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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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Can a Family Resurrect the American Chestnut Tree in Appalachia?
Virginia tree farmers reintroduce an iconic tree that was decimated by blight
Megachurches: Streaming to a Barn Near You
How Pete Hegseth’s former Minnesota church is leading the new Christian “crusade”
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Rural Dispatch
How an Oil Boom Town Is Building New Opportunities Outside of the Oil Field
A decade after the Bakken oil rush, Watford City has remade itself into a growing community by keeping young people local
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The False Promises of VA Privatization
Thanks to Congress, accessing health care will now be more difficult for rural veterans
Religion
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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
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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
Politics & Policy
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MAHA Strategy Report Finds the Movement at a Crossroads
The report’s timid language around industrial farming practices has MAHA supporters—and critics—digging in for battles ahead
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What Medicaid Cuts Mean to One Rural Hospital
Residents in a rural New York county wonder if their only hospital will survive
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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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
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Wisconsin Notches a Win Against Big Ag—For Now
Appeals court rejects Big Ag’s attempt to deregulate water pollution permits. But the battle for local control continues.
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A Winning Food and Farm Policy for Rural America
Here’s my plan to help farmers and rural communities gain independence from corporate domination
Rep. J.D. Scholten
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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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
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Great Lakes Microplastics Research Could Inform National and Global Policy
Microplastics are increasingly present in samples pulled from the Great Lakes. Researchers are working to understand them—and to remove them.
Sarah Mattalian, Inside Climate News
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.
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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