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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
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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‘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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Going Off the Grid in the Midwest
What walking an arbitrary line through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa reveals
Religion
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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
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The Christian Right’s Playbook to Elect Donald Trump in November
And how voters can use the tools of democracy to counter their plans
Politics & Policy
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Small Businesses—the Engines of Rural Economies—Need a Fair Tax System
Tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-rich hurt working people
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How to Break the GOP’s Grip on Rural America
Democrats need a new organizing strategy, not just better messaging
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Will the Next DNC Chair Get Serious About Competing for Rural Votes?
At a DNC Rural Council forum, candidates made their case for fix the party’s leadership turnover and empower year-round rural organizing
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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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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Who Does Minnesota’s White Earth State Forest Belong To?
Can a beloved forest bridge the gap between a fractured past and a hopeful future?
Maija Hecht, essay & photography
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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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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?
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Mapping a Mountain Lion’s Ghost
One mountain lion’s 800-mile journey to the heart of Chicago offers a window into the Midwest’s changing ecology
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Project 2025 and Its Plans for the Nation’s Public Lands
Native leader says massive deregulation would lead to “total desecration”
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 →Food & Agriculture
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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
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When the CAFO Industry Comes for Your County
“Dodge County, Inc.” exposes the brutal costs of Big Ag
Arts & Culture
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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
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Farm to Table Goes International in Rural New York
Korean lunch, Albanian dinner and Iranian wine—in the Catskills?
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."