Author

Jordan P. Hickey

Jordan P. Hickey

Jordan P. Hickey is an award-winning, trilingual writer and editor currently residing in Springdale, Arkansas. From 2013 to 2020, he worked for Arkansas Life, the statewide magazine of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, where he was named Writer/Journalist of the Year by the Great Plains Journalism Awards (2020); International Regional Magazine Association (2018); and Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists (2016). In 2016, he received the Emerging Writer Award from the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. This past year, he was a field producer on “The Growing Season,” a year-long podcast from Arkansas PBS that explored the intersection of agriculture and mental health. Read more on his website: jordanphickey.com

A Cargill chicken farm near Ponca, Arkansas. Pinpointing the locations of chicken farms in Arkansas can be hard because individual nutrient (waste) management plans are not public records. (Image from Google Earth)

Chicken farms hide in plain sight under Arkansas law
By: - March 6, 2023

If you drive down the winding country roads west of Ponca, Arkansas, you might come across a stretch of land with three long structures — metal roofs, green siding. Just off the county highway, down a short clip of gravel road, you’d see a sign marking the poultry farm as a Cargill operation. It would […]

Standard Lithium signage at offices on East Elm Street in downtown El Dorado. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate 02/28/2023)

Looking beyond the fence at Standard Lithium’s ‘South West Arkansas Project’
By: - March 2, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts examining the promise and possible environmental peril of lithium extraction in Southwest Arkansas. You can find the first part here. Just about an hour west of El Dorado, where Standard Lithium debuted its demonstration plant, lies the foundation of the company’s “South West Arkansas (SWA) Project.” […]

Standard Lithium signage at offices on East Elm Street in downtown El Dorado. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate 02/28/2023)

Southwest Arkansas and the promise of ‘green’ lithium extraction
By: - March 1, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series looking at the promise and possible environmental peril of lithium extraction in Southwest Arkansas. At 4:30 p.m., Jan. 10, 1921, the Busey No. 1 well drilled 2,233 feet and sent a thick black column of gas, oil, and water through the top of the derrick, […]

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