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As SNAP Benefits Lapse, Rural Americans Step Up to Meet Their Neighbors’ Needs
“ Lots of people are having to make really tough choices”
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Opinion
Forty Organizations Offer a Plan to Revitalize Rural America
New Rural Policy Action Report highlights 26 legislative solutions that would benefit rural communities
Republicans’ Latest Gambit to Deny Rural Veterans Health Care
A new bill would incrementally defund and dismantle rural VA services
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At Gilliard Farms, Food, Healing and Heritage Grow Together
For 150 years, a family of Gullah Geechee descent has preserved their story through family land
Native Life
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When We Win: Stories From the Frontlines of Ecological Resistance
After decades of struggle, indigenous leaders and organizers have shown how to win against billionaires and large corporations
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In Times of Trouble, My Mother’s History Tells Me We Shall Overcome
Our lives are marked by our creative journeys, both inward and outward
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Politics & Policy
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Democracy Begins With Place-Based Organizing
In an age of AI disruption and rising authoritarianism, our future depends on grassroots leadership
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Mineworkers Are Not Backing Down This Election Season
In Virginia, UMWA organizers and local Democrats answer the call of solidarity
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Immigrants Revitalized a Meatpacking Town. Trump’s Deportations Threaten Its Stability.
Beardstown, Illinois, shows how immigration crackdowns impact rural communities and the nation’s food supply.
Juan Vassallo, Investigate Midwest
Special Reports
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New
Rethinking Immigration and Health in Rural America
How rural immigrants sustain networks of care and resistance in Maryland
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Protecting Rural Public Schools
The Movement to Defund Rural Public Schools
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The Fight to Prevent PFAS Pollution
Why PFAS—forever chemicals—contaminate wells in many rural areas
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Reimagining Rural Cartographies
Written and photo essays that examine nontraditional maps of the Midwest
More →Religion
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Megachurches: Streaming to a Barn Near You
How Pete Hegseth’s former Minnesota church is leading the new Christian “crusade”
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Did Religion Motivate Assassination of Minnesota Lawmaker?
The media has overlooked Vance Boelter’s connection to the New Apostolic Reformation in his alleged targeting of public officials
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A Fighting Faith
How a decades-long battle to protect religious freedom in the military is taking on Christian Nationalism
Food & Agriculture
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Mark Bittman’s New Restaurant Aims to ‘Turn the Food System on Its Head’
Community Kitchen explores how a restaurant can make food equitable for all—from the farmer to the diner
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These Rural Counties Grow Crops for the World. They’re Also Going Hungry.
Food insecurity rates are rising faster in farm-dependent counties than almost anywhere else in the nation
Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest
History
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Iowa Republicans Are Erasing the State’s History
Sixty percent of the historical society archives are being trashed with no transparency
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How the U.S. Enlisted Farmers to ‘Feed the World’ in the 20th Century
As Trump eliminates U.S. international aid programs, a new history details the instrumental role Midwestern farmers played in establishing them
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How Rural Post Offices Sustain Community
Reflections on the post offices of Benzie County, Michigan, as a living map
Mary Welcome, essay & photography
Science & Environment
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Can a Family Resurrect the American Chestnut Tree in Appalachia?
Virginia tree farmers reintroduce an iconic tree that was decimated by blight
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Hunted to Near Extinction, Bobcats Are Edging Their Way Back
The bobcat’s return to rural Ohio, and nationwide, means a healthier ecosystem for all
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The Trees at the Center of Our History
From the Pequot War to the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, trees tell a living story
Arts & Culture
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Farm Aid, at 40, Offers a Lifeline for Farmers Facing Their Worst Crisis in Decades
Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Bob Dylan headline a milestone 12-hour benefit concert
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Spearfishing Makes a Splash in Michigan
How one man’s passion brought new life to the sport in the Great Lakes
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When Fantasy Meets Reality: The Folly of Kings
“The 21st century seems replete with examples as to why autocracies are, to put it mildly, very stupid”
Barn Raisers
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Barn Raiser’s 2024 Year in Review
Wendell Berry takes on “White Rural Rage,” farmers and environmentalists team up, and rural organizers contend with the opportunities, and aftermath, of an election year
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Wendell Berry: What New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman Gets Wrong About Rural America
‘Those of us who speak for the country (“rural America”) must never give up’
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