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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All creatures: Thousands of boar hybrids; loss for Cajun cooking; the better animal spy; is too much bacon possible?

Next pandemic could come from pigs at county or state fair

Stagnant demand, lower exports, higher production costs create 'worst financial times for pork producers in 25 years'

By 5-4, Supreme Court OKs Calif. ban on tight confinement of sows; ruling has broad implications for animal agriculture

Court axes regulatory exception for mid-sized factory farms; hundreds of them will need environmental assessments

Feral swine from Canada threaten Minn., No. 2 pork state; in Georgia, landowners start trapping them in corrals

USDA funds 71 climate-related projects at less than $5 million, many of them to 'figure out what works,' Vilsack says

Feral hogs still a big problem even though the U.S. has spent more than $31.5 million trying to eradicate them

Quick hits: Apply for NPF awards; old buildings revived as arts spaces; rural LGBTQ adults face more challenges

Retaliatory tariffs during trade war led to $27 billion in lost agricultural exports by end of 2019, USDA report concludes

Covid-19 infections at meatpacking plants slow production

Quick hits: How agri-tourism can empower rural women; what's working and what's not in rural programs to lure remote workers; Amazon opening more rural delivery hubs

Pandemic highlights weaknesses in meat supply chains

Net farm income predicted to be highest in eight years, with 18% increase in crop and livestock receipts over 2020

Quick hits: feral hogs pollute environment as much as 1.1 million cars; family farm swaps cows for goats to stay afloat

U.S. hog prices down as China quashes African swine fever

Fears of hog lagoon flooding in N.C. raise question of who should fund industry efforts to adapt to climate change

Wheat, corn and soybean prices are the highest since 2013; grocery prices could go up

Hunting hasn't done much to eradicate feral hogs, but an ecologist's new trap called 'The Pig Brig' might help

China's 2020 Phase One agriculture purchases well below target, but back up to 2017 levels