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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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 shortage of trained mechanics means auto owners will pay more for repairs. (Ford photo)
Moving the manufacturing of any product back to the U.S. is an expensive and iffy gamble that can take years to bring into fruition. For many companies, the idea of reshoring labor-intensive industries isn't even on the table because the nation doesn't have enough skilled trade workers to staff factory floors.
Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley "pointed out on a podcast last week that he can’t find enough skilled mechanics to run his auto plants. Specifically, Ford can’t fill 5,000 mechanic jobs that pay $120,000 a year," writesThe Wall Street Journal editorial board.
“We are in trouble in our country. We are not talking about this enough,” Farley told Monica Langley of the "Office Hours" podcast. "We have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians and tradesmen.”
For decades, American youth have been influenced to attend college rather than trade schools through government-sponsored financial support and cultural influences that push college degrees as a prerequisite for success, even when a trade profession might be a better fit. "This has created a skills mismatch in the labor market," the board adds. "Unemployment among young college grads is increasing, while employers struggle to hire skilled manufacturing workers, technicians and contractors."
When graduate numbers are compared, the extreme shortage of skilled workers becomes clear. "Only 114,000 Americans in their 20s completed vocational programs during the first 10 months of last year, compared to 1.24 million who graduated from four-year colleges and 405,000 who received advanced degrees," the board writes.
A lack of skilled workers eventually costs consumers more money. "An American whose F-150 truck breaks down will still have to pay more at the repair shop owing to the mechanic shortage," the board explains. "Steering every high school student toward college is doing tangible harm to the labor market — and the young."
The Maryville plant makes 1.8 million fine-tip Sharpies a day. (Sharpie graphic)
With planning, investments, and an eye on domestic manufacturing, Newell Brands now produces almost all its Sharpie markers in Maryville, Tennessee, using all American-made pieces, except for the felt tips, which are made in Japan, reports Natasha Khan of The Wall Street Journal.
During the early 2000s, Newell moved some parts of Sharpie manufacturing overseas; however, around 2018, company leadership introduced a strategy to move all Sharpie marker production back to the company's 37-year-old Maryville plant.
Overall, the successful move "took close to $2 billion in investments across the company, thousands of hours of training and a total overhaul of the production process," Khan explains. "Newell did it without reducing the employee count, and without raising prices."
Some of the company's transitional success is attributed to robotic advances, but Newell didn't replace people with robots. Instead, it kept its "employees who knew the company and converted their jobs to roles such as automation engineering," Khan adds. For instance, robots now pack boxes and employees "fix the robot instead of packing boxes."
In many cases, Newell paid for the additional education and training employees needed to be prepared for new roles. Khan writes, "The average wage at its Maryville facility, which employs 550 staff, has gone up some 50% over the past five years — without a change in head count."
The Maryville factory floor is "marked squares to delineate space for more lines to shift to America, such as Sharpie’s Clearview highlighter; it will move back from China in coming months," Khan adds. "The factory operates around the clock, making 1.8 million fine-tip Sharpies a day."
Once known for its good-paying paper mill jobs and stinky smell, the small town of Canton, North Carolina, faced an uncertain future after the mill suddenly closed in March 2023. "Canton’s paper mill set the rhythm of life here for some 115 years," reports Emma Goldberg of The New York Times. Despite its sulfur-laden odor, "locals were proud of the mill, which employed hundreds in town and allowed its residents to build homes and send their children to college."
After the mill closed, residents weren't sure if the town could survive without the salaries the factory had provided for generations. "Canton lost its life source, and with it any sense of certainty about its economic future. It became one of more than 60,000 manufacturing hubs that have been wiped off America’s map since the late 1990s," Goldberg writes. "Just over a year after it closed, Hurricane Helene destroyed more than 30 homes and businesses in the area."
After its doors were shuttered, the mill sat vacant for two years until a developer from Missouri purchased it and worked to rally Canton residents to help reinvent the town. "Eric Spirtas closed the deal to buy the mill site," Goldberg reports. "He arrived in a flurry of ideas."
Canton, N.C. is roughly 20 minutes from Asheville.
While Spirtas cheered for making Canton a must-see tourist destination, locals, including the town's mayor, Zeb Smathers, didn't see tourism jobs as a solution. Goldberg writes, "Smathers knows that many of the locals do not want hospitality jobs. They want high-paying manufacturing jobs. They talk excitedly about President Trump’s promises to make America once again a 'manufacturing superpower.'"
Now that the town's rotten-egg smell has disappeared, new residents and shops have moved in. "Canton’s main street has welcomed an apothecary, a record shop and a guitar store. Amanda Barta, who moved from Texas during the pandemic, opened a soap boutique weeks after Helene," Goldberg writes.
Even as the town attracts new business, many former mill employees have taken jobs in nearby cities or moved away. At a recent Canton celebration, 77-year-old Gail Mull, a former mill worker who now serves as mayor pro tem, took a good look at the crowd and told Goldberg, "As my mother would say, these are not locals.”
The Star Wars franchise might begin and end in "a galaxy far, far away," but its newest series 'Andor' serves up some close-to-home conflicts. "Migrant farm workers sweating visa status amid amped-up immigration enforcement. Aggressive strip mining of the land without consideration of local communities. … Rising disregard for due process and human rights," writes Adam B. Giorgi for The Daily Yonder. "Various installments in the franchise have been associated with or said to draw inspiration from then-contemporary concerns, including the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But it’s arguably never been more timely or effective than it is in 'Andor.'"
Keen moved part of its production back to the U.S. (Keen photo via BBC North America)
High tariffs are one tool the Trump administration has put in place to try to stimulate American manufacturing growth, but even as those costs hit the U.S. market, the question remains, "How can the U.S. reinvent its manufacturing sector in today's global economy?" While U.S. factories look different now than they did in the 1970s, it can be done. Family-owned Keen Footwear located outside of Louisville, Ky., is showing the way, reports Michelle Fleury of BBC North America. "With just 24 employees on site, the factory relies heavily on automation — sophisticated robots that fuse soles and trim materials — underscoring a transformation in how goods are made today."
If it feels like life needs a reset or even an "undo" button, heading outside may be the answer. "Nature can save us from a world gone mad," writes Dana Milbank of The Washington Post. "I hiked the Appalachian Trail, and it fixed my brain. … I wandered happily along the trail spotting the colors of the forest in spring: the red columbine, the lavender wild geranium, the lacy maple-leaf viburnum. … I found myself talking back to the birds that seemed to be following us."
Pharmacist Jan Brandenburg shares her Appalachian roots in her new cookbook.
Sometimes sharing recipes from home is the best way to showcase what your region is all about. For Jan Brandenburg of Kentucky, home is Appalachia, where she learned to love cooking, baking and science. "Today, after nearly 40 years as a practicing pharmacist, Brandenburg has published The Modern Mountain Cookbook: A Plant-Based Celebration of Appalachia, a tribute to her Eastern Kentucky roots and a vibrant exploration of how food — like medicine — can nourish, heal and connect," report Dana Cox and Rosa Mejia-Cruz for UKnow. "Brandenburg often finds herself offering guidance to patients … not just on medications, but on food choices, too. And she's just as happy to share recipes."
Seeing and smelling my mom's homemade yeast rolls rising in a warm oven, getting a nose-full of Grandma's mildewy basement where I used to fetch canned tomatoes, hearing the old Gordon Lightfoot song my dad played until everyone had it memorized. Those are all distinct experiences with memories and feelings attached to them. According to social psychologist and researcher Chelsea Reid, that feeling — nostalgia — is good for us. Reid explains in her story for The Conversation, that "sentimental longing for treasured moments in our personal pasts is linked to our well-being and feelings of connection with others … triggered by sensory stimuli such as music, scents and foods, nostalgia has the power to mentally transport us back in time."
A line of ARC-supported firefighters head off to battle a blaze. (ARC photo via Civil Eats)
When people think of firefighters, they don't also think about prisoners, but that's what some firefighters are, and just like non-incarcerated firefighters, they need care, too. "As hurricane-force winds caused wildfires to raze entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, more than 7,500 firefighters risked their lives. … Among them were an estimated 1,100 inmates from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation," reports Nadra Nittle of Civil Eats. "Sam Lewis of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition discusses why good meals, better pay, and post-release support could transform the future for incarcerated firefighters — and why society should see their humanity."
The U.S. produces domestic clothing on a smaller scale. (Hybrid Storytellers photo, Unsplash)
Part of the driving force behind President Donald Trump's far-reaching tariffs is to push American businesses and consumers to make and purchase U.S.-manufactured goods. While American production and purchasing appeals to many Americans, the question remains: Is America up to the task?
"In many industries, the undertaking would take years, if not decades. The United States lacks nearly every part of the manufacturing ecosystem — the workers, the training, the technology and the government support," reports Alexandra Stevenson of The New York Times.
Trump's made in America push opens up a bigger trade discussion about where products are made vs. where they are sold. The logistical and financial effort required to re-shore all the moving parts, which are often produced across the globe, would present a challenge.
Sailex, a fabric and clothing manufacturer, is an example. The company has a jean-making facility in Los Angeles that produces roughly 70,000 pairs of pants per month. But that comes with a tradeoff. Stevenson explains, "The operation works only because Saitex runs a much bigger factory and fabric mill in southern Vietnam where thousands of workers churn out 500,000 pairs of jeans a month."
Sailex owner Sanjeev Bahl believes the U.S. "can make stuff again . . . . But his experience highlights how hard it would be," Stevenson reports. "There are no mills in America on the scale of what the industry needs, nor major zipper and button suppliers. The cost of running a factory is high. Then there is the labor problem: There just aren’t enough workers."
If the U.S. wants to revive its manufacturing powerhouse status, that goal "would have to include immigrants seeking that same opportunity in the United States," Stevenson explains. "At Saitex’s Los Angeles factory, most of the workers come from countries like Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador."
Even if the U.S. could find enough workers, the cost of labor is a barrier. Stevenson reports, "It is hard to make things in great volume in America. . . .For Bahl, it boils down to the cost of a sewing machine operator. In Los Angeles, that person gets paid around $4,000 a month. In Vietnam, it is $500."
Reshoring American manufacturing could take time and big money. (Photo by Brice Cooper, Unsplash)
Despite the Trump administration's full press effort to revive American manufacturing, it's unclear if Americans want factory jobs. "American manufacturers say they are struggling to fill the jobs they already have," reports Greg Rosalsky of NPR's Planet Money. "According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly half a million open manufacturing jobs right now."
Although a tight labor market explains some of the labor shortage, it's also a product of economic and educational circumstances. Rosalsky explains, "Manufacturers can't fill these jobs overnight because they require workers to have particular skills. And it's not just skills needed to work on assembly lines. . . . Manufacturers also employ people to do research and development, engineering, design, finance. . ."
Politicians typically tout factory work because it can "provide good jobs and career ladders for people without a college education," Rosalsky writes. "However, many manufacturing jobs these days actually require college degrees. . . That said. . . half of the open manufacturing jobs don't require a bachelor's degree. And manufacturers say they are also struggling to fill those."
A fair question manufacturers may need to revisit: Do they pay enough? Higher wages might "convince workers to invest in acquiring coveted skills and enter the manufacturing workforce," Rosalsky adds. "But the higher pay that Americans demand to work in manufacturing is one of the big reasons that many manufacturers left America in the first place."
Oren Cass, the chief economist and founder of American Compass, a conservative think tank, "believes that tariffs can help even the playing field with foreign competitors," Rosalsky reports. "And he stresses that one of the keys to reshoring manufacturing — while maintaining well-paying manufacturing jobs — is higher productivity."
In late April, Trump "issued an executive order aimed at 'preparing Americans for high-paying skilled trade jobs of the future,'" Rosalsky writes.
Skilled trades can offer training during high school and a good-paying job upon graduation. (Adobe Stock photo)
Skilled labor training is helping some high schoolers land jobs with big pay before they even graduate. "Companies with shortages of skilled workers look to shop class to recruit future hires," reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Elijah Rios won’t graduate from high school until next year, but he already has a job offer — one that pays $68,000 a year."
While the U.S. shortage of skilled labor has been building over time, baby boomer retirements have pushed trade-based companies that need a pipeline of trained professionals to "turn to creative recruiting strategies," Te-Ping explains. "More businesses are teaming up with high schools to enable students to work part-time, earning money as well as academic credit. More employers are showing up at high school career days." The renewed interest in hiring from the trades has helped revive high school shop programming.
Younger workers generally are more at ease with incorporating technology into their work, which is another reason trade recruiters are stepping up their "shop class" connections. According to the WSJ article, "Employers say that as the skilled trades become more tech-infused, they anticipate doing even more recruitment at an early age, because they need workers who are comfortable programming and running computer diagnostics."
One of the best things employers can do to "get a foot into high schools early on is by offering internships, says Roxanne Amiot, an automotive instructor at Bullard-Havens Technical School in Bridgeport, Conn.," Te-Ping writes. She told the Journal, “I tell them, don’t call me for students when they graduate, grab them now when they’re 16 or 17, or I have nobody to work for you.”
The recruitment opportunities and wages that trade professions offer signal a dramatic shift away from the "college-for-all mindset," according to the article. "[But] it’s important to make sure students are made aware of all their options, says Steve Klein, a researcher who focuses on vocational education. . . . At the same time, as interest in vocational education rises, he worries that sentiment runs the risk of swinging too much in the other direction."
Guardian's USA-made children's bike is still evolving. (Guardian graphic via WSJ)
Children’s bike maker Guardian Bikes moved its production from China to the U.S. intending to build its bikes with as many American-made parts as possible, reports Natasha Khan of The Wall Street Journal. The company's founder, Brian Riley, hopes "steep tariffs" on Chinese imports pledged by President-elect Donald Trump will make American-made bikes and parts more competitive.
Moving bicycle component production to the United States will still be tough partially because China has dominated the sector for decades. Riley knows the challenges and is still moving in that direction. Khan explains, "For now, components from China represent about 90% of the total cost of Guardian’s parts. By the end of next year, Riley hopes that figure will be about 20%. Guardian is starting production of its own bike frames. . . . As a result of Guardian’s new manufacturing, American-made parts could represent about 60% of the cost."
One of the reasons Riley moved his company to the United States was to build a "safer bike that could prevent the kind of head-over-heels braking accident that had injured his grandfather years earlier," Khan reports. "Many bikes sold at retailers such as Walmart or Target aren’t fully assembled when they are shipped to the retailers from overseas, so manufacturers don’t have oversight on the final assembly. Riley told Khan, "By controlling every aspect of production, we can guarantee the quality of every bike that rolls off our assembly line."
Riley admits that opening a U.S. factory was expensive and time-consuming. "At first, workers were slow to build the bikes, putting together 100 a day. It took time and constant tweaking of the assembly line to improve their speed and efficiency," Khan writes. Riley told her, "We had to bite the bullet. We had to be willing to lose money for a while to get to the other side of the strategy.”
The creation of Guardian's USA-made bike is evolving. "Guardian plans to begin making bike frames at the factory this year, using American steel. . . . Guardian is also considering making rims itself," Khan reports. "The bike maker has approached U.S. suppliers that could provide grips and reflectors."
Riley told Khan, "Everyone says making bikes here is impossible." Kahn adds, "His factory shows it isn’t."
The purveyor of delux and premium deli-meats closed its Jarratt, Va. plant.
The indefinite closure of a Boar's Head production facility in Jarratt, Virginia, is an added blow to the rural town's economy where the company was the largest employer. Boar's Head decided to close the plant after it was linked to a severe listeria outbreak, which has killed 10 people and hospitalized 59. Now, laid-off Boar's Head workers must face a tough job market in manufacturing-depressed southern Virginia, reports Chao Deng of The Wall Street Journal. "For decades, the Boar’s Head deli meat plant has been one of few economic pillars holding up this rural, downbeat part of southern Virginia."
Even though Boar's Head is offering workers severance pay and the possibility of relocation, the sudden closure has left workers shocked and unsure. Deng writes, "Many are scrambling to figure out how to pay their bills and whether they can even stay in a region battered by waves of layoffs and closed businesses."
Many workers believe finding a new job will most likely mean accepting a long commute. Manufacturing work in Virginia has been fading since the 1990s "when the elimination of trade barriers invited global competition," Deng reports. "Textiles and furniture-making went by the wayside." Fletcher Mangum, an economic consultant from Richmond, Virginia, told Deng, "The job opportunities [in southern Virginia] are not good. Manufacturing has had ups and downs but it never quite recovered from the losses of Nafta."
Overall, Virginia's state economy has struggled, with its rural southern and western regions having suffered the steepest declines. Deng writes, "Year-over-year employment in Greensville County, where the Boar’s Head plant is located, has mostly underperformed that of the state since 2017. . . . Manufacturing makes up about 30% of the economy in Greensville, compared with about 7% for the state."
Greensville resident Marvin Tiller has worked in factories that closed "most of his career," Deng reports. "Before getting laid off from Boar’s Head, the 51-year-old worked for two companies that shut down operations in the area more than a decade back — he was a crane operator for a steel company called Emporia Foundry, as well as a delivery man for Fujifilm Pharmaceuticals. . . . [He's] thinking about getting out of factory work altogether."
The U.S. uses 1.5 million metric tons of rubber each year. (Graphic by Adam Dixon, Ambrook Research)
Made-in-America rubber may become a new crop for farmers and a new manufacturing industry for the United States. "Scientists, farmers and major corporations are working together to lay the groundwork for domestic rubber production," reports Kate Morgan of Ambrook Research. Even though rubber is in "roughly 50,000 different products across U.S. manufacturing sectors, almost all of the 1.5 million metric tons or more, worth $2 billion — is imported, mostly from Southeast Asian rubber plantations." However, considering how much rubber the nation uses, reliance on a single foreign regional supplier may leave U.S. manufacturing vulnerable.
American rubber production begins with growing rubber plants, such as guayule (pronounced "why-you-lee"), which "grows wild in parts of Texas and Mexico, but it's also easy to cultivate and grow on farms throughout the region. Drought-tolerant and disinclined to disease, there's not much that bothers it," Morgan explains. When Guayuule stems are ground up and put "through a process of distillation and filtration, the result is a high-quality natural latex" for producing "everything from surgical gloves to car parts. . . . Many believe this shrub is the best candidate for developing a domestic rubber market."
Guayule is fairly impervious to conditions. (Wikipedia photo)
The U.S. has put off rubber plant production partly because of the extreme labor used in hand-tapping Hevea, the most commonly used rubber plant. Research shows that other types of plants work better with less work. "Rubber-producing plants could be grown in the U.S. — not to mention planted and harvested mechanically, rather than with the arduous manpower required for Hevea — on a massive scale," Morgan reports. "Guayule offers many opportunities for farmers, especially in parts of the U.S. that are growing more difficult to irrigate and cultivate."
The next hurdle for American rubber production is finding a manufacturer. Katrina Cornish, professor of horticulture and biological engineering at Ohio State University, told Morgan, "It's all there, there's just no processing infrastructure. We've got farmers who are willing to grow these crops and lots of companies wanting to buy the latex. We need a full-scale processing plant, and we're looking at somewhere around a $70 million price tag." Morgan reports, "Once it's refined, Cornish added, rubber made from guayule or any other plant could be used — it could upend our entire rubber supply chain."
Smelting furnaces in an aluminum plant (Adobe Stock photo)
Aluminum is versatile, abundant and light, and it is in hundreds of commercial items, including appliances, zippers, golf clubs and indoor furniture. Despite its excellent manufacturing properties, the raw material has production drawbacks — its smelters use loads of electricity and the fossil fuels used to create that electricity harm the environment, reports Maddie Stone of Grist. However, in the United States, the way aluminum is made may soon change. Century Aluminum Company, a global aluminum producer, is negotiating with the Department of Energy for up to $500 million in grant money to build a new aluminum smelter.
Promoted as the "green aluminum smelter," the facility would be "the nation's first new aluminum smelter in 45 years, which could double the amount of virgin, or primary, aluminum the country produces while emitting 75% less CO2 than older smelters, thanks to increased efficiency and the use of renewable electricity," Stone writes. "The grant, which is awaiting finalization, is a 'huge vote of confidence and a shot in the arm' for the industry, said Annie Sartor, the aluminum campaign director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit focused on industrial decarbonization."
Protecting the environment while supplying the U.S. with tons more aluminum means the production process matters for aluminum, which requires extreme amounts of electricity. Rebecca Dell, an industrial decarbonization expert with the nonprofit ClimateWorks, told Stone, "We're talking about truly eye-watering amounts of electricity. . . . The first, most important thing to do is to use clean electricity."
Creating a climate-friendly smelter means Century Aluminum must find a site to support its clean energy demands. "According to the DOE, Century Aluminum's preferred site is in Kentucky, a state with lackluster clean energy credentials," Stone writes. "Sartor says she expects a plant of this size to require 'somewhere in the neighborhood of a gigawatt' of power.'" Sartor added, "The only way that will happen is if gargantuan amounts of clean energy get built in Kentucky. . . . There's no other way around this."
While Kentucky is the favored location, Century Aluminum hasn't decided. "Locations within the Ohio and Mississippi River basins are also reportedlyunder consideration," Stone reports. "Dell believes that brings an interesting political dimension to the project because Century Aluminum expects the smelter to create more than 1,000 full-time union jobs and another 5,500 construction jobs."
Boston Metal will make clean-energy metals at the old Weirton Steel location in W.Va. (Photo by Luke Sharrett, The New York Times)
From Weirton, West Virginia to Vernon, Texas, to Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, the Department of Energy is funding projects designed to help medium-sized manufacturers "bring clean-energy jobs to former coal communities," reports Hiroko Tabuchi of The New York Times. The infusion of cash is part of the Biden administration's effort to gain support for its climate agenda in regions that have long depended on the fossil fuel industry. The administration hopes that funding new jobs in energy can help coal workers and regional economies transition.
Hard work for decent pay and good benefits once defined U.S. coal mining jobs, but over the past decade, those jobs have disappeared. "These energy workers haven't been finding clean-energy jobs despite the rapid growth in industries like solar and wind," Tabuchi writes. "Coal workers, in particular, have struggled in the transition, a recent study found. "Less than a quarter of a percent of workers who left a fossil fuel job in West Virginia moved onto a job in renewable energy, said E. Mark Curtis, an economist at Wake Forest University who led the study. Education was another factor: Fossil fuel workers without a college degree were significantly less likely to find clean energy jobs."
Curtis told Tabuchi: "In places like Texas or in the middle of the country where there's a lot of solar and wind, fossil fuel communities are relatively well positioned to take advantage of renewables. Coal communities generally don't have that, especially when you think about Appalachia." Tabuchi reports, "He said it made sense for government funding to target former coal regions and to focus on manufacturing projects because data showed that former fossil fuel workers most frequently sought to switch to manufacturing jobs."
The DOE grant program aims to help the U.S. become more competitive in the clean-energy manufacturing sector while using the $275 million investment to revitalize former coal towns' economies. The companies building the new plants said "they are eager to tap local expertise," Tabuchi reports. Tadeu Carneiro, the chief executive of Boston Metal, told him: "The most valuable asset for the project is a legacy workforce that has played a significant role in the U.S. metals industry." Tabuchi adds, "Its new West Virginia plant expects to hire 200 to 250 people and will manufacture ultra pure chromium metal and high-temperature alloys that are critical materials needed for clean power, fuel cells, and steel. Currently, foreign manufacturers dominate those materials."
A student intern at KEITH in Madras, Oregon. (KEITH courtesy photo via The Daily Yonder)
Over the past two decades, finding and retaining skilled manufacturing talent has become increasingly difficult. The challenges seen at KEITH Manufacturing Company in Madas, Oregon, are similar to other areas of the country where the sector can't find enough workers, reports Nick Flouriezos of The Daily Yonder. Mike Feigner, KEITH's plant manager, told him, "I've been doing this job since 2006, and it seems like you always have a labor problem. . . . We suck up a lot of that skilled labor that is a great fit for us quickly, and then we're trying to fit it with other people who maybe aren't looking for that long-term commitment to learning those skills."
If companies can't find long-term workers, retention and training soak up more company resources. "The company has no choice but to train and support homegrown talent if it wants to continue producing the self-unloading conveyor belt system that has become a staple in waste and recycling trucks worldwide," Flouriezos explains. "One thing that’s helped? A partnership with Oregon STEM and its Spark Oregon earn-and-learn initiative that helped pay for KEITH to employ four local high school interns for the summer."
Madras, pop. 7,500, is located in Jefferson County, Ore. (Wikipedia map)
Earn-and-learn money "helped the students justify doing the internship when they could have been making more working full-time at the local McDonald's for the summer, Feigner says. Working three days a week for two months, the students were exposed to everything from welding and forklifts to assembly and engineering work with the R&D team," Flouriezos reports. At the end of the first internship, the company was able to hire one of the interns. Feigner told him, "I think this is exactly what the country needs. . . .Even if we get one student every two or three years that ends up being a direct-hire, I would call that a win."
What worked in Oregon exemplifies the ingenuity many philanthropy organizations use to address shortages. "Philanthropies with a technology focus or background have been particularly creative in funding education and workforce programs," Fouriezos adds. "That’s fitting, says Matt Dunne, executive director of the Center on Rural Innovation based in his hometown of Hartland, Vt." Dune told Fouriezos: “If you dig into it, a lot of it has to do with the economy and the impacts that a completely unequal recovery from the 2008 recession led to. And if you look at the driver of that divide, it really comes down to the winners and losers of the knowledge economy driven by technology."
At times, philanthropy can do what government or private funding cannot. Josh Elder, vice president and head of grant-making at The Siegel Family Endowment, told Fouriezos: "We embrace the idea that philanthropy should operate as society’s risk capital. . . . We want to be able to support early-stage things that others might not look at."
Map by Marine Cadastre, Army Corps of Engineers via The Wall Street Journal
It isn't just the mighty Mississippi River that moves U.S. commerce. A system of locks, known as the Soo Locks is also vital to trade, but the neglected system needs ongoing, long-term repairs.
"About 10,000 ships pass through the Soo Locks each year to bring iron ore, grain, limestone and other staples across the Great Lakes and Canada into the Midwest and beyond," reports Ken Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "The navigational system allows large ships to bypass rapids below Lake Superior. . . . Every few decades, the locks were upgraded — until recently."
The pandemic gave Americans a first-hand look at the havoc supply chain disruptions can cause, helping projects like the Soo Locks repairs become a national priority. "Now, construction crews are working to complete a modernization of the locks," Thomas writes. "The question is whether the upgrades can get the funds they need in time." And while the Biden administration has increased funding, more will be needed through 2030 when the upgrades are slated for completion.
In 2015, a Department of Homeland Security study "found that the aging network serves shipping vessels carrying nearly 90% of the nation's iron ore, a critical component of the steel used to make cars and refrigerators," Thomas explains. "The study estimated that if it closed for an extended period, it would also disrupt steel production, cost millions of jobs, and reduce U.S. gross domestic product by $1.1 trillion. . . . John Walsh, the chief executive of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, said trade associations as well as congressional delegations from the Great Lakes states are working to keep the funding a priority.
"The locks are the only effective way to transport the raw materials because distributing iron ore and other supplies by trucks or trains would be cost-prohibitive. Supporters noted that 13 of 14 North American integrated steel mills are dependent upon the Soo Locks to transport iron ore from Minnesota and Michigan," Thomas adds. "The system is nearly as old as the U.S.: The first lock, about 40 feet long to handle canoes, was built on the St. Marys River in 1798 by the Northwest Fur Co. to enhance the fur trade."
A machine the size of a football field makes paper that becomes boxes. (Photo by Christopher Payne, The New York Times)
The people of Windsor, Wisconsin, pop. 8,000, rejoiced when the village's newsletter announced it would have a separate bin for cardboard recycling, all the more important when more Christmas gifts are bought online and shipped. But where does all that cardboard come from?
The corrugated-paper industry runs trees through a marathon of steps before a nifty box emerges, writes Matthew Shaer of The New York Times: "Before it was the cardboard on your doorstep, it was coarse brown paper, and before it was paper, it was a river of hot pulp, and before it was a river, it was a tree. Probably a Pinus taeda, or loblolly pine, a slender conifer native to the Southeastern United States."
Shaer met up with Alex Singleton, a manager for International Paper, which produces a third of U.S. boxes. His mission "is to source enough loblollies to help keep IP’s production lines humming." He told Shaer, “You’re sort of always in a race. You learn to get creative.” Singleton manages a group of foresters who "spend much of their time zipping around the Southeast by pickup, using a proprietary smartphone app to monitor tracts of harvestable woodland," Shaer writes.
In the woodyard, the creation begins: "A crane was removing timber from a log truck and feeding it into the bladed mouth of a cylindrical machine known as a debarking drum. . . . It churned and chewed and spit the denuded trees from its rear end," Shaer writes. "Another masticating machine, this one a steel chipper. In went the debarked trees, out came a spray of loblolly pine. . . . chips from the woodyard were entering what’s known as the kraft process (the German word for 'strength')."
Shaer describes the 'paper machine,' which "stretched across almost the entire mill floor and trembled like a space shuttle just before liftoff. . . . Pulp sluiced in and cascaded onto the 'former,' where it was flattened into a paper-like consistency." There are more steps, and the end product is corrugated: "If you’ve stopped to look at an individual panel of corrugate and noticed its resemblance to a deli sandwich. There’s a top and a bottom, and between them is a bunch of ridged or diagonally reinforced filler called 'fluting.' That fluting is what gives a cardboard box its protective quality; without its flutes, corrugate wouldn’t be corrugate at all — it would just be containerboard."
The corrugated cardboard industry is booming, Shaer reports: "In 2021, Amazon shipped $470 billion of goods globally, in an estimated 7.7 billion packages." Happy unpacking!
Santa Claus, Ind., has put up a roadblock for a proposed plant that would make diesel fuel from Illinois Basin coal, reports Rebecca Thiele for Indiana Public Media.
The new "Battery Belt" brings jobs to smaller cities, Joann Mueller reports for Axios.
As snowmelt becomes uncertain, grit and tradition prevail in the Pacific Northwest, Ruth Fremson and Kirk Johnson report for The New York Times.
Low-head dams, called "drowning machines," claim lives across Kentucky and the U.S., Sarah Hume reports for the Louisville Courier Journal.
Liz Carey and Adam B. Giorgi write up rural America's spookiest stories for the Daily Yonder.
Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.
At least 16 people have died from catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky, and more deaths are likely to be confirmed, Gov. Andy Beshear says. Read more here.
Many cities and small towns see a huge economic opportunity in just-passed House bill that would create incentives for domestic manufacture of computer chips. Read more here.
Libraries are a boon to rural society, and more important than ever during the pandemic, retired journalist Keith Roysdon writes for The Daily Yonder.
LGBTQ+ Americans in rural Appalachia face greater barriers to accessing health care, according to a recent survey of providers. That's partly because of many providers may not be familiar with unique LGBTQ+ health concerns, or willing or able to address them. Some patients may be reluctant to seek care because of stigma. Read more here.
In the rural West, 'self-reliance' can take a heavy toll on mental health. Read more here.
West Virginia has blocked five major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, from doing business with the state because they have stopped supporting the coal industry, which has become less profitable in recent years. Read more here.
Abbott Laboratories "reached an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to reopen the company’s manufacturing plant in Michigan to help ease a nationwide shortage of baby formula, after the facility was closed due to bacterial contamination," reports Spencer Kimball of CNBC. According to the consent decree, Abbott can resume production at its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, within two weeks once the FDA signs off on it, but it will take six to eight weeks after production resumes for formula to hit store shelves.
The FDA ordered the Abbott plant to shut down in February after four infants were sickened from contaminated formula and two died.
"Under the consent decree to reopen the plant, Abbott has agreed to bring in outside experts to help the facility come into compliance with food safety regulations, according to the Justice Department," Kimball reports. "The outside experts will design a plan for Abbott to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination at the plant and conduct periodic evaluations to make sure the company is in compliance. The process will be under FDA supervision."
In the meantime, the FDA will allow some imported formula meant for foreign markets to enter the U.S., but only after the agency has evaluated whether each manufacturer that applies has a safe and nutritious product. The FDA has been allowing more formula imports meant for the U.S. since February, Kimball reports.
Families nationwide are scrambling to find baby formula amid a widespread shortage. Rural families are likely having an even harder time since there are fewer local places to buy formula, and because families who use federal assistance can only buy certain formulas. It's even more difficult to find certain medically necessary specialty formulas. Here's what you—and your readers—need to know:
What happened: In February the Food and Drug AdministrationorderedAbbott Nutrition, the nation's leading formula maker, to shut down its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, after four infants were hospitalized with bacterial infections from contaminated formula and two of them died. The FDA issued a voluntary recall on three products (Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare) and warned customers not to use certain specialty formulas produced at the facility, but the warning didn't get much public attention, so parents didn't know to stock up. Formula was already low in stock since at least December because of inflation, supply-chain shortages and product recalls.
How bad is it? Formula stockpiles in stores are 43 percent lower than normal, compared to 30-40% short in April, says retail data tracker Datasembly. Only about a quarter of children are exclusively breast-fed up to the age of six months, so most parents and caregivers depend at least partially on formula.
Why not breastfeed?Many babies who require specialty formulas can also get sick from drinking breast milk. Adoptive families and many others also have difficulty accessing or affording a reliable supply of breast milk, and some survivors of sexual violence may find it traumatizing. Some mothers find it difficult to maintain a steady supply of milk, and others can't breastfeed at all because they must take medications that would taint the milk. Though state and federal laws protect women's right to breastfeed in public—including at work—many women are embarrassed, intimidated, or even discouraged from the practice, and many women are not knowledgeable about the health benefits of breast milk.
Is homemade baby formula a safe alternative?No. Homemade formulas can be too high in sodium, too low in calcium, contaminated, and/or lack critical nutrients. Babies can suffer long-term damage after using homemade formula alternatives or straight cow's milk for even a few days, according to the National Committee on Nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's also dangerous to dilute baby formula with too much water. If there is absolutely no other alternative, formula made for toddlers can be ok for a few days for infants who are close to a year of age.
How long could the shortage last? At least 10 weeks. On Monday the FDA agreed to allow Abbott to reopen its Sturgis plant within two weeks, as long as it passes a safety inspection. After that it will take six to eight weeks for formula to hit store shelves. However, inspectors say there are still problems at the plant. In the meantime, Abbott says it's shipping in formula from its FDA-registered plant in Ireland on a daily basis. The FDA has been allowing more formula imports meant for the U.S. since February, and is now allowing some formula meant for foreign markets to enter the U.S., but only after a safety evaluation.
Could this have been prevented?Growing evidence indicates the FDA failed to act quickly about warnings of safety violations at the Sturgis plant. A whistleblower at the plant warned the FDA in October about safety problems, weeks after the children were hospitalized with bacterial infections, but the agency didn't interview the whistleblower until December and didn't inspect the plant until Jan. 31. That dovetails with a recent Politicoinvestigation that revealed deep-seated issues with the FDA's plant inspections. Current and former employees described the agency as slow to make decisions and lacking enough staff or budget for years to deal with the modern food system even as its regulatory responsibilities have grown.
What the government is doing now: The FDA is expediting and streamlining some of its approval processes to speed up production. The Biden administration and lawmakers from both parties are also urging the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to keep an eye out for price-gouging and increase formula imports to increase the domestic supply. The House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing this week before introducing an emergency supplemental funding bill to help address the shortage. Late Monday, Abbott and the FDA announced an agreement to reopen the plant, but the company said it would be well over a month before new product ships from the site.
What the administration is not doing: Some right-wing politicians and pundits have blamed the Biden administration for the shortage, but no single politician or administration is causing the problem. Biden has also been accused of stockpiling baby formula for undocumented immigrants being detained at the border while American families go without. In fact, the Biden administration is following the law in shipping a limited supply of formula to infants at the border, as the Trump administration did.
