Videos

Michelle Polizzi: The Widening Opportunity Gap for Rural Students

Confused about what has been going on with student loans? Michelle Polizzi has been digging into the details on recent changes by the Trump administration.

Organic Farmers United to Keep Your Food Healthy

In September 2025, the Real Organic Project hosted its third annual conference at Churchtown Dairy, in Hudson, New York, under the title “Saving Real Organic: Antitrust & Food.” Barn Raiser videographer Jon Williams took his gear over to talk with the conference organizers, farmers and attendees. (This video was produced in partnership with Table Rock Productions, LLC. The Real Organic Project kindly provided on-stage footage from the conference.)

Winona LaDuke: ‘Anything We Have Is Because Someone Fought For It’

Barn Raiser contributing editor Winona LaDuke discusses the legacy of Standing Rock, the recent Greenpeace trial and how ordinary people can stand up to large corporations to make change.

Suzan Erem: This is How People Find their Voice

Iowa farmer, organizer and writer Suzan Erem has spent her life trying to make the world a better place for working people and farmers. From standing up for family farmers during the 1980s Farm Crisis, organizing divestiture demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa, to defending labor movements in Chicago, Erem has combined her love for the craft of writing with her passion for justice: “This is how people find their voice. This is how they make change.”

Suzan Erem: Iowa Republicans Are Erasing the State’s History

Laura Orlando: How PFAS Poisoned American Farmers

Communities impacted by PFAS deserve protection, not a political gag order. On July 14, Republicans on the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee released new text for their fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill, which sets the budget for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tucked away in their bill is a policy rider that will muzzle the science on PFAS-contaminated food grown on fields spread with sewage sludge, a toxic byproduct of wastewater treatment.

Brooks Lamb: 300 Million Acres of Farmland Is Set to Change Hands

On July 14, Republicans on the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee released new text for their fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill, which sets the budget for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tucked away in their bill is a policy rider that will muzzle the science on PFAS-contaminated food grown on fields spread with sewage sludge, a toxic byproduct of wastewater treatment.

How to Talk About Project 2025

Kyle Spencer is a journalist, a pro-democracy activist, former New York Times contributor, frequent MSNBC contributor and award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement and It's Plot for Power (Harper Collins, 2023).

Brooks Lamb: ‘Homesick for the Land Itself’

Author Brooks Lamb reflects on the impact that growing up on a small family farm in Tennessee had on his life and worldview. Through his work as an educator and with American Farmland Trust, Brooks explains the importance of cultivating Wendell Berry’s idea of imagination, or “this deep, attuned understanding of place and of the people who call it home.”

Undoing the Power of Corporate Ag in Rural America

Barn Raiser was joined by Dodge County, Inc. author Sonja Trom Eayrs and Farm Action co-founder Joe Maxwell for a special webinar on how rural communities can organize against the power of Big Ag. Local organizations helping small farmers and confronting Big Ag: Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP) Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Driftless Water Defenders Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin (GROWW) Missouri Rural Crisis Center Land Stewardship Project Dakota Resource Council Illinois Coalition for Clean Air & Water

Welcome to Barn Raiser

Barn Raiser connects local and national perspectives through a network of writers and contributors who live in and care about rural and small town communities. By giving voice to shared concerns, and by reporting on local organizing strategies, Barn Raiser leavens the commons with local connections.