A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky.
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Agents outside La Catedral Arena, a horse track in Wilder, Idaho, Oct. 19, 2025. (Idaho Statesman photo via Mother Jones)
Some residents of Wilder, Idaho, say the town hasn't been the same since federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended on an off-the-beaten-path horse racing track and detained roughly 100 Latinos who were working or attending the races.
The horse track, known as La Catedral Arena, had been a place where immigrant families gathered to enjoy food and racing together, reports Anna Griffin of The New York Times. Few whites ever attended the races or questioned track activities.
Wilder is located in Canyon County, Idaho. (Wikipedia)
Sixty percent of Wilder's 1,725 residents are Latino, and most residents take pride in living in harmony. But on Oct. 19, things changed. ICE agents, including a swarm of gun-toting agents on the ground, a helicopter, and the agency's signature SUVs, descended on the track during the busiest time of day. Agents rounded up nearly 100 Latinos and later deported 75.
The raid did more than "crack an alleged gambling ring and increase deportation numbers," the Times reports. "It shattered Wilder’s innocent belief that its out-of-the-way location and deep-red politics could isolate the town from raids."
Wilder resident Chris Gross, who farms sweet corn seed and mint,
expressed concern about how the raid might limit immigrant farm workers.
She told Griffin, "We rely on Hispanic labor."
"The raid 'nearly destroyed' the community, said David Lincoln, a longtime Wilder resident and executive director of a nonprofit economic development agency serving rural towns in western Idaho," Griffen writes. Griffin adds, "Wilder won’t really know the impact until planting season begins this spring."
The day after the raid, at least half of Wilder's students didn't show up for class. Griffin reports, "Gross, who is white, said anyone who sees a black SUV roll through town, regardless of their race, 'freezes up.'"
Still, the town's mayor, Steve Rhodes, claims the raid "has had 'zero effect' on the town," He told the Times, "These were not our people. What happened out at that track had nothing to do with Wilder.”
Volunteers from the CRCL plant trees as part of their Native Plants Program. (CRCL Photo)
Organizers are working to plant 30,000 trees in New Orleans to restore the wetlands around the city that have remained destroyed
since Hurricane Katrina, reports Melina Walling for The Associated Press.
Native trees like bald cypress and water tupelo will keep
the land from slipping further below sea level, cultivate a better habitat for
wildlife and provide New Orleans with a protective barrier from storms, Walling
explains.
After the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers made the Mississippi River—Gulf Outlet Canal (MRGO) to use
as a shipping channel during the government’s new levee initiative, Walling reports. This canal furthered the damage during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 by
letting saltwater into the freshwater ecosystems around New Orleans, killing many
of the trees which held the land in place.
Environmental organizations have formed the Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective to start restoring the land
after the MRGO was shut down, and the salt levels were able to normalize. “We’re
one part of a larger movement to resist this sort of ‘doomerism’ mindset, and
to show that recovery is possible,” Christina Lehew, executive director of one
of these organizations, told Walling.
The organizers were able to receive federal and state
funding for two large grants to work on the tree planting.
Many of the organizers experienced the hurricane firsthand,
so this initiative has helped them to heal and find hope in future generations.
For the roughly 240,000 rural Americans suffering from kidney failure, or End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), getting to a dialysis center that can deliver consistent, quality care is a struggle. The lack of reliable dialysis for rural ESRD patients has been exacerbated by too few providers within a drivable distance, with some rural residents facing travel across several counties to access dialysis.
The most common dialysis clinics near rural ESRD patients are often owned by DaVita, a "for-profit company with a documented history of kickbacks to doctors and involuntary patient discharges," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. Involuntary discharges are supposed to be extremely rare and regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
About 22.8 rural Americans – just over half of the total rural
population – live in a county where either DaVita is the only clinic, or
there is no clinic at all. (Map by Sarah Melotte, Daily Yonder, from CMS data)
In fact, for 6.1 million rural Americans, DaVita is the only Medicare-certified dialysis clinic in their county, according to Melotte's analysis of CMS data. Melotte reports. "Another 16.5 million rural Americans live in a county with no facility at all."
Overall, DaVita and its German competitor, Fresenius, "tend to have worse health outcomes compared to independent, non-profit clinics," Melotte writes. "Duke University’s research found that, after dialysis clinics were acquired by large, for-profit, companies, the likelihood of each patient being hospitalized each month increased by 4.5%."
Using a CMS dialysis facilities dataset, in 300 counties, 190 of which are non-metropolitan, or rural, "DaVita runs the only clinics in the county," according to Melotte's anaysis. "In rural counties, about 31% of clinics are owned by DaVita."
In some rural regions, the lack of dialysis centers is even more dire. "About 59% of rural counties don’t have a single Medicare-certified dialysis clinic," Melotte writes. "In places like rural Central Nebraska or Western Kansas, patients might be several counties away from the nearest clinic."
Map by Ben Felder, IM, sources from Cancer: National Cancer Institute
and the CDC, Pesticides: Pesticide National Synthesis Project, from the
U.S. Geological Survey
As cancer diagnosis rates among Midwesterners continue to be higher than the national average, a "growing body of research indicates that pesticides are partly to blame," reports Ben Felder of Investigate Midwest. Pesticide use helped U.S. agriculture become an
international commodity powerhouse, but that success may be coming at the expense of Midwestern communities.
Because more than half of U.S. cropland is in the Midwest, Midwesterners who don't live in a major metro area are likely to live near a farm that uses pesticides. Felder explains, "Sprayed from airplanes, drones, tractors and handheld devices, these chemicals can drift through the air or run off into nearby rivers and streams."
"Most of the 500 counties with the highest pesticide use per square mile are located in the Midwest," Felder reports. "Sixty percent of those counties also had cancer rates higher than the national average of 460 cases per 100,000 people, according to an analysis of data from both the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Cancer Institute."
Lisa Lawler from Hardin County, Iowa, believes that pesticides are the primary driver of cancer diagnoses in her community, including her mother's and her own. Felder writes, "The county is home to around 800 farms, has a pesticide use rate more than four times the national average and a cancer rate among the highest in the state."
Lawler had extensive testing completed to see if her cancer was hereditary. She told Felder, "The genetic test they ran for me was one that covered 81 genes that are typically related to breast cancer. . . .They told me my cancer is likely not genetic, but likely environmental, based on these 81 genes."
Pesticide manufacturers have continued to reject claims that pesticides have any part in regional cancer diagnosis trends. "But scientific research linking pesticides with certain types of cancers has been growing," Felder writes. A 2024 study published in Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society linked "pesticides to prostate, lung, pancreas and colon cancers. Pesticides have also been associated with lymphoma and Parkinson’s disease."
Smithfield's parent company, WH Group, is based in China.
Smithfield Foods announced plans to invest $1.3 billion to build a new pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. "When in operation, the plant is expected to employ about 3,000 workers and be able to slaughter about 20,000 hogs a day," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "The new project replaces Smithfield’s existing, more than 100-year-old facility in the city."
The announcement comes as some U.S. lawmakers and officials have questioned Smithfield's ties to its Chinese parent company, WH Group, which took over the U.S.-owned company in 2013. Thomas writes, "The company has said it is investing in the U.S. and denied accusations that its decisions are influenced by the Chinese government."
Building a new slaughterhouse is expensive and rare in today's competitive market, where meat packers have struggled to glean profits. "Tyson Foods closed one of its largest beef processing plants, in Lexington, Neb., which employed 3,200 people, and cut production at a Texas facility in half."
Compared to 2023 margins, today's pork processors are making a profit. "Over the past year, JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker and Smithfield’s top pork rival, has said it is expanding its pork operations in response to Americans’ growing appetite for protein," Thomas explains.
The company's building plans feature "advanced automation technology and a streamlined design," Thomas adds. "The company said the plant will source about all of its hogs from nearby farmers in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota."
The CDC has an active dashboard that maps death rates across the country by Census tract, county or state. (CDC map)
Tips from a recent webinar with three crime data experts, narrated by Clark Merrefield of The Journalist's Resource, can help local journalists report on crime trends, fact-check law enforcement, discuss policy, and foster a dialogue about community safety. An edited version of Merrefield's tips from the discussion is shared below.
Get to know The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, which meets three major needs for crime data research and reporting:
The help desk, where anyone "can ask questions of reporters and editors at The Trace," Merrefield writes. "Reach out for help understanding gun violence in the areas you cover; collecting, cleaning and analyzing data on gun violence."
A resource page that houses fact sheets, guides, and a glossary, which can aid in investigations of all sizes.
The data library for "trustworthy data on a range of gun violence topics, from ghost guns to suicide to road rage," Merrefield notes. "The library includes data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Transportation Security Administration and many others."
Explore data focused on public safety research and data:
The WONDER database from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes numbers on gun deaths and compressed mortality data.
The Gun Violence Archive, which "tracks gun violence incidents across the country from more than 7,500 sources, including law enforcement agencies and news media reports," Merrefield writes.
The Mapping Police Violence provides up-to-date data on police-involved killings in the U.S.
The CDC dashboard, which maps violent death rates across the country by Census tract, county or state.
Learn which data can help you fact-check statements from public officials.
"Beyond published data on reported crimes, victimization surveys are a major source of crime data that journalists can use to vet statements from officials," Merrefield explains. "The best known is the National Crime Victimization Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. This survey each year reaches a nationally representative sample of roughly 240,000 people and asks whether they have been victims of personal or property crimes — and why the crime was or wasn’t reported to police."
To identify trends in a specific area, aim for at least 5 years of data.
If data doesn't make sense, question it. If it can't be verified, don't use it.
Merrefield's webinar panel experts included: Jeffrey A. Butts, a research professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Executive Director of the John Jay Research and Evaluation Center; Mensah M. Dean, a staff writer at The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom that covers gun violence; and George LeVines, editor of The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, which is open to the public.
As farmland changes hands, there will be far fewer family farms in the U.S. (Photo by Johny Goerend, Unsplash)
Whether it's the unpredictable income, politics or little love for manual labor, many children of today's aging American farmers don't want to run the family farm. "There are more farmers 75 and older than under the age of 35. They are facing tough choices," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "Thousands across the U.S. are closing the book on farms that have been in their families for generations."
In today's farming economy, many farmers depend on federal bailouts, and even with that support, some still won't turn a profit. As a result, many farming families are selling their lands or claiming bankruptcy.
Don Guinnip, a fifth-generation corn and soybearn farmer in Marshall, Illinois, doesn't think the future of family farms and their surrounding communities will be "pretty," Thomas writes. He told Thomas, "When farmers owned the land and lived on the land, they took care of the land and they formed communities that worked together and solved problems and took care of everybody. You’re not going to have that in the future.”
Like many children of farming families, Guinnip's children left the farm to attend college and move to bigger cities for professional careers. Thomas explains, "Children of farmers today have more opportunities to work beyond agriculture than they did decades ago, and families are typically smaller, shrinking the pool of possible candidates."
Seventy-four-year-old Guinnip thinks "he can maintain the current workload for a couple more years," Thomas writes. "He contemplates a day when a Guinnip no longer cares for the land that runs along Guinnip Road."
A new Farm Bill will have to work around political flashpoints. (Graphic by Adam Dixon, Offrange)
The last Farm Bill was passed by Congress in 2018, but political divisions over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding and farm subsidies have prevented lawmakers from agreeing on a new Farm Bill, leaving sectors that depend on the massive omnibus package relying on extensions for authorized funding, reports Clare Carlson for Offrange. Farm policy experts say any new Farm Bill will have to navigate around conflicts to address an evolving set of farming and rural needs.
Mike Lavender, a policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, told Carlson that as the number of U.S. farms has shrunk, and the size of the remaining farms has grown, what farmers need in a Farm Bill has changed.
As politicians continue to battle over SNAP and subsidies, those two entities only "make up two of the Farm Bill’s 12 titles, which include research, conservation, forestry, and rural development," Carlson reports. "The programs under those other 10 titles are what get neglected, Lavender said, hurting farmers and rural communities in the process."
With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025, SNAP funding was separated from the Farm Bill and "wrapped into budget reconciliation bills," Carlson explains. OBBA cut SNAP’s budget by 20% while "doubling funding to subsidy programs for commodities like soybeans, wheat, and corn."
Michael Happ, a program associate at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, told Offrange, “We might be living in a post-Farm Bill world right now where we just pass farm policy through budget bills and we leave out a lot of really important research and programs that help farmers."
Meanwhile, House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson "pledged to complete a five-year farm bill in committee by the end of February, as lawmakers try to bridge political divides that have stalled the legislation," reports Marc Heller of E&E News. "Thompson (R-Pa.) told state agriculture officials that finishing the bill. . . is his top priority."
Carlson adds, "Without a Farm Bill, food and agricultural policy could be left to the whims of whichever party controls the White House. . . . Planning for the future is also a lot harder for farmers without a Farm Bill."
Students in Vermont build a WindowDresser insert. (Photo by Andrew McKeever, The Yonder )
Harsh winters in Maine can make it hard to keep the cold air
outside from creeping into the older New England style homes. WindowDressers is
a community-based heating solution that keeps warm air inside by inserting an insulated wooden window
into a home or commercial window frame, Andrew McKeever reports for The Daily Yonder.
The concept started in a church in Rockland, Maine, which was
losing heat due to its leaky aluminum-clad windows. Church member Richard
Cadwgan decided to build window inserts for the church windows, which he
learned about at a Midcoast Green Collaborative conference, a Maine-based
nonprofit organization. Cadwgan told McKeever the window inserts were a “win-win-win – lower heating bills, fewer carbon emissions, and greater comfort in the cold
winter months.”
After word spread to other community members, Cadwgan and former
congregation president Frank Munro took orders for 185 inserts for homes the
next year, and 1,231 inserts the year after. With so many orders, more
volunteers were needed, so “community builds” were formed. Now, there are 52
community builds throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Community builds allow for volunteers with no prior carpentry
experience to help build the window inserts after just a brief instruction from
their team leader, McKeever explains. Jim Salsgiver, one of the original organizers,
told McKeever, “I love the builds and getting together, meeting new people. What’s
so cool is somebody comes in and says, ‘Okay, well I signed up, but what do I
do?’ And, you know, after three hours, they’re acting like pros doing it and
excited about it and telling their friends.”
As of 2024, at least 78,600 inserts have been made, saving almost
4 million gallons of heating fuel.
Wyoming is the most sparsely populated state in the U.S. (Photo by Karsten Koehn, Unsplash)
As Wyoming's rural hospitals struggle to make ends meet and hire enough medical providers, state officials have hatched a plan using money from its Rural Health Transformation Program funds to buffer losses, create more robust provider training and incentives, while using investments to help the money stretch for decades, reports Arial Zionts of KFF Health News.
If Wyoming's plan receives federal approval to invest a substantial portion of its $205 million award, the state's "Rural Health Transformation Perpetuity fund could provide $28.5 million for the state to spend every year," Zionts explains. "Wyoming would spend the money on scholarships for health students and incentive payments to help keep small hospitals and rural ambulance services afloat."
The federal RHTP program requires states to spend their awards by established deadlines, or the money will be shelled out to other states. The question is, will the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which manages RHTP, see placing the money in an investment account as "spending it."
Stefan Johansson, the director of Wyoming’s health department, thinks it will. "He said that CMS called in December to specifically ask questions about the fund and that he believes the agency has formally approved it," Zionts reports. "But 'the devil’s always in the details,' he said, as the state works with CMS during the budget review period."
CMA has already told some states that RHTP grants "cannot be used to 'generate income.'" Zionts adds. "Wyoming officials wrote in the state’s application that the perpetuity fund won’t be making or keeping any profit. . . .Other states proposed funds in their applications, but Wyoming’s appears unique, according to a KFF Health News review of state applications."
ElliQ is designed to be a companion and helper. (Intuition Robotics photo)
In more remote parts of the country, residents can go for days without seeing another human. But as people age, going without human connection can be lonely and potentially dangerous. For some rural seniors living in isolation in Washington state, participating in a pilot program that pairs them with a robot companion offers a potential solution, reports Eli Saslow of The New York Times.
Jan Worrell, 85, is participating in the pilot so she can continue living alone in her home, which sits on an isolated strip of the Long Island Peninsula. Firefighters came to Worrell's home and installed her new robot partner: "ElliQ."
One of ElliQ's initial greetings to Worrell sounded like a new friend's introduction. Saslow writes, "'Oh, I’m so thrilled to meet you,' ElliQ said. 'I was worried they’d deliver me to the wrong house! I’m excited to start our journey together.'"
"A few thousand ElliQs have been shipped to seniors across the United States since 2023. . . . by nonprofits and state health departments as an experiment in combating loneliness," Saslow reports. "ElliQ is designed for the most human act of all: to become a roommate, a friend, a partner."
Initially, Worrell didn't want help or company at home. "That’s what she told her relatives whenever they gently suggested that maybe it was time to move into a care center, or closer to family," Saslow adds. "But despite her strength and stubborn independence, her doctors had warned that living alone sometimes came at a cost." Loneliness can be deadlier than many chronic diseases.
Now, ElliQ keeps Worrell company by providing conversation, medication reminders, playing music and asking questions. Saslow writes, "It has been designed to read a room, calculate moods and then decide when to speak and what to say."
Report for America, the national service program that places early-career and experienced journalists and photographers in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities, is accepting applications for new corps members.
The application deadline is Feb. 16, with references due by Feb. 23. The upcoming program start date is July 13. Apply here.
If you are passionate about service-minded journalism, you might be a good fit for one of RFA's 70 journalism positions open in newsrooms of all types, including digital startups, daily and weekly newspapers, and radio and TV stations. An interactive database of their openings, newsrooms and reporting beats is found here.
Report for America is a two-year program, with an optional third year. Their members are part of a national movement to strengthen communities and democracy through truthful, fair local journalism.
Answers to commonly asked questions can be found by reading FAQs. Contact the Report for America recruitment team at recruitment@reportforamerica.org.
Delayed newspapers can hurt a publisher's bottom line. (Photo via NiemanLab)
U.S. Postal Service cost-cutting measures and process changes have slowed some local newspaper deliveries to a crawl, leaving frustrated local publishers searching for solutions, reports Sophie Culpepper of NiemanLab.
Smaller, more rural newspapers often use USPS because it is cheaper than hiring newspaper carriers; however, over the past decade, USPS has repeatedly raised postal rates even as its reliability decreased. Culpepper writes, "By the USPS’ own measurement, about 20% of periodicals were delivered late nationally between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2025, up from around 15% delivered late during the same period in 2024."
The Midcoast Villager in Maine is a community newspaper that is the "primary or only local news source for most of the 80,000 residents of Maine’s Knox and Waldo Counties," Culpepper writes. The Villager has tracked papers that are a week or more late. Delayed delivery can irritate readers, who may choose to drop their subscriptions. "Small local publishers can’t afford those losses, and they have little
visibility into — or control over — the delays hurting their bottom
lines."
The Villager's publisher, Willy Blackmore, shared his frustration with USPS in his 2025 editorial: "It bears mentioning that the Postal Service is just that, a service, and not a business that has historically had or needs a profit motive, but it is a service that the Villager spends over $49,000 on annually, and we decidedly are not getting what we pay for."
Rural papers in South Dakota are facing a similar struggle. David Bordewyk, the executive director of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association, told Culpepper, "I’m confident in telling you…100% of our newspapers are having problems with delivery."
In December, a National Newspaper Association delegation met with Postmaster General David Steiner, who used to be a paperboy, to discuss ongoing challenges and request a process for newspapers to enter into the Postal Service’s "delivery measurement system," which includes scans and barcodes that could track a newspaper from beginning to end.
In an update to NNA members, Matt Paxton, a publisher who attended the meeting with Steiner, wrote, "Postmaster General Steiner was attentive. But didn’t indicate that he plans to deviate at this time from the USPS’s Delivering for America Plan."
Carbon credits can provide cattle farmers with a new source of income. (Photo by Bernd Dittrich, Unsplash)
Farmers facing drought,
inflation or labor shortages often sell their generational land rather than go
into debt, reports Yusuf Khan of The Wall Street Journal. In some states, cattle producers are filling financial gaps by using regenerative farming techniques that generate farm income through carbon credit payments.
Frates Seeligson, who farms outside of Nixon in south Texas, told Khan he has seen cash-strapped ranchers sell their land to developers rather than go into the red.
“If you look at the business model of agriculture it’s
somewhat broken,” Seeligson told Khan. “It’s capital and labor intensive with a
very small return, and then you’re subject to the whims of nature." Texas has been facing drought conditions in many regions since 2021.
To combat ranchers' ongoing financial struggles, a carbon credit developer Grassroots Carbon
is paying cattle farmers like Seeligson to use regenerative agriculture
techniques aimed at trapping carbon in their soil, Khan explains. Backed by companies like Microsoft, Nestle and Chevron, Grassroots
sells carbon credits for between $40 and $65 per ton, which have a lifetime of
100 years.
One of the techniques Grassroots promotes is rotational
grazing to keep livestock from overgrazing, Khan explains. “Rotational grazing
is a common practice in farming, but Grassroots suggests ranchers rotate more
often, sometimes daily and on smaller properties, multiple times a day.” For example, Seeligson now uses 28 temporary pastures, as opposed to his
previous nine permanent ones.
The benefits aren’t limited to just storing carbon, though,
according to Allen Williams, a researcher and rancher studying regenerative agriculture. Healthier grasses also make for healthier herds, growing herd
pregnancy rates. Additionally, a “1% increase in soil organic matter can help
soils to hold up to roughly 20,000 additional gallons of water per acre, an
important factor in avoiding flooding,” a study from 2021 shows.
Despite the economic boost that foreign investment can bring U.S. manufacturing, its outcomes can sometimes have negative consequences when a foreign-owned company "clobbers" its longtime American-owned competitor.
"The rise of a Chinese automotive-glass plant in the Ohio heartland shows the risks when America’s biggest rival sets up shop," reports Gavin Bade of The Wall Street Journal.
Over the past decade, Fuyao Glass America has chipped away at its competitor's edge. "Vitro, the company that owns a plant in Crestline, Ohio, has spent the past year considering whether to shut down," Bade writes. "Fuyao is threatening about 250 jobs at the rival glass factory [that has been] operating since the 1950s."
When Chinese automotive glass maker, Fuyao, partnered with state and
federal lawmakers to move into an abandoned General Motors factory in
tiny Moraine, Ohio, the project "was hailed as a step to reviving a
battered Rust Belt region," Bade explains. Ohio taxpayers, who supported
Fuyao's move into the region, "now feel duped," according to the report.
Since 2019, Vitro has "shut three auto-glass plants in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana — decisions the company attributes in large part to Chinese competition," Bade reports. American companies like Vitro say they can't compete with Fuyao's pricing and accuse the company of unfair business and labor practices.
A federal raid on the Fuyao plant in 2024 led U.S. authorities to accuse dozens of Chinese business owners of colluding "to facilitate the harboring, transportation, and employment of illegal aliens at various factories,” including Fuyao, which allegedly funneled $126 million to companies in the scheme," Bade writes.
"Fuyao denies any wrongdoing," Bade adds. "Vitro and its Washington allies say Fuyao’s success reflects a way Beijing might try to hollow out American manufacturing capacity and undermine critical industries."
A mail rider makes his way through a creek bed near Jackson, Ky., in 1940. (Library of Congress photo)
Over hill and dale and on all kinds of trails, horseback postal routes required mail riders to face treacherous paths, wild weather, unpredictable wildlife and inaccurate maps. "Routes they took were originally Native American and traders’ paths and roads carved through the forests, river valleys and mountains," writes Todd Kozak for Lancaster Farming. "Post riders and their horses worked in all weather and on set schedules. . . . A map of post routes published by the post office in 1897 shows a myriad of routes and offices. By the early 1920s, most of them had vanished."
Human diets of the future might not be about going vegan, quitting bacon or eschewing beef. Instead, Bruce Friedrich, author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future, presents "alternative meat" as the planet's best answer. "And to be clear, he’s not talking about gardenburgers or tofurkey," writes Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch. "We now have the ability to take real meat cells from an animal and replicate them. The product is actually meat, but it’s not from a dead animal. . . . Alternative meat can’t compete by being better for the environment or nicer for animals. For most people, he acknowledges, food is not an ethical decision. It has to taste as good and be as cheap. . . ."
At Little Break, parents can be on-site with their children and still get their work done. (Little Break photo)
For parents struggling to find affordable child care, a new model being used in Michigan offers a solution that combines parental work spaces with a child care center. "Users say its prices are a fraction of what other daycare centers charge," reports Anna Patton of Reasons to be Cheerful. "Little Break" is a nonprofit, non-licensed child care facility where "parents must remain on-site, and take care of feeding and diaper changes. Otherwise, they get on with work in an adjoining room, while paid staff. . . watch the children." An added perk of the model is that parents can be there to witness childhood milestones they would otherwise miss.
Tired of their current work lives, some mid-career professionals have left their jobs and trained in a trade. "At 27, Lauren O’Connor was living paycheck to paycheck as a Montessori teacher, making $29 an hour with no benefits," report Allison Pohle and Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Today, the 33-year-old earns $45 an hour — brazing, welding and soldering pipes for a local contractor. Though she sees more women on job sites these days, it wasn’t that way at first. Proving herself to the guys was stressful, she says." Other trades career-changers took up were airline pilot, electrical apprentice and cardiovascular sonographer.
Original title page of Walden featuring a picture drawn by Thoreau's sister Sophia.
Among more modern fans of Henry David Thoreau's 1854 book, Walden or Life in the Woods, a group is building "full-scale replicas" of the late transcendentalist's cabin, reports Dorie Chevlen of The New York Times. Thoreau's book, which centers on simple life and self-reliance, recounts how he built his little cabin all on his own, except when neighbors helped him raise the frame. Two brothers, Jasper and Satchel Sieniewicz, who worked together to build a replica, "can’t believe it was a one man job. . . . Even using a sawmill and power tools, it took them three summers of labor ... Thoreau was living in his cabin in under three months." Read how other Thoreau fans fared with their Walden cabins here.
In the small community of Rothschild, Wis., the water is healthier
because it's nearly PFAS free. PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals,"
can cause devastating health issues for humans.
The village used settlement dollars to build a new water treatment
facility. "This facility is actively working to decrease the levels of
PFAS in the community's drinking water," reports
Dylan Eckhart of WAOW. The Rothschild plant "utilizes a granular
activated carbon filtration system to remove PFAS. . . .PFAS
contamination became a concern for Rothschild residents in 2022 when it
was detected in a sample from village wells."
Dairy farmer Derek Orth owns Jersey cows. (Dairy Star photo)
Since President Donald Trump took office in early 2025, some Americans have thrived, while others have been pushed to downsize or put off purchases to pay for the basics. The Wall Street Journal interviewed six Americans, including rural dairy farmer Derek Orth from Lancaster, Wisconsin, to see how they are doing in the "Trump economy," reports Jeanne Whalen of The Wall Street Journal.
Smaller dairy farmers in Wisconsin have been struggling to compete with bigger, more consolidated operations since around 2004. "Orth says he hasn’t had a good financial year in a decade. But higher costs are making things even more challenging these days," Whalen writes.
"We have a $100,000 tractor that hasn’t moved in three or four months because we don’t know if we can afford to fix it,” Orth told the Journal.
He has also been hit by incremental increases in his farm insurance premiums. Whalen reports, "But the accumulation of big increases that snowballed from 2022 to 2024 nearly quadrupled his bill over 15 years, to about $41,000."
Orth, his wife, Charisse, and their four children live rent-free in the farmhouse that Orth's parents own. The couple uses Charisse's income to cover most expenses. Orth told Whalen, "A lot of the income I make goes back into the farm, and what my wife makes is what we use for family living."
Over the past several years, the couple hasn't been able to sock anything away for retirement. Whalen reports, "He said he hopes the Trump administration’s recent efforts to promote dairy products could boost his business, and he appreciates that gas prices are 'fairly reasonable.'"
North American Electric Reliability Corporation graph
Fueled by increased demand and shrinking power options, the U.S. electricity grid is headed toward a reliability crisis. "Tens of millions of people face a growing risk of blackouts over the next five years, according to an annual assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works closely with federal regulators," reports Brad Plumer of The New York Times.
As AI data center builds have continued to demand more grid power, many "utilities are retiring older coal- and gas-burning plants and aren’t adding enough generation to dependably meet growing demand," Plumer explains. The report lists regions in Texas, the upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Pacific Northwest as most "at risk of electricity shortfalls."
How electricity is produced is at the heart of electricity reliability and a contentious point of national political debate. "President Trump has said that policies to fight climate change and promote wind and solar energy have weakened the reliability of electric grids, since wind turbines and solar panels can’t run at all hours," Plumer writes. But renewable energy advocates say that "Trump administration efforts to hinder wind and solar projects are depriving the grid of a fast-growing source of power."
Battery build-outs can help regional power operators create a more resilient grid that can meet demand even during extreme heat or cold snaps. "In MISO, a grid spanning 15 states in the Midwest and South, more than one-third of coal plants are set to retire by 2030," Plumer reports. "But the grid operator recently instituted a plan to speed up the connection of new gas plants and batteries over the next five years."
The report offers a list of recommendations for operators to start planning now, including "speeding up permitting processes for new power plants and transmission lines, and policies to ensure that large new sources of demand, such as data centers, don’t overwhelm the grid," Plumer adds. "It also suggests that utilities and grid operators should be careful about shutting down older coal and gas plants too quickly."
While many rural residents may know that a large AI data center can bring potential gains and losses to their communities, many details remain unclear. To address potential knowledge gaps and help rural residents stay informed, the Rural Assembly is offering a 90-minute interactive session, “What Rural Communities Need to Know about AI Data Centers,” that clarifies disputed issues about data mega builds and their potential impact on smaller communities.
Who pays for all the electricity a data center will need during construction and once the build is completed?
What community agreements can and cannot secure.
How federal and state politics and legislation on data center development are evolving.
Tools communities can use to maintain local decision-making power, including zoning and permitting strategies, rate class separation, and transparency demands.
This online Zoom event will begin with hearing from attendees about what their community has already heard or experienced.
The session will wrap up with a small group discussion about concrete next steps. Whether you’re facing a proposal now or want to prepare before developers arrive, attendees will gain a clearer picture of how the AI boom can impact their neighborhoods and learn the leverage points available to rural communities.
Rural hospitals have relied on foreign-born doctors to provide care for decades. (MedPage Today photo)
Rural communities already struggle to staff their hospitals and clinics with physicians of all types, from specialists to family practitioners. The Trump administration's failure to make progress on immigration changes and the newly established $100,000 fee for each new H-1B visa application, which has no exemption for health care workers, will leave rural Americans with far fewer doctors to treat them, writes Manav Midha in his opinion for MedPage Today.
The difference in the number of physicians and the availability of specialists between urban and rural locations is stark. Midha writes, "There are approximately 263 specialists for every 100,000 people in urban areas compared to 30 for every 100,000 people in rural areas, and 46% of counties (and 86% of rural counties) have not a single cardiologist."
For decades, rural communities have relied on immigrant doctors for their care. Midha explains, "Foreign-born physicians are uniquely willing to serve rural communities even when few others move there. Immigration restrictions risk cutting off one of the last remaining lifelines for rural healthcare access."
Immigrant doctors who came to the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s were able to obtain J-1 visas, which "allow for a path to permanent residency if a doctor works for at least 3 years in an area with underserved healthcare needs," Midha adds. They cared for patients in "rural Indiana, deep Appalachia, coastal Louisiana, and parts of Texas, hours from the closest city," where few American graduates wanted to live.
Congress could expand the Conrad 30 program to add some physicians with J-1 waivers who can treat in rural communities. "The bipartisan Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act would have expanded (albeit slightly) the number of spots and extended the program. It was initially introduced in Congress in 2023 and again in 2025 but has seen little movement," Midha writes.
In the face of the current shortage, some states are developing their own approaches to help rural communities secure access to doctors. Midha writes, "At least 18 states, led by Tennessee, have enacted laws permitting internationally-trained physicians with appropriate experience to practice medicine without having to repeat medical residency."
Meanwhile, some rural communities may face a more severe shortage of physicians, and residents will have to travel longer distances for care. Expanding and developing paths for immigrant physicians "is not merely a moral imperative -- it is an economic one," Midha adds. "And it is one that can address one of the greatest challenges to equitable care."
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases in the world. (koto_feja/iSotck via Getty Images Plus, CC)
With its spiking fevers, extreme fatigue, watery eyes, diarrhea, photo-sensitivity, and possible lifelong complications or death paired with its high contagion rate, measles has been likened to the "flu on steroids." Alla Katsnelson, the associate health editor for The Conversation, shares a brief on measles, reviews its renewed spread in the U.S. and discusses the measles vaccination.
As one of the world's most contagious diseases, measles is "far more contagious than more familiar infectious illnesses such as flu, Covid-19 and chickenpox," Katsnelson explains. Beyond its ability to spread, the disease can cause severe lung problems, pneumonia or brain swelling, which usually require a hospital inpatient stay.
Since early last year, the U.S. has had an increasing number of measles cases. Katsnelson writes, "The measles outbreak in South Carolina reached 876 cases on Feb. 3. That number surpasses the 2025 outbreak in Texas and hits the unfortunate milestone of being the largest outbreak in the U.S. since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated here."
Measles has spread more easily in communities with overall vaccination rates below 93 to 95%, which is considered the threshold for herd immunity. Katsnelson adds, "A striking – though unsurprising – feature of the South Carolina outbreak is that at least 800 of the reported cases occurred in people who weren’t vaccinated."
The vaccine mimics what catching measles does without the long-term risks. The vaccine, when given according to the recommended 2-dose regimen, is 97% effective in preventing measles infection. Daniel Pastula, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Colorado, told Katsnelson, "The immunity from a vaccine is effectively the same immunity you get from having measles itself – but vastly safer than encountering the wild virus unprotected."
Why have some parents refused to have their children vaccinated against measles? Few people, including medical providers, have ever known anyone with measles or treated someone with it. Many parents who have lived in the U.S., where there has been herd immunity for decades, "have decided that vaccinating their children, which does pose some amount of risk from rare complications, is the better choice," Katsnelson writes. However, when enough families decline vaccination, herd immunity no longer protects against the disease.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, recommended that Americans get the measles vaccine. He told Dana Bash of CNN, "Take the vaccine, please. We have a solution for our problem."
Nearly half of all U.S. farms are not profitable. (Photo by Matthew Putney, DTN)
A bipartisan group of agricultural leaders representing nearly all sectors of the industry sent a letter to congressional agriculture leaders outlining how current farmer distress is so extreme that, if left unaddressed, the country risks a "widespread collapse of American agriculture."
The missive identifies the primary causes of the current farm crisis and urges Congress to begin passing its recommended corrective actions immediately.
"The group charged that Trump administration policies 'have caused tremendous harm to U.S. agriculture' and are having long-term negative effects on the competitiveness of farmers and agriculture," report Jerry Hagstrom and Chris Clayton of Progressive Farmer.
The letter points out the stark realities that many American farmers face today: "Farmer bankruptcies have doubled, barely half of all farms will be profitable this year, and the U.S. is running a historic agriculture trade deficit. These metrics reflect a sharp reversal from record farm export surpluses and farm incomes experienced just a few years ago."
The letter cites multiple factors causing the crisis:
Increased farm input costs driven by tariffs on fertilizer, farm chemicals and machinery parts
Loss of export markets due to trade wars and withdrawal from trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Weakening of international trade partnerships as traditional allies turn to other suppliers
Disruptions to agricultural labor supply affecting dairy, fruit and produce, and meat processing
Massive cuts to USDA staffing and agricultural research funding
Reductions in foreign aid and domestic food programs
The group asked Congress to immediately take nine specific actions to begin restoring stability for American farmers, including exempting all farm inputs from tariffs, passing legislation for E15 ethanol, passing Trade Promotion Authority, completing review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and passing a new farm bill and farm labor reform.
A letter synopsis and a copy of the letter, including the names and positions of all 27 signatories, are found here.
An animal wound with New World screwworm eggs, larvae and an adult. (Photo by Samantha Gibbs, FWS)
The first New World screwworm animal case in 10 years was discovered in Florida earlier this week, prompting farm leaders and state officials to acknowledge that, although current protocols prevented this infected animal from entering the U.S., the noxious pest's reentry may be inevitable.
The blowfly larvae rode in on a horse "from Argentina [that] presented for routine inspection at an import quarantine facility in Florida," report Chris Torres and Joshua Baethge of Farm Progress. Larvae samples collected from a wound during the horse's examinations were "shipped to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa, and it was confirmed that the larvae were New World screwworm."
Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner, said "the detection is proof of the importance of USDA’s import inspection and quarantine protocols," Torres and Baethge write. According to Miller, "Our federal inspection system is working exactly as designed and is an additional biosecurity tool that will protect our industry."
At the annual Lancaster Cattle Feeders Day in late January, Colin Woodall, the CEO for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told fellow cattle producers, "You should be worried about [NWS] because no doubt there will be a market impact." Torres and Baethge add, "Woodall said beef producers should be prepared for an outbreak."
Using millions of sterile male NSW blowfly dispersals, the USDA and Mexican authorities have been trying to get ahead of the pest's travel through Mexico and into the U.S., where it's most likely to cross into Texas. Farm Progress reports, "The USDA also announced a new dispersal area for sterile flies going as far as 50 miles into Texas to stop the insect’s northern spread."
Female screwworm flies most often lay their eggs in the open wounds or scratches of sheep or cattle, but the larvae will feed on the flesh of any warm-blooded animal, which should leave more than cattle producers worried. Torres and Baethge explain, "Miller says screwworms can infest any of the 200 mammal species in Texas. That’s bad news for pet owners, not to mention the state’s multibillion-dollar wildlife industry."
Western states rely on winter snowpack for community and farming water supplies. (Photo by Lamar, Unsplash)
Unlike most of the country, Western states are experiencing warmer-than-normal winter temperatures and haven't had enough snow to replenish water needed for drier months or sustain winter tourism, which helps to fuel their economy.
"An extreme snow drought and unusually warm weather are keeping skiers off the mountains, snowmobilers off the trails and water out of the rivers across much of the West," reports Jim Robbins for The New York Times.
Much of the West relies on thawing winter snowpack to provide water for residents, irrigation, trout streams and reservoirs throughout the year.
The lack of snowpack in the Colorado Rockies and the Colorado River Basin "adds to the 26-year-long megadrought in the region, which has led to extremely low levels in the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado River," Robbins explains. "Colorado is having its warmest winter since 1895."
The reason for the drastic change in snowfall and temperature between the last few years and this year "isn’t easily explained," Robbins adds. "Scientists have found that it is difficult to attribute the snow drought entirely to climate change."
Skiing tourism in Oregon has been particularly hard hit because there's been so little snow. Presley Quon, a spokesperson for Mt. Bachelor, a ski resort near Bend, Ore., told the Times, "It’s been a really rough season for ski resorts." Robbins adds, "Last year at this time, Mt. Bachelor had 109 inches of snow at its base; this year it has 27 inches."
At higher elevations, snowpack inches are at a more normal level; however, the runoff most communities rely on for water "comes from the middle and lower elevations, which cover a far greater area than the land at higher altitudes," Robbins explains.
Despite the abysmal snowfall thus far, there's still time for snowpack levels to rebound. Robbins adds, "February, March and often April are the months when most of the snow usually falls in the mountains."
Mural painter Pamela Kellough gave this barn a patriotic makeover. (Photo by Pamela Kellough, Successful Farming)
Veterans and active U.S. military interested in farming agritourism can sign up now to attend the in-person, hybrid or online training series: "Serving the Land: A Veteran's Guide to Farm Stays and Outdoor Experiences."
The training includes "five live online sessions held each Monday evening in March, with topics including budgeting, risk management, goal setting, taxes and recordkeeping, and digital marketing," reports Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming. "On-demand online classes on zoning, insurance, and agritourism laws can be taken anytime."
Cost: Free for active military service members and military veterans When: March through August Where: Online and participating farm stay locations across Nebraska (to be announced). Online tours will be provided for participants who can't attend in person. Registration required by March 16: Click here to register. Questions/assistance with registering: Contact Kirstin Bailey, kirstinb@cfra.org or 402.870.2390, or Deborah Solie, deborahs@cfra.org or 402.870.1133
Kirstin Bailey, senior project manager with the center, told Prater, "Participants will learn directly from farmers and agritourism leaders about the business of hosting guests on working farms. They will also receive practical tools, examples, and worksheets to help prepare them for launching or expanding guest-based agritourism enterprises."
Stipends are available to cover approved expenses, such as travel, meals and child care. Individuals are welcome to attend with family members.
This program is sponsored by the Center of Rural Affairs, a nonprofit focused on cultivating strong communities through social and economic efforts and environmental stewardship.
This newborn calf was struggling in the deep freeze until she was brought indoors to curl up on couch. (Photo by Macey Sorrell via WKYT-27)
Frigid temperatures left a newborn calf struggling for survival until her farming family in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, brought her indoors to warm. up. "The calf was born outdoors in single-digit temperatures. Macey Sorrell said her husband, Tanner, went outside to check on the pregnant mother and found the calf, suffering in the cold," reports Dylan Lovan of The Associated Press. Macey Sorrell told reporters, "When we brought her in, she had ice on her. The afterbirth was still on her. I had to wipe all that off. I took out the blow dryer and warmed her up, and got her all fluffed out."
During autumn, leaves change into vibrant shades of yellow, orange and red, then tumble to the ground, where they brown and return to nature. But not all leaves fall. "Even in the height of winter, a curious number of oak and beech trees refuse to let go of their brown, brittle foliage," write Kasha Patel, Emily Wright and Marvin Joseph of The Washington Post. Scientists are investigating why some plants don't seal off dead leaves, causing them to fall. "They found a surprising number of species hold onto their papery remains — but the explanations are anything but cut and dried."
Humboldt martens are known for their inquisitive expressions. (Photo by Ben Wymer via Popular Science)
Having once ranged all about the Pacific Northwest, coastal martens, also known as Humboldt martens, were believed to have been hunted into extinction by fur traders "until a U.S. Forest Service biologist discovered a small population in the coastal woods of northern California in 1996," reports Laura Baisas for Popular Science. Coastal martens, known for their cute, inquisitive furry faces, are "related to weasels, otters, mink, wolverines, and fetters are making a slow recovery in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. . . . They are currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and are at risk due to habitat loss, rodenticides, vehicles, and disease."
Current rules only allow mules to compete as jumpers. (Photo by Amy Heartfield via The Chronicle of the Horse)
Horses aren't the only four-legged animals that can be trained for hunting competitions -- mules can too. But current U.S. Equestrian Federation rules only allow mules to show in equine jumping competitions. Sport horse breeder Kimmy Risser and Holly Fox, who are both mule enthusiasts, are pushing to have the rules changed, reports Sarah K. Susa for The Chronicle of the Horse. According to Risser and Fox, "There’s just no reason mules can’t compete against horses. Hunter classes have clear standards, and mules can be held to those same standards and judged equally alongside their horse competitors."
Wildfire smoke in the West can spread for miles from a fire site and harm crops in its path. "Similar to how it affects humans, smoke can block out sunlight and inhibit photosynthesis," reports Shelby Vittek for Offrange. Idaho researchers have been working with different potato varieties to identify the most smoke-tolerant. "The current study is focused on three French fry cultivars: Russet Burbank, which makes up almost half of all plantings in the state; Clearwater Russet, a new variety that’s popular for its heat resistance; and Alturas Russets, a late-maturing and high-yielding potato. Preliminary results already show that certain varieties might fare better than others." The Puppy Bowl's fine flying canine promoters soar to an epic Styx song.
Puppy Bowl XXII returns to screens on Sunday, Feb. 8, beginning at 2 p.m. EST. The furry competition between Team Ruff and Team Fluff is
sure to feature penalty flags, squeaky toys, Hail Mary catches, adorable
side-eyes, fumbles, speedy paws and touchdowns. This Animal Planet
tradition is one of the country's biggest rallies for pet adoption. This
year's teams boast a highfalutin lineup, including puppies like
"Button," who has soft ears and a hard game. Or "Lobster Roll" from Westbrook, Maine. She's 30 pounds of muscle. . .not the seafood kind. . . It's football, only
better.
