you take a man’s farm, it’s not like he’s going down to work at McDonald’s,” said Dr. John Boyd, CEO of the National Black Farmer’s Association. “You break his spirit. You take his history, and dignity, and respect, and you crush him.”

Boyd says he founded the NBFA in the 1980s after he and four other Black farmers would experience discriminatory practices at the hands of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) when they would go into the office and ask for loans.

“At one particular time, [the director of the local USDA] spat on my shirt,” said Boyd. “He tore my application up and threw it in the trash can. I was pleading for $5,000, and this white farmer comes in, during my time when I’m supposed to be getting this loan, and he passes [the white farmer] a government check for $157,000.”

We reached out twice to the USDA for comment but have not gotten a response.

Boyd says, today, discrimination is less blatant. It can be something like pleasantly-worded letters saying loans cannot be processed and a farmer will have to try again next year. But to farmers of color, it is difficult; federal loans are often their only funding option outside of predatory lenders and suppliers who charge outrageous interest rates.

Otherwise, in a business built on credit, Black farmers are pushed out and forced to sell their farms.

“I’ll be honest, I hope the USDA changes, but I’m not waiting,” said Hanson. “That’s definitely something they’ll have to want to change.”

In 1997, more than 400 Black farmers filed a class action lawsuit against the USDA in what became known as Pigford vs. Glickman, charging the agency with discrimination against Black farmers. The government settled for more than $1.25 billion, the largest discrimination settlement ever paid by the federal government.

A husband and wife from Maine with almost no farming experience are now growing enough organic produce to help feed hundreds of people.

"My goal is to grow super healthy beautiful organic produce to give people," said Erica Berman, co-founder Veggies to Table co-founder in Newcastle.

She admits, she is still learning the ropes as a farmer, but knows that there are a lot of Mainers struggling to get enough food, especially in her home area of Lincoln County.

"I just find it heartbreaking the idea not to have enough food to eat daily. I don't know how anyone can lead a productive life without having healthy food," Berman said.

Berman and husband Alain Ollier founded Veggies to Table in 2019, turning nearly one acre of their property into an organic farm where they grow a variety of vegetables of flowers. They donate all of the produce to about 30 different local organizations.

"We're just participating at our small, very small level," said Ollier. It's like we have this land and we just wanted to be able to give back."

The couple moved to Maine from Paris in 2012. At the time, neither had any experience working a farm. Erica was a business owner and Alain worked as a massage therapist and teacher. They now get help from dozens of community volunteers each day to make sure their farm thrives.

"We learn as we go and its just a process," Ollier said. "Up to now we were just focusing on what we can do and this is manageable."

"It's a very busy, beautiful happy lifestyle," Berman added. "I'm currently working between 70 and 80 hours a week. I'm passionate about it so..."

In just 2020, Veggies to Table donated more than 11,000 pounds of organic produce along with 450 bouquets of flowers.

Some of that food went to the nearby Jefferson Area Community Food Pantry.

"Probably in the next few weeks she's going to give me 50 bouquets and I'll hand everyone in my pantry a bouquet as they leave," said Allison Brooks of the Jefferson Area Community Food Pantry.

Berman says the need helps feed her and her husband's desire to help.

"When I'm hungry I can't do anything, even if it's 15 minutes, if I'm hungry so imagine being hungry every day," Berman said.

Berman says she hopes to add an educational aspect to the farm within the next few years to teach people how to grow their own organic vegetables.