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| Brooke Rollins |
The Department of Agriculture plans to use tariff dollars and trade
renegotiation resources to help fertilizer production in the United States. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the "USDA is focused
on helping move fertilizer supplies more quickly, but cautioned it will
take time for crop nutrient prices to begin falling,"
reports
Kim Chipman of
AgriPulse. "Rollins said she hosted a meeting
with executives of four top fertilizer companies and Commerce Secretary
Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National
Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett." The Trump administration hopes
to roll out its full plan to move fertilizer production back to the
U.S. sometime this week.
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The University of Maine's Fort Kent campus will provide dorms,
a lounge and a cafeteria for recovering teens. (UofM photo) |
Just like some adults, preteens and adolescents can end up with severe drug and alcohol addictions that can end in an overdose or many failed recovery attempts. Recovery advocates in the tiny town of Fort Kent, Maine, will "use new funding to try a novel solution to the problem: a public boarding school for high schoolers in recovery," writes Lanan Cohen for The Hechinger Report. The new approach will "focus on abstinence and mental health to help students overcome their substance abuse problems." Educators hope the boarding school structure will allow students time to solidify new choices and coping strategies while remaining in school.
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| Graphic by A. Dixon, Offrange |
It's not a farmers market. It's a farmers "stop," and it's open all year long. Farming advocates hope the concept continues to catch on. "The Argus Farm Stop model is built on a consignment basis with a 70/30 split: Farmers set their own prices and keep 70% of every sale, while Argus retains 30% to cover operating costs,"
reports Heidi Roth for
Offrange. "A café inside each location accounts for roughly a third of sales but about half the profit, effectively subsidizing higher farmer payouts while creating a community hub where farmers can gather, and customers can meet producers." Not all farmer stops have the same elements, but all aim to support local farmers while fostering community spirit.
Musical talent from far-flung places often took center stage at the Big
Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. "The festival is rich with rural
tradition, pulling in rural musicians from across the states and every
continent except Antarctica (as far as I know),"
reports Phillip Norman of
The Daily Yonder. "I caught an
ambient country jam by Setting in the backroom of
Boyd’s Jig and Reel Scottish Pub, and hit the Knoxville Art Museum to witness the electric saxophone wizardry of
Sam Gendel. . . . Big
Ears is a festival for music nerds who are interested not only in how a
concert sounds, but also how it reflects the lived experiences of the
people making the music."
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| Beth Howard (Illustration by N. Nichols) |
As an activist and community organizer for Appalachia and the broader South, Beth Howard hopes her memoir,
Song for a Hard-Hit People: A Memoir of Anti-Racist Solidarity From a Coal Miner’s Daughter, helps readers see Southern differences through a lens of curiosity that they can apply to their daily interactions with other people,
writes Nhatt Nichols of
Rural Assembly. Howard said, "I think one of the biggest lessons for me when I was learning to organize is the importance of listening and asking really good, open-ended questions." Nichols adds, "Howard advocates for getting out into your community and finding other people who are doing organizing work that resonates with you, and offering to lend a hand, to learn more about your community without centering your own ideas."
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