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A Mobile Abattoir Meets a Critical Need of Small Livestock Farmers
Connor Barnes and his custom-made truck offer an alternative to the dangers of giant slaughterhouses
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For This Rural Town, a Fluoride Debate Is About More Than the Water
Citizens of Woodlawn, Tennessee, grapple with how public health decisions are made
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 GOP Rural Hospital ‘Slush Fund’ Raises Questions
Republicans passed their tax bill in part by funding $50 billion for rural health. But health experts say the “devil’s in the details.”
Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News
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The Long-Time Organizer Leading a New Wave of Rural Organizing
“When people work together across differences it’s good for the community”
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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How Safe Is Fluoridated Water? A Look at New Research
Recent studies consider evidence that fluoride impairs the cognitive development of fetuses and infants
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What You Can Do to Save the Birds
An Ohio artist’s bold project is a timely reminder of what we can do to protect birds—and ourselves
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Does the House GOP Have Something Against Farmers?
Communities impacted by PFAS deserve protection, not a political gag order
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
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The Unseen Workers Behind Maryland’s Iconic Blue Crabs
The labor of immigrant women sustains a cherished cultural tradition
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Will Cuts in Rural Programs Leave the Same Lasting Wounds as the 2008 Financial Crisis?
Rural families like mine are still grappling with the long-term mental health consequences of housing loss
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Voters—Not Big Money—Should Choose Democratic Party Nominees
Support for campaign finance reform among DNC leadership could have considerable influence in state and national primaries
Religion
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A Fighting Faith
How a decades-long battle to protect religious freedom in the military is taking on Christian Nationalism
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What Counts as American Religion?
A new history reconsiders who belongs in American religious history and what should count as religion
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Will Leo XIV Be the Labor Pope?
Will the U.S. Catholic church revive its legacy of support for migrant farmworkers and organized labor?
Arts & Culture
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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”
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With Rural Libraries Under Attack, a Washington Town Rallies to Defend Its Own
A state senator pulled funding from the Republic Library. Citizens responded by organizing to protect its inclusive community.
Food & Agriculture
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Keeping Farmland in Farmers’ Hands
Farm transfers are complex. Anna Sekine helps farmers pass their land to the next generation.
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Barbara Damrosch’s Life in the Garden
The acclaimed garden writer’s latest book is part memoir, part garden guide and part call to action
Holli Cederholm; photos by Kelsey Kobik
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Native Life
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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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In a North Dakota Courtroom, the Battle for Standing Rock Continues
Greenpeace and the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline square off in court
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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