September 06, 2025 · View in browser

There, you can see a drop-off in elevation and the land becomes really flat again, and the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers sits in the distance. This part of the state, in Alexander County, is home to Dogtooth Bend, a small, narrow peninsula that juts into the Mississippi River; it had been protected by the Len Small Levee until 2016, when floodwaters tore a mile-wide hole through it. 

Some farmers on Dogtooth Bend have worked the land for generations. But flooding over the past six years has brought so many challenges to yielding crops that some of them have bailed on the effort altogether. Farmers with land the government deemed bad enough were able to relocate after another flood, in 2019, dumped millions of tons of sand on their land. Steve Williams and his daughter, Brandy Renshaw, signed up but they weren’t able to get the federal funds required to make leaving financially viable for five years. That left them stuck trying to farm land that everybody knew wouldn’t produce much. In the same region, another farmer shifted tactics years ago — and is now the first and only rice farmer in a state iconically dedicated to corn and soy farming. 

The interview below has been edited for length and clarity. Julia took all the photos below.

Logan: First, some scene-setting. Both of you grew up in southern Illinois, where you now live and report from — for ProPublica, you've covered the region's public housing failures as well as issues with access to food and childcare. How would you explain Alexander County to outsiders? 

Julia: Alexander County is the southernmost county in Illinois, and it’s a place that represents a lot of regions coming together. It can be culturally Southern, culturally Midwestern, culturally Appalachian. For that reason, I think it gets misunderstood a lot. 

In terms of topography and geography, Cairo, the county seat, sits at the confluence of two of our most significant American rivers, the Mississippi and the Ohio. So, it’s a place surrounded by water and potential. Commerce and agriculture have always been a huge part of that area. 

Molly: A lot of Alexander County is protected by levees. One of those levees is the Len Small Levee, which is 17 miles long. It was built in the 1940s by farmers. The Army Corps of Engineers oversees that levee now. When the river rises, the levees, of course, keep the water out up to a certain level. But what we’re seeing is that there’s just more and more rain, and these rains are concentrated mostly in the spring. The levees are old and they can’t withstand that water pressure. 

Logan: One of your stories this week is about how corn and soy farmers there are essentially left with no choice but to continue farming this nearly unfarmable land, because that’s how they’ll keep getting subsidies. You wrote, “For years now, they’d had one foot stuck in the mud, the other in government bureaucracy.” Can you explain more about what’s happening in Dogtooth Bend right now? 

Molly: We made a decision 100 years ago that America was going to control and subsidize the food system. Because of that, the government has so much control over who grows what, where and how much. These federal programs help farmers; subsidies are by law guaranteed payment for farmers that will be accessible for certain crops. But the programs that help you move off the land when it no longer becomes suitable for farming, like in the case of flooding, are subject to the whims of Congress. I think people — especially aging farmers — are just trying to survive at some point.

Logan: You published another story this week about how one farmer in Alexander County decided he’d try to make the water work to his advantage. I live in Chicago, and I had no idea there was a rice farm in Illinois. Tell us about it. 

Julia: Finding the story was as simple as driving around Alexander County and seeing, quite frankly, breathtaking fields of rice. It is a very beautiful crop. It has berms around each field and a little bit of water and these super bright green stalks that shoot up around June. When you grow up in rural Illinois, and you’re used to corn and soy — maybe a cotton or tobacco plant — you’re like, “What the hell is that?” So I was curious about it.

 We spent time with the rice farmer, Blake Gerard, which just led to the “why.” Like, why is there rice farming here? Molly and I joke that he’s like a cowboy, but he really is! When he was about 25 years old, he just said, “Let’s go for it,” about planting rice. “Let’s see what happens.” He took on millions of dollars of debt and it took another 25 years of his life, but now he’s in his mid-50s and considers himself a successful rice farmer.

Logan: As the Trump administration is scrubbing even the mention of climate change from strategies and policies, how are farmers taking that? 

Molly: I do think farmers are acutely aware of the challenges they face. I don’t know a single farmer who takes pride in farming land that won’t produce. We are really talking about people trying to survive at the margins who can’t get the help that they need. 

It’s a tough thing because they rely on those subsidies. Most folks I encounter in the farm world are more conservative — and I don’t mean that necessarily politically, although that’s true too. But they’re not huge risk-takers; Blake Gerard is an exception there. And many of them are aging. So, what you’re willing to stomach at 30 is far different than when you’re 60, 70, 80 years old and still out there on a tractor. 

So I think they’re aware, and I think many of them will be honest about acknowledging a changing climate even if they may dislike some of the political framing. I don’t know any farmer who wants to be polluting the land or doing something damaging. 

Julia: What I learned out of this is that I think a lot of agriculture reporting paints these issues a little too black and white. The more we can humanize these issues and really show the “why” and how policy intersects with people’s experiences, the better.

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