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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Quick hits: More bacon; thriving town-owned grocery store; shocking fertilizer prices; drones for rural duties?

Iowa family of farmers is working to create a midwestern 'blueprint;' they've swapped out pigs for mushrooms

Wild pigs are a seemingly unstoppable pestilence, but their threat could become exponentially more dangerous

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

Smithfield Foods, which has been owned by a Chinese company since 2013, might be listed on stock market again

Flora and Fauna: Meishan pigs; goats for hire; new rules for an insecticide; clam gardens; how do you like them apples?

Flora and fauna: Cat is a shepherd; your fruit is sweeter; the American Serengeti; wild boar for dinner; Vt. prefers cats

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

Flora/fauna quickies: Holding a baby goat can cheer you; corvid birds can 'ponder the content of their own minds'

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

Agribusinesses got 1.5% of Paycheck Protection Program's forgivable loans; among them, dairy was the top sector

USDA announces African swine fever plan

The 2019 agricultural year in review

U.S. authorities guarding against African swine fever

China says it will exempt American soybeans and pork from latest round of higher tariffs

How feral pigs threaten wildlife, habitats, and crops

Plan to cover hog-manure lagoons could spur biogas development, especially in North Carolina

Supreme Court rejects fast-track challenges to livestock-confinement laws in California and Massachusetts