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USDA Cancels $1 Billion in Funding That Lets Schools, Food Banks Buy Local Food
Canceled contracts leave a gaping hole in local food systems
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The New Mexico Mom Growing Political Power From a Community Garden
Small-scale growers find ways to reduce food insecurity
In Red States, Rural Voters Are Leading the Resistance to School Vouchers
Convincing rural voters to walk away from public schools could be a greater obstacle than expected for the GOP
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As GOP Moves to Cut Taxes for the Rich, Bernie Sanders Rallies Iowans to Fight Oligarchy
“Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians in the D.C. Beltway,” Sanders tells thousands in Iowa City
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Undoing the Power of Big Ag
A conversation with author Sonja Trom Eayrs and Farm Action co-founder Joe Maxwell
Food & Agriculture
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USDA ‘Cut Off at the Knees’ by Musk’s Mass Firings
Interviews with 15 recently fired employees reveal an agency thrown into turmoil
Sky Chadde, Investigate Midwest
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When Will the U.S. Start Competing for Immigrants? Sooner Than You Think
The GOP’s immigration crackdown could have surprising implications for rural economies
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‘Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way’: How a Young Virginian Kept the Farm in the Family
Farmers like Dustin Watson are turning toward new land-centered models to overcome the challenges of farm transfer and succession
Politics & Policy
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Where Now Rural Progressives? The Harris Campaign’s Rural Outreach Director Has Answers
A Q&A with Rural Organizing’s Matt Hildreth
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‘They’d Rather We Be Dead’: New York’s Home Health Care Gambit
The state’s plan for corporate control of home health care is chaotic, dangerous and a scandal in the making
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How to Break the GOP’s Grip on Rural America
Democrats need a new organizing strategy, not just better messaging
Special Reports
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New
Reimagining Rural Cartographies
Written and photo essays that examine nontraditional maps of the Midwest
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Rural Perspectives on the 2024 Election
Candidates, strategists and organizers reflect on the lessons learned.
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Charting a Path of Rural Progress
Interviews with the organizers who created a rural policy platform for 2024
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Rural Communities Respond to the Long-Term Care Crisis
Rural communities come together to respond to the crisis in long-term care
More →Native Life
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In a North Dakota Courtroom, the Battle for Standing Rock Continues
Greenpeace and the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline square off in court
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Hope in Turbulent Times: Native Leaders Take the Long View
Representatives from three tribes discuss how their communities have learned to endure by celebrating connections
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Indigenous Artists Give Minnesota a Map Makeover
A roundtable conversation with three women who are reviving land-based wisdom and history from a Dakota perspective
Science & Environment
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Bird Flu Spreads as Musk’s DOGE Cuts Public Health Funding
“It’s not enough for us to sit by on the sidelines,” says Dr. Michael Osterholm
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‘Cruelty Is the Point’: The Toxic Trickle-Down of Musk’s Government Purge
Kyla Bennett, former EPA whistleblower, says Musk’s DOGE “coup” has major ramifications for rural America
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The Largest Oil Spill in Wisconsin History Happened Three Days Before Approval of Line 5 Reroute
Why was the public alerted about the spill more than a month later?
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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Welcome to Barn Raiser: Your independent source for rural and small town news
A letter from the editors
Letters to the editor
Readers Respond to Wendell Berry
Read →Religion
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Donald Trump, MAGA and the Logic of the Gun
Trump’s image as a vigilante “peacemaker” reflects the religiously-tinged violence of the American frontier
Rachel Wagner, Religion Dispatches
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Pete Hegseth’s War on Religious Freedom and the Constitution
What Pete Hegseth’s record says about where he would lead the Department of Defense
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How Christian Nationalists Use Transphobia to Get Votes
A rural Wisconsin pastor explains why God’s compassion has no room for hate
Arts & Culture
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Going Off the Grid in the Midwest
What walking an arbitrary line through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa reveals
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The Arts Organization Helping Transform Appalachia’s Craft Economy
Creative entrepreneurs are getting needed support to grow and sustain their businesses after Hurricane Helene
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The Best Country Album of 2024 You’ve Never Heard Of
In Blackgrass, an old Dogg shows he has plenty of new tricks
History
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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
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Jim Hightower Confronts the 1980s Farm Crisis
"It's the same old story—Reagan helps the rich, and Lord help the rest of us."