The Rural Blog

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. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Rural Blog

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It's Black History Month: Educator talks about teaching America's history, all 'the good, the bad, and the ugly'

Black-owned acreage has fallen by almost half since 1900, partly because whites exploited informal land ownership

Quick hits: Gardening through a drought; Delta farmworkers claim discrimination; just how rural is your place?

Lawsuits from conservative groups drive up price tag, timing of Biden minority-farmer relief program, now at risk

Loan program to help Black farmers keep land they inherited informally, authorized in 2018 Farm Bill, is finally starting

USDA to hold online listening sessions this week on racial-justice and equity efforts in under-served communities

U.S. has very few millennial farmers; only 9% are 35 or younger, and only 4% of those are non-white, USDA says

Quick hits: rural migrant health; covering critical race theory; Biden rejects free-trade doctrine of Dem. predecessors . . .

Black farmers the least likely to get USDA direct loans over past three years, also got lower share of pandemic relief

Panel of rural experts say Biden administration needs more rural voices

Chuck Abbott of FERN covers Vilsack's to-do list, climate-change farm subsidies, and minority farmer debt relief

A look at the little-known, but critical, work of Depression-era Black workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps

Vilsack, in line for confirmation as secretary, says he will have 'a serious focus on getting stuff done quickly' at USDA

Biden courts Black farmers in Southern swing states

Quick hits: movement seeks to increase number of young Black farmers; hope outlasts prosperity in oil-bust town

Execs at Pilgrim's Pride and Claxton Poultry Farms indicted in alleged price-fixing scheme; others could be charged

Man who left NFL to run a farm seems to be doing well

Minority farmers, especially Hispanics, on the rise

African Americans with Southern farming heritage bring farmers' market to Chicago's South Side

Program to compensate minority farmers for past discrimination is 'a runaway train,' NYT reports