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Opinion
Jim Hightower Confronts the 1980s Farm Crisis
"It's the same old story—Reagan helps the rich, and Lord help the rest of us."
Jim Hightower
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Election Deniers Focus Recruitment in ‘Out of the Way Places’
Election officials fear conspiracy theories are undermining civic infrastructure in rural America
Claire Carlson, The Daily Yonder
To Reach Rural Voters, Democrats Need a Place-Driven Strategy
Matt L. Barron
One rural political strategist details a plan
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Pioneer Letitia Carson Escaped Slavery to Became One of Oregon’s First Farmers
Racial justice advocates work to memorialize the historic homestead of Letitia and her white husband David Carson
Jaclyn Moyer, High Country News
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Seek Common Ground
Kristy Nabhan-Warren
Politics & Policy
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Rural Tennessee County Uses Opioid Settlement Funds to Collect Highway Litter
None of the $2.7 million Greene County has received has been used to address its epidemic of drug overdose deaths
Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News
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Hans Breitenmoser: Dairy Farmer for Fair Maps
“Wisconsin is so severely gerrymandered that you can't even hardly think straight.”
Joel Bleifuss & Justin Perkins
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The Emerging Movement to Build Multi-Racial Power in Rural Communities
What the D.C. establishment gets wrong about rural politics
Michael Chameides, Danny Diaz, W. Mondale Robinson & Celina Culver
Science & Environment
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Empowering Rural Electric Co-ops with Renewable Energy
How $10.7 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act offers the largest investment since the New Deal for rural electrification.
Kristi Eaton
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Montana Youths Win Landmark Climate Case. How Will It Shape Energy Policy in the State?
Amanda Eggert, Montana Free Press & Micah Drew, Flathead Beacon
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Appalachian Trout Struggle To Survive Climate Change
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians fear their tribal fisheries are under threat
Dan Chapman
Culture
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Rural Idaho County Thrives with Free Bus Service
While rural public transportation can be scarce, Bonner County has found a solution
Sydney Chamberlain
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“We’ve Had Death Threats, Bomb Threats”
Rural libraries, often a lifeline, now face efforts to ban books and restrict funding
s.e. smith
Native Life
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Tribes Take the Lead on Regenerative Agriculture
Ioway, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Quapaw share their traditional practices with both Native and nonnative farmers to improve the soil and water for everyone
Eva Tesfaye, Harvest Public Media
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Five Native Groups Have Established Rights of Nature
"For Ho-Chunk, rights of nature has always been around.”
Craig M. Kauffman & Pamela L. Martin
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The Black Snake Threatens Turtle Island
When I moved to the Great Lakes, I did not know a pipeline threatened my ancestral homeland
Monica Cady
Barn Raisers
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What Liberal Elites Don’t Know About Rural Americans Can Hurt Us
The New York Review of Books strikes out, again
Wendell Berry
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Finding Common Ground at a Montana Barn Raising
The former Montana House speaker and Missoula mayor reflects on working together across differences
Daniel Kemmis
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Welcome to Barn Raiser: Your independent source for rural and small town news
Joel Bleifuss & Justin Perkins
Religion
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The Battle Over Religion in Public Schools
Jonathan Zimmerman
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The Politics of Loving Your Neighbor in Rural America
Rev. Dr. Judy Kincaid
Food & Agriculture
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Drought Resistant Millet, a Crop for a Changing Climate
"I've never seen a crop that stood the heat and stood the drought and still made me money," says Matt Little, who grows millet in Ellis County, Oklahoma
Eva Tesfaye, Harvest Public Media
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Not Every Farmer Wants to “Get Big or Get Out”
As land ownership continues to consolidate into fewer and wealthier hands, some small farmers vow to stay in place
Brooks Lamb
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Could Raw Milk Reinvent the Future of Dairy?
Through small-scale production, farmers can make more money and their customers can get better milk
Abby Rockefeller
History
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The Forgotten Victims Downwind of Oppenheimer’s Bomb
How popular narratives obscure the victims of America's first dirty bomb.
Joshua Wheeler & Reto Sterchi
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The Great Spirit (Why I am a Pagan)
Zitkála-Šá, born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in 1876, embraces the religion of her ancestors
Zitkála-Šá
