Author

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
Chicken farms hide in plain sight under Arkansas law
By: Jordan P. Hickey - 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 […]
Looking beyond the fence at Standard Lithium’s ‘South West Arkansas Project’
By: Jordan P. Hickey - 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.” […]
Southwest Arkansas and the promise of ‘green’ lithium extraction
By: Jordan P. Hickey - 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. Part Two can be found here. 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 […]