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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A Chinese-owned glass plant in Ohio is 'clobbering' its American competitors

Despite concerns over lost sales and expenses, many farmers still support the Trump administration's tariffs

U.S. farmers already had big worries. New tariffs, USDA cuts and funding freezes have hit them 'on all fronts.'

Reflecting on the pandemic as Covid-19 comes back, Iowa editor writes: 'This is a lot for any nation to absorb'

New book illuminates challenges of family farming by following a Nebraska family for a year

One of five remaining U.S. aluminum smelters may survive, thanks to international trade loophole; trade experts warn of unintended effects

Post series on rural death rates end in another town that says 'This isn't the place it used to be'

Social problems in rural areas change nature of USDA and its concept of rural development

War on Poverty was declared 50 years ago tomorrow

Interactive maps show counties' global connections: language, employment, heritage and more

Contest invites rural teachers, students to submit videos comparing their community with another

U.S., U.K., China, Arabs among buyers of farmland in other countries, mostly in Africa, Asia

Coal poised to beat oil as top world energy source, but U.S. demand and production will drop, IEA says

Drought's short-term impact on food prices pales in comparison to global, long-term factors

Report: Rural manufacturing, once so hard hit, looks to be rebounding with global growth

Scientists link bee colony collapses to fatal virus spread by mites

Writer: 70 percent increase in global food need is reason to embrace genetically modified crops

U.S. beef industry optimistic about global sales despite a case of mad cow disease

Wendell Berry, in national lecture, calls for affection to community to counter pillage by 'industrialism'

China buying more U.S. breeding hogs, but critics fear long-term decline of pork export market