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A Virginia farmer faces a tumultuous season, future

Kenney Barnard, 75, center, and farm worker Michael Mazejak watch a machine siphon wheat seed out of one of Barnard’s silos. He’s selling this seed to clear the silo to store his harvest of soybeans. Low prices for soybeans this year followed the Trump Administration's tariff war with China.
Christopher Tyree
/
VCIJ at WHRO

U.S. tariffs and immigration enforcement have challenged Virginia farmers as the harvest season ends. For one Virginia farmer, the next season seems uncertain.

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

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Christopher Tyree is a Virginia native and the senior director and co-founder of the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism. For more than 30 years, his cameras and pen have carried him to report on stories on nearly every continent. His award-winning projects have helped shape policy and spur awareness of important issues. His work has been published in hundreds of the world’s leading periodicals and broadcast networks including the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR and Deutsche Welle. He earned a graduate degree in visual communication from Ohio University and BS in journalism from James Madison University. Chris, his wife, Melanie, son, Jack, and their pups Milo and JoJo Pickles enjoy hiking the many trails along the Blue Ridge Mountains.