Quick hits: Cigarette smoking hits record low; hay rescue for ranchers hit by wildfires; rodeo women return; Yonder Radio

Less than 10% of Americans reported smoking cigarettes
in 2024. (Photo by A. Siimon, Unsplash)

For the first time in recorded U.S. history, the number of Americans who smoke cigarettes has dipped below 10%, reports Sarah Todd for STAT. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected the data, the U.S. government took the unusual step of releasing it without scientific comment. The lack of a CDC analysis led independent analysts at the digital New England Journal of Medicine Evidence to synthesize the information, which turned out to be good news. "It shows that 9.9% of U.S. adults reported smoking cigarettes in 2024, down from 10.8% in 2023. E-cigarette use remained unchanged from the previous year at 7%."

Wildfires in drought-stricken parts of the U.S. can threaten ranchers' livelihoods by burning through vast swaths of grassland meant to feed a cattle herd, forcing livestock owners to purchase feed or sell livestock. But recently, ranchers have been getting a helping hand from Farm Rescue’s 'Operation Hay Lift,' which steps in and provides free hay, including its delivery, to "help ranchers who lost pasture and feed supplies," reports Jennifer M. Latzke of Kansas Farmer. "With the recent historic wildfires burning more than 701,000 acres across Nebraska, Operation Hay Lift is likely to expand."

Unlike this 1981 couple, some Reese's fans aren't 
as excited about new ingredient mix-ups. 

Once upon a time, when chocolate and peanut butter crashed into each other, it was a happy accident. At least, that's how the 1981 Reese's peanut butter cup ad told the story. But when Reese's food designers create new shapes or design twists, known as "line extensions," not everyone appreciates the new mix-ups. Jonathan Deutsch for The Conversation explains, "Brad Reese, grandson of the founder, issued an open letter criticizing the Hershey Company for introducing line extensions – in this case, mini hearts for Valentine’s Day, with the flavors familiar to Reese’s lovers but made with cheaper ingredients, such as “chocolate candy” and “peanut butter creme.” While Brad Reese and other vocal Reese's fans may not like the ingredient switches, it's a common food industry practice.

The past few years have burdened many American farmers with high costs and low incomes. Farmers' stress can increase with every extreme weather event, fertilizer cost increase or spiking fuel price. It's good to remember that the Farm Aid Hotline (1-800-FARM-AID) is available Monday–Friday to farmers across the U.S. The Farm Aid Hotline connects farmers with resources for stress, legal or financial issues. The AgriStress HelpLine (833-897-2474) is an option for farmers in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. The free, confidential helpline is open 24/7.

Hali Williams, right, in action. She won RodeoHouston's breakaway 
roping title in 2026. (Photo by Mallory Beinborn, RodeoHouston)

If they'd waited for an invitation or a welcoming wave to take a seat on the horse, they'd still be waiting. "Rodeo said bronco riding wasn’t a sport for women. They got on anyway," reports Haley Potter for Offrange. "Rodeo has tried everything to keep women from it. . . . We were long limited to timed events like barrel racing. . . . Despite a deep history of women in roughstock going back well over a century, modern bronc riding has largely been a man’s game. . . . But all that is changing now."

           

It's new, it's all about rural, and it's served fresh every week. Say hello to Yonder Radio -- an hour-long show designed to cover current events and "feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home," reports The Daily Yonder. Each topic will add depth to how news and events impact rural lives. Interviewees on the show will highlight arts, music and community projects geared toward rural audiences. Jared Ewy, a veteran radio personality and regular contributor to the Daily Yonder, is Yonder Radio's host. The show is also available as a podcast. If you’re a station interested in broadcasting Yonder Radio, get in contact with the team at info@yonderradio.com 

U.S. turf researchers and sod farmers deliver the goods for World Cup 2026

World Cup fields must meet 'FIFA’s exacting standards for ball roll, shock absorption, consistency, player safety and broadcast appearance.' (Graphic by Adam Dixon, Offrange)

While Americans may be feeling gloomy about many things, there's still plenty to be proud of and look forward to, including this summer when the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, aka FIFA, "will stage its largest-ever World Cup on North American soil," writes Donavyn Coffey for Offrange.

Among the 16 stadiums where 28 national teams will play, the U.S. gets to showcase its turf scientists and rarely sung sporting heroes—sod farmers. Coffey writes, "Since 2019, FIFA has invested more than $5 million in a partnership with turf scientists at Michigan State University and the University of Tennessee, tasking them to solve a foundational challenge of the tournament: the fields."

What's so great about American farm scientists and sod farmers? They make the turf beautiful, playable, absorption-capable, replaceable and removable. Coffey explains, "All this while remaining as uniform as possible across all 16 sites, indoors and outdoors, from desert heat to northern cold." Cool.

"FIFA’s investment was a windfall for an industry that typically sees far fewer funding opportunities than other branches of agriculture," Coffey adds. Trey Rogers, turf scientist at Michigan State University, told her, "The technology has always been there. . . .We were thrilled to get to put our theories to the test.”

American turf researchers quickly zeroed in on creating "curated resilient grass combinations, grow-light recipes to keep the grass healthy over the 45-day tournament, and a way to build a game-ready grass pitch in under 24 hours," Coffey explains. Their sod-on-plastic-turf has the potential to replace AstroTurf on American football fields and other sod blends blanketing U.S. golf courses.

Sod growers have sometimes faced opposition because opponents feel that using good farmland to grow grass for sporting events rather than food isn't a responsible use of the land. With sod-on-plastics, good farmland isn't needed. 

Rogers told Offrange, "I’ve always said this could be done in the parking lot of an abandoned mall.”

Quick hits: Super Bowl food line-up; heavy metal plants; immigration explained; changing U.S. geographical names

Buffalo chicken dip sweeps the Midwest and much of the South. (Coffeeness map via Mental Floss)

Super Bowl game parties are all about sporting fun served with delightful spreads of game-night food. "The Super Bowl is more than the championship game for professional football teams in the U.S. Super Bowl Sunday is the country’s 'second-largest food consumption day' (right after Thanksgiving)," reports CaLea Johnson for Mental Floss. "But which foods and desserts do Americans love most for the event?" Researchers mapped the answers state-by-state.

With China in control of much of the world's critical minerals and recently restricting exports to the U.S., that's causing “Western scientists and companies to embark on increasingly novel ways to develop alternative sources,” reports Jon Emont of The Wall Street Journal. One relatively inexpensive idea is to harvest plants grown in mineral-rich soil and purify them into nickel concentrate, which can create stainless steel and other metals.

Americans are waking up to all-time-high coffee prices.
(Coffeeness photo)

Some may blame President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff threat on Colombian products for the jump in coffee prices; however, coffee costs began climbing long before the Trump-Petro dustup. “Coffee futures have been elevated since 2011 as bad weather has plagued key coffee-growing regions like Brazil and Colombia," reports Vanessa Yurkevich of CNN. "And the region’s next crop isn’t expected to produce a bigger yield. . . . With or without a threatened tariff, coffee prices are high and will likely continue rising.”

How the new administration is addressing illegal immigration to the U.S. is hashed over by news media multiple times a day. However, the discussions toss around a lot of terms many Americans may not fully understand. Two scholars of immigration "who closely follow public discussions about immigration policy, trends and terminology" help de-mystify immigration terms, write Ernesto Castañeda and Daniel Jenks for The Conversation. "Understanding the many different immigration terms – some technical, some not – can help people better understand immigration news. While not an exhaustive list, there are 10 important terms to know."

Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft.
(Photo by Bryson Beaver, Unsplash)

When President Donald Trump ordered the name of North America’s tallest peak to be "changed from Denali back to Mount McKinley in honor of the nation’s 25th president, William McKinley, he put the spotlight on the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. . . . A little-known panel made up of officials from several federal agencies that has been in existence since 1890," reports Susan Montoya Bryan of The Associated Press. Under the Trump administration, the board "will have new members, but the makeup will be the same with representatives from several agencies ranging from the Interior and Commerce departments to the Post Office and the Library of Congress. Even the CIA plays a role when the board considers place names beyond U.S. borders."

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December set off a maelstrom of emotion from Americans sick of dealing with the U.S. health care system. The shooting compelled many U.S. physicians to speak out about what they think are the systemic issues with U.S. health care companies. Their video discussion by The Wall Street Journal is shared here.

Quick hits: Deceptive ice cream; no cells in some classrooms; most Americans like these four TV shows; rural road safety

Life Raft Treats ‘Not Fried Chicken’ Ice Cream Bucket
is a fan favorite. (Life Raft Treats photo)

It may look like a fried chicken leg, but it's mail-order ice cream. "We tested the most intriguing of the current wave of mail-order ice cream sandwiches and sandwich-like treats," reports Nicole Taylor of The Wall Street Journal. "Small producers around the country have the technology (and the dry ice) to ship nationally, right to your front door." Read all the Journal's picks here.

If there's one thing many teachers would like removed from students' grip, it's cell phones. "More than 70 percent of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a 'major problem,'" reports Natasha Singer of The New York Times. "That’s why states are mounting a bipartisan effort to crack down on rampant student cellphone use. So far this year, at least eight states have passed laws, issued orders or adopted rules to curb phone use among students during school hours."

Fresh July snowfall dotting the tundra and the mountains just outside the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska (Adobe Stock photo)

Looking to take in U.S. national parks, but not willing or able to handle all the people? Don't worry, there are still places to explore. "These more remote U.S. parks, from Alaska to American Samoa, are kept well away from the bustling crowds," reports National Geographic. "The Gates of the Arctic National Park, in Alaska, is one of the marvels of the U.S. national park system. This and other parks lie on roads less traveled, and take some extra incentive to visit." Find National Geographic's five hidden gem picks here.

Part of getting prepped for football season means tending to the football field's soil, which can be dangerous to athletes if it's too hard. To test soil "toughness," professionals use a score from the Clegg Impact Soil tester, explains Rebecca Schweitzer-Benner of Lancaster Farming. "The maximum firmness score allowed for NFL fields is 85. . . . Field maintenance can involve adjusting pH, fertility and soil structure. Professional fields require more detailed management than high school fields do, and often more fertilizer, frequent aeration and irrigation. Also, lots of mowing."

All that's left of this show's victims
are their bones. (Fox TV photo)

New research reveals that Americans from all political walks of life share an affinity for watching five TV shows, writes Johanna Blakley for The Conversation. Those shows include “America’s Funniest Home Videos, Bones, Criminal Minds, MythBusters and Pawn Stars. . . . Four of these shows were well-liked, but Pawn Stars was actually one of the least-liked shows in our sample of 50. . . . It had the dubious distinction of being the most hate-watched show in America." To read more about American blue, red and purple TV viewing habits, click here.

Now that back-to-school season is in full swing, it's a good time to remind high school drivers of the best ways to stay safe on rural roads, reports Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming:

• Always wear seat belts and insist that passengers do, as well.
• Drive cautiously and within the speed limit.
• Be patient when driving behind a large or slow-moving vehicle; be aware you may not be able to see oncoming traffic.
• Pass only when the road is clear.
• Ride with your children from time to time and continue to teach them even after they have a driver’s license.
• Never let anyone ride in the bed of a pickup

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

A herd of boars roaming through a forest.
(Photo by Rolf Scmidbauer, Unsplash)

With thick fur to guard against stifling cold, keen minds and tusks as sharp "as steak knives," wild boar hybrids are "raising hell on the Canadian prairies," reports The Economist. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. When Canadian pig farmers were told in the 1980s that their animals' gene pool was thin, they turned to wild boars from Britain for fortification. . . . In 2001, the boar-meat market plunged. Some farmers, unable to sell their stock, simply released their hybrid pigs into the wild. . . .Today, those pigs' descendants roam the Canadian prairie provinces, a horde some 62,000 strong."

From East Texas to Louisiana's Acadiana region beats the heart of Cajun cooking, where recipes are usually chockablock full of boiled crawfish. But this year, Procambarus clarkii, also known as the red swamp crawfish, crayfish, mudbugs or crawdads, is not affordable for most. Its price is up nearly 500%. "Drought and last winter's hard freeze forced crawfish spawn die-offs ahead of their ongoing harvest time," reports Xander Peters of National Geographic. "The shock felt throughout the U.S. crawfish market is absorbed by its blue-collar producers and restaurant owners, as well as folks working in processing plants, deshelling crawfish, and delivery-truck drivers."

Photo by Marco Ugarte, AP

Crawfish aren't the only species having a hard time surviving extreme weather. The annual survey of monarch butterflies "found the second-lowest number of monarchs on record," reports Jenny Peek of Wisconsin Public Radio. "Monarch populations are extremely sensitive to high heat and drought — both of which are becoming more common with climate change. Habitat loss is also a major contributing factor to the species' decline."

 

Understanding chicken life and egg cartons
can be perplexing. (Unsplash photo)

Do happier chickens mean better eggs? Maybe. Read here to find out what kind of "wide open spaces" chickens like and what "label" is the best chicken environment. Still, even with that information, you may need help deciphering the egg carton. Read here to decode egg carton descriptions.

We have too much bacon. Whaattt? Bacon fans might be shocked, but talk to a U.S. pork producer, who will confirm that the nation has more pork than it can eat. "From giant processors to the farmers, they've made production so efficient that demand can’t keep up with supply," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "In search of solutions, farmers and processors are looking at everything from new overseas markets to fattier, tastier pigs."

Pigeons are better spies.
(Photo by Rorhof via NG)

Not all spies are Jason Bourne or Ethan Hunt. Some have fur, and others have feathers. But which is better? "Amid the high stakes and desperation of the Cold War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency faced a perpetual espionage challenge: access," writes Christian Elliott of National Geographic. "How do you get a spy inside the secure inner sanctum of a foreign head of state. . . .You send in a feline spy. The CIA called the operation 'Acoustic Kitty.'" Spying kitties didn't share the CIA's agenda. "To find a more promising animal secret agent candidate, the CIA needed look no further than Acoustic Kitty's natural enemy: birds. Specifically, the humble pigeon." 

Human actors might learn a trick or two from this smart, charismatic group.
(Anheuser-Busch photo, AP via The Wall Street Journal)

The Super Bowl might be over, but this herd still deserves applause for elegance, a spot-on performance, and getting beer delivered to a small town in need. It's the famous Budweiser Clydesdale horses. "Less known is their reputation as perhaps the most consummate professionals on the advertising circuit," reports Katie Deighton of The Wall Street Journal. "Industry veterans who shoot commercials consider working with the horses a career pinnacle, like a movie director who finally gets to direct Meryl Streep." 

Flora and Fauna: A predator returns to Colorado; declining wild turkey population; marvel revealed; helping manatees

Colorado has released 10 gray wolves into the wilderness.
(Colorado Parks and Wildlife photo via Business Insider)

In the 1940s, the gray wolf was eradicated from Colorado, but they are slowly being reintroduced. "Colorado wildlife officials have now released 10 gray wolves — four males and six females — as part of a voter-backed effort to reintroduce the predator to the state's wilderness after roughly 80 years," Michelle Mark of Business Insider reports. "The 10 wolves hail from Oregon and have been outfitted with satellite GPS collars to track their movements and survival. Ultimately, some 30 to 50 wolves will be introduced to Colorado over three to five years."

Once near extinction, North American wild turkeys made a phenomenal comeback. But their triumphant return has since suffered setbacks, with wild turkey population steadily declining. "Biologists say the nation's turkey population may have gone down by about 1 million, or nearly 15 percent, between 2004 and 2014, with much of that decline in parts of the South and Midwest. Between 2014 and 2019, turkey numbers dipped a further 3 percent, though researchers caution that there are gaps in the data," reports Dino Grandoni of The Washington Post. "Scientists are exploring a few possible causes — habitat loss, hunting, disease, climate change."

What marvel is a half-mile long and includes a 17-acre lake in the northern forests of Canada?
Hint: It was built by large and busy rodents.
If you guessed "world's largest beaver dam," you are correct! "The largest beaver dam on Earth was discovered via satellite imagery in 2007, and since then, only one person has trekked into the Canadian wild to see it," reports Ian Frazier of YaleEnvironment 360. "Animal technology created the largest beaver dam in the world, but human technology revealed it."

A greyhound's speed peak is around 45 mph.
(Photo by Craig Pittman, National Geographic)

The era of greyhound racing seems to be coming to a close. "Concerns about the dogs' welfare and declining betting revenue have led tracks across the country to close in recent decades," reports Erika Larsen of National Geographic. "In its glory days of the 1950s, Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, Florida, attracted thousands of avid racing fans, such as Joe DiMaggio, who left Marilyn Monroe sitting in the car while he ran inside to place his bets. Now only a few hundred show up for the races, a sign of how its fan base has dwindled."

In San Fernando Valley, California, sits the area's last working orange grove, but it was sold to a housing developer who has agreed to spare a fifth of the trees. "The San Fernando Valley was home as early as the 1920s to a more-than-70,000-acre sea of citrus. Suburban sprawl began encroaching, and some growers opted to sell because it was more lucrative than continuing to run a grove," reports Jim Carlton of The Wall Street Journal. "Profits diminished over time as agriculture's regional footprint shrank. . . and as tougher global competition emerged from places like Brazil."

Manatees love to munch on seagrass.
(Photo by Geoff Trodd, Unsplash)

The return of seagrass to Florida's space coast is helping manatee populations who have struggled for survival. "The recovery of seagrass, the manatees' favorite food, in Mosquito Lagoon means that an emergency hand-feeding program that has kept many of the starving aquatic animals alive over the last two winters can be discontinued, at least temporarily," reports Richard Luscombe of The Guardian. "While scientists say this might be only a small step in the wider fight to rescue a species that has seen a record die-off in recent years from water pollution and habitat loss, what's happened at Mosquito Lagoon offers signposts to how the manatees' battle for survival might ultimately be won."

Rural journalists 'knit communities together', have answers for problems in journalism, says USA Today's Susan Page

Susan Page listens to a question as moderator Benjy Hamm, director
of the Institute for Rural Journalism, listens. (Photo by Patti Cross)

"Rural journalism has some of the answers for all sorts of journalism, lessons on covering the news, and earning trust from our readers and viewers," Susan Page of USA Today told 175 people gathered Thursday night for the annual Al Smith Awards Dinner in Lexington, Ky.

"Local news is more trusted than national news," Page noted, citing the latest Gallup poll that found only 7 percent of Americans "have a great deal of trust in what we report and write? . . . Why? You are connected to your communities. You cover the news that matters most to your readers. If you get something wrong, you’re going to hear about it from your next-door neighbor. That really increases the pressure to get things right, and to correct them when you don’t. Those are qualities that every news organization ought to aspire to as well. That’s the lesson of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues."

The institute, which publishes The Rural Blog, holds the dinner with the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to present student scholarships and the Al Smith Award for public service through community journalism by Kentuckians, named for the late publisher who co-founded the institute at the University of Kentucky.

"I’m honored to share the stage with the scholarship winners and with Ben Gish and Sam Adams of The Mountain Eagle" in Whitesburg, Ky., said Page, USA Today's Washington Bureau chief. "Congratulations for your coverage, so crucial to your community, of last year’s historic flood in southeastern Kentucky, which cost 45 people their lives."

The dinner also heard video remarks from Craig Garnett, editor-publisher of the Uvalde Leader-News in Texas, winner of the 2023 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism. He couldn't attend but will receive the award at an event in Texas this winter. Page praised him for "holding to account officials in the aftermath of that terrible school shooting -- well, it takes your breath away. He stood up for those 19 kids and two teachers" who died in May 2022.

Page cited other recent examples of courage in rural journalism: "This summer in Marion, Kansas, my home state, the police chief was so worried about a story that the Marion County Record was working on -- a story about him -- that he got a subpoena and raided their offices. They seized computers and phones in what was a violation of federal law, not to mention the First Amendment. In the aftermath, the police chief has been suspended, and the Marion County Record has gotten its equipment back. And this spring in Idabel, Oklahoma, the McCurtain Gazette-News recorded top county officials discussing wanting to kill one of the newspaper’s reporters while remembering fondly the days when a sheriff could, quote, take a 'black guy, throw him in a cell and beat him.' The sheriff was suspended; the jail administrator was put on leave; one of the county commissioners resigned, and the state attorney general opened an investigation.

"This is what journalists do. This is what journalism does. We also do more. We help readers understand how to file for federal disaster aid after their town is flooded. We track high-school sports. (Does anything attract more readers?) We warn readers when a local bridge has been condemned. We tell them where to go to get the best pizza in town. We knit communities together."

Gay rodeos in Texas include gay and straight competitors and are a somewhat confidential comfort in polarized times

The calf-roping competitors pose for a portrait.
(Photo by Dawn Bottoms, The New Yorker)

Gay rodeos in Texas offer marginalized groups a place for competition and open-minded hospitality. "The urban-rural divide is as politically polarized as it's ever been; fans of gay rodeo have come to appreciate it as a place where rural signifiers—big hats, big trucks, George Strait songs—have a different valence," reports Rachel Monroe for The New Yorker from the Texas Tradition Rodeo in Denton: "The parking lot slowly filled with trucks bearing bumper stickers that said things like 'Been doing cowboy &$#! all day.' A tractor circled the arena, raking the dirt. . . . After everyone stood for the national anthem, an announcer came over the crackly PA system and offered a prayer, asking God to bless that day's competitors, 'the cowboys, cowgirls, and those in between.'"

Mac McMillan, who has been involved with the Texas Gay Rodeo Association for decades, told Monroe, "It started as a social club, and then AIDS came along. . . We did this to raise money, to take care of people. The medications were astronomically expensive, plus food, housing. We had to do what we had to do." Monroe reports, "Mac grew up in rural Texas. He realized at a young age that he was attracted to men, but he didn't see a way to reconcile his sexuality with the country lifestyle he preferred. . . . For Mac, the gay-rodeo world was a revelation. The scene was vibrant and defiant, a place he could feel fully himself. Daytimes were devoted to competition, and in the evening, everyone would gather for some sort of entertainment. . . . At the 1982, Joan Rivers served as grand marshal, ten thousand people packed the stands."

In Texas, political sentiment toward differences in sexual identity can be tense. "Conservative politicians in the state have increasingly turned their attention to controlling the public expression of gender and sexuality," Shaw writes. "This year, the state legislature is considering bills that would prohibit gender-affirming care for trans youth, impose fines on establishments that host 'sexually oriented' drag performances when children are present, and ban classroom teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity. . . . Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the Denton rodeo had a clandestine air. . . . . Nearly everyone I spoke with in Denton had no idea that the rodeo was happening, or even that there was such a thing as a gay rodeo. . . . Partly a response to the unsettling political atmosphere in Texas, where drag events regularly meet with belligerent protesters."

The rodeo is open to all walks of life. "Wade Earp, a longtime TGRA participant (and a direct descendant of Wyatt Earp's brother Virgil), said that he's been happy to see the growing number of allies who come to gay rodeos as participants and spectators," Shaw adds. "In part, that's due to Wade's recruitment efforts. . . . A few years ago, he met some straight female bull riders at the Fort Worth stockyards, who told him, 'The men won't let us ride,' and Wade responded by saying, 'Come to the gay rodeo!'. . . . A half-dozen showed up at the next event, and soon they started bringing friends."

Quick hits: Fake news is shared to maintain social circles; national parks you can visit without madding crowds . . .

Photo by Imgorthand, Getty Images

Conservative and liberal Americans both share fake news because they don't want to be ostracized from their social circles, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

From sunshine to fresh air to admiring trees, outdoor play is the healthiest for kids. "Science shows it can help your kids’ sleep patterns, undo the damage from screen time, and bolster their mental health," reports Lindsay N. Smith of National Geographic. "You may not have time for a trip to the park every day, but letting your kids spend five or 10 minutes at the school playground after pick-ups can pay dividends."

Warm weather is a tricky variable for mushers in this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska. Sunny skies and temperatures hitting 40 have made planning rest times and other strategies more challenging, reports Zachariah Hughes of Anchorage Daily News.

Image from piday.org

Teach kids math by using dessert ('cause it's almost Pi Day, 3.14!)

Are you tired of all the people? Longing for the outdoors? You can visit these delightful national parks and avoid crowds.

Marguerite Richards made a TikTok stoking her father's 10-year-old thriller novel. "Within a matter of days, millions of people would see her video, and her father’s book would top Amazon’s best-eller list. . . . Whether it was the gripping thriller, the author’s unassuming Vermont mien, or the efforts of a proud, tech-savvy daughter, the story of Lloyd Devereux Richards and Stone Maidens struck a chord," reports A.J. Willingham of CNN.

Rural schools need more mental health services. In Oklahoma, Project Rural Innovation for Mental Health Enhancement aims to hire 64 mental-health professionals in high-need rural Oklahoma schools. The five-year $5.6 million grant program will pay for the counselors, social workers and behavior analysts to attend graduate school, as well as cover fees and costs in the program," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder.

From the food to the turf and maybe even the pizza guy's tip, this year's Super Bowl was brought to you by farmers

Photo by Successful Farming

Super Sunday can be likened to the American version of the Garden of Eden: All the good things agriculture has to offer. Before the game, Heather Barnes and Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming
reported that from the chicken wings to veggie trays to all the meats, cheeses and chips, "A whopping 79% will be spent on food and beverages, all of which come from farms. Americans eat more food on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year except for Thanksgiving."

Don't forget the barley for the beer. "The National Restaurant Association says 51.7 million cases of beer are sold every year during Super Bowl weekend. One bushel of barley, grown mostly by farmers across the Northern Plains and Pacific Northwest, will make 565 12-ounce beers," Barnes and Prater write. "Whether it’s the stadium, the field, the ball, or the food, one thing is clear: no farms, no Super Bowl."

And it goes beyond food. "Leather is also used to make the ball. Even though it's often called a pigskin, footballs are actually made of cowhide," Barnes and Prater write. "Wilson [Sporting Goods] is the official supplier of footballs for the NFL: 120 of its footballs will be used in Sunday's game. One cowhide will make 10 footballs. Not just any cowhide is used; it comes from cattle grown in Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska."

Bet you didn't think of this: Barnes and Prater ask, "Did you know 75% of that dollar bill you just used to tip the pizza delivery guy is made of cotton?" Thank you, American farmers. We like money. What about all that turf? "The turf in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, is a hybrid drought-tolerant Bermuda grass, grown on a turf farm and trucked the 25 miles to the stadium," they report. "The grass is housed in a single tray, which is 40 inches deep, 234 feet wide, and 403 feet long. The entire tray is rolled outside when the grass needs sunlight or the stadium is being used for other events."

Athletes invest in Iowa farmland, which rose 17% in value in 2022, partly due to investors, who made 27% of purchases

Joe Burrow (Photo illustration by Front Office Sports)

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who advanced his team's defense of its Super Bowl title on Sunday, is investing some of his money in Iowa farmland, along with other professional athletes.

Burrow was part of "a group of about 25 athletes [who] pooled $5 million for an agricultural investment fund to purchase farmland," Abeer Allam reports for Successful Farming. "The first purchase was a 104-acre corn and soybean farm in northern Iowa, Front Office Sports reported this month."

The athletes "will lease the land to farmers and seek a single-digit-percentage annual return on the total investment, FOS reports. "The group — which will purchase four additional farms within the next few years, seeking a diverse set of agricultural assets — have looked into watermelon farms in Oregon, which tend to be smaller and offer higher per-acre rent." Allam reports the move was prompted by "investment in farmland by high-profile billionaire buyers like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett . . . to diversify their investment portfolio and hedge against inflation, experts say."

“Beyond the traditional reasons of buying recreational land, many investors see farmland as a stable asset that could generate robust returns,” Wendong Zhan, leading researcher of the Iowa Land Value Survey at Iowa State University and assistant professor at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., told Allam. “The declines during downtimes tend to be less drastic.”

The Land Value Survey found that the average value of Iowa farmland "increased 17% to $11,411 an acre in November 2022 from November 2021, the highest nominal value ever since the 1940s," Allam notes. "The value growth has been driven by several factors including high commodity prices, bumper crop yield, low-interest rates, limited land supply, and strong demand from investors. . . . Investors represented 27% of land sales in Iowa, split between local and non-local investors, while new farmers accounted for 4% of sales in 2022, according to the survey."

Higher land value is good news for owners, but "Farmers who still have farmland mortgages and/or rent many acres from others, face a much higher cost of financing and cash rents," Allam notes.

Born to chop and saw, he dissed it; now he aims to be king of lumberjacks in 'original extreme sport' sort of like golf

Jason Lentz (Photo by Natalie Ivis, The New York Times)

How can a man can fall into a life he never wanted? Jason Lentz didn't want the life of a competitive lumberjack when his family tried to thrust upon him: "He certainly fought against it," reports Reid Forgrave of The New York Times. "His father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather, who had worked the Great Depression-era logging camps in Oregon, were all elite lumberjacks. And Jason didn’t want to do it. In fact, he hated it."

Growing up in Webster County, West Virginia, Lentz saw how lumberjacking hurt his family: "Jason hated that lumberjacking took his dad [Mel] away for as many as 11 months a year, barnstorming the country and world in search of competitions and their measly winner’s checks. He could make $500 or $1,000 at a show, but the winnings didn’t amount to much when set beside the cost of equipment and travel," Forgrave writes. "For a time, Mel worked a lumberjack show at Sea World Ohio, while Jason, his mother and his little sister scraped by in West Virginia. Jason blamed the sport for his growing up poor — poor even by the standards of one of the poorest counties in one of America’s poorest states." Jason told the Times, "I didn't want to be anything like him."

Right out of high school Jason dissed lumberjacking and focused on basketball, Forgrave reports, but when his post-college overseas basketball opportunity vanished, Jason was poor and lost. "Then his father put him in touch with a friend who had a job for Jason doing lumberjack exhibitions at Chimelong Paradise, an amusement park in Guangzhou, China," Forgrave notes. "Reluctant to follow in his dad’s steps but out of options, he flew to the other side of the world. There, out from under Mel’s shadow, Jason Lentz was free to find his own path. It led him right back to his father."

In China and then around the world, Lentz found his place as powerhouse lumberjack, "That brute strength is the advantage that Lentz, who is roughly the size of an NFL tight end, holds over virtually all his opponents in the Stihl Timbersports Series, which are the biggest-money events in the sport," Forgave reports. Stihl series calls lumberjacking "the original extreme sport." And for those who may think it's all about brute strength, Forgrave explains: "Lentz and other lumberjacks often compare their sport to golf: Power comes from hip torque instead of arm strength; precision comes from producing a repeatable swing. As in golf, the difference between really good and a champion often depends on mental strength: being able to forget one bad swing and move on to the next."

Mel and Jason Lentz (Natalie Ivis, NYT)

Forgrave recounts Jason's progress and regress: "Lentz did not do well at the 2022 Stihl Timbersports U.S. Championships in Little Rock, Ark. In 2021, he established himself as the best lumberjack in the world, winning pretty much every big event, including his first Stihl world title (which his dad won six times). He has a plan for 2023. He plans to head to Australia in January, where he will spend a few months training. . . . . The Australia portion of his 2023 season will end in April at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, known as the 'Wimbledon of Woodchop.' He thinks he has a chance to win the single-buck title in Australia. Only one American has ever won that title in Sydney: Mel Lentz."

Jason Lentz, 37, told Forgrave, “It’s the maturity thing. It’s like golf. My next 10 years, 13 years — those are going to be my prime.”

Washington Post sports columnist celebrates upset victories of Sun Belt football teams from relatively small places

The Post used these pictures as the lead illustration for the piece.

The Rural Blog has never had an item about college football games, but Chuck Culpepper of The Washington Post saw a story where no one else did, and it has rural resonance, so we are following his lead.

"Two lovable underdogs just toppled college football royalty. What a blast," is the headline over Culpepper's analysis of the upset victories of Appalachian State University of Boone, N,C., over sixth-ranked Texas A&M University in College Station and of Marshall University of Huntington, W.Va., over No. 8 Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind. He also notes that a third Sun Belt Conference member, Georgia Southern University of Statesboro, population 33,000, beat the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln, but focuses on the two schools separated by 158 miles of mountains, in cities of 20,000 and 46,000, respectively:

"Most of us, statistically, do not reside around Boone or Huntington. Most of us live neither in the western hills of North Carolina nor on the western edge of West Virginia. Poor most of us . . . We’re about to live weeks inferior to the weeks they’re about to live in Boone and Huntington. Shall we get to sit around Boone and talk about how our utterly lovable program spent 9 minutes and 15 seconds of game-clock time straddling the third and fourth quarters — 9 minutes and 15 seconds! — using 18 delicious morsels of plays — 18 plays! — to go just 63 yards — just 63 yards! — for the winning field goal against haughty and overly moneyed Texas A&M? . . . Oh, to be in Boone this week and talk time of possession: 41:29 to 18:17! To marvel how the Mountaineers went from giving up 567 yards to North Carolina in that 63-61 loss in which the loser scored 40 fourth-quarter points, to giving up 186 to a team allegedly aimed toward the College Football Playoff. To hear again how Appalachian State, with its donors and NIL totals a fraction of A&M’s donors and NIL totals . . . " And in Huntington, Culpepper concludes, "A deathless Saturday waned, but up ahead lay a week around town with which the rest of us cannot compete."

UPDATE, Sept. 14: Texas A&M says it is taking down from its Twitter feed a pre-game rally speech by senior player Zac Cross saying Appalachian State is "deep in the backwoods, just like you would expect any hillbilly college that names themselves the Mountaineers. . . . I know for a fact that barely half their football team can even read the name on their jerseys." The Deseret News has a story.

Quick hits: Sterile super-Romeo trout may help curb invasive species; tools for rural electric co-ops transitioning to renewable energy; federal aid fuels pickleball boom

Brook trout have been outcompeting native trout for years.
(NPL photo by Nick Hawkins)

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.

People of color and low-income communities are at a disproportionate risk of being harmed by pesticide exposure, according to a newly released study. Read more here.

A non-profit has a page full of tools and guidelines to help rural electric cooperatives transition to renewable energy. Read more here.

To save an underdog fish species out West, scientists are turning some invasive trout into sterile super-Romeos and setting them loose. Since they're taking the bulk of female trout's attention during mating season, that helps reduce births among the species. Read more here.

Federal Covid-19 aid is funding a pickleball court construction boom. Read more here.

Tick bites are causing an increasing number of people to become allergic to meat. Read more here.