Corn, soybean, wheat seed prices going up again

Farmers will pay a lot more for the seed they'll put in the ground in 2013 but will likely make up for it with better prices come harvest, a Purdue University agricultural economist told Agri-Pulse this week. And it's not just the drought to blame for the cost hike, though that is certainly a contributor. Seems that seed prices have gone up annually on consistent basis for more than a decade.

"There was a period of time in the early 2000s when producers were transitioning from non-genetically modified-type seed products to GMO types of seed products, which generally are more expensive.," said Alan Miller, a farm business management specialist. "Then we had the rise in commodity prices. And, recently, we've had two extremely difficult seed corn producing years in a row in the Corn Belt."

According to Miller, prices are expected to rise 5 to 7 percent for seed corn, 7 to 10 percent for seed soybeans, and more than 10 percent for wheat seed. In dollars, that means a bag of corn seed would sell for between just under $200 to more than $300. Soybean seed would go for about $50 a bag, with wheat seed priced in the low $20s per bag. And the profit picture? Should be very good, he said, but he's no weatherman.

Agri-Pulse, an agricultural newsletter, is subscription-only. Go here for a free 30-day trial.

N.Y. governor helps small dairy farmers expand by relaxing manure rule, but not everyone is happy

John Bach loads manure at his New York farm.
(Watertown Daily Times photo by Justin Sorenson)

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's plan to help small dairy farmers enlarge their businesses by lowering manure-runoff standards has concerned the state's environmentalists. Opponents acknowledge the move will encourage milk production in the state, but say it would also contaminate water and endanger wildlife, Ted Booker of the Watertown Daily Times reports.

Cuomo's plan would raise the enrollment threshold for the state's Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations program to 299 cows from 200. The program requires farmers with more than the threshold "to add storage facilities and lagoons for holding manure during the winter," Booker notes. They also must hire a certified planner to develop a management plan for controlling waste and conduct annual inspections.

The change will encourage dairy farmers to expand. Carthage dairy farmer Lee Bach said that adding just 30 cows would make him about $15,000 to $20,000 a month after bills.

Katherine R. Nadeau, director of water and natural resources for the Environmental Advocates of New York, told Booker that manure's high nutrient level is detrimental to fish, plants and wildlife when it mixes with water. She said the state should explore other ways to offer farmers some help in dealing with CAFO requirements. (Read more)

Coal-dust violations found at mines after journalists report increases in Appalachian black-lung disease

Federal coal mine inspectors found more than 120 dust-level violations at 13 coal mines in September after the The Charleston Gazette, the Center for Public Integrity and NPR published an investigative report about the resurgence of black lung disease in Central Appalachia. The report exposed "widespread misconduct" by coal companies and often lax oversight by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the CPI';s Chris Hamby reports. MSHA insists the news reports did not prompt the inspections. (NPR photo by David Deal: Miner performs lung test)

Since the 2010 disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where excessive coal dust caused the massive explosion that killed 23 miners, inspectors have been going on blitzes of underground mines. The most recent inspections used new criteria that allowed officials to target mines that were most likely to have dust build-ups that can lead to black lung. Inspectors found that many companies failed to properly ventilate working areas and used "broken-down" equipment to suppress dust, Hamby writes. (Read more)

Renewable energy can benefit rural communities, but government policy changes can enhance them

Renewable energy development has increased in recent years, and since solar and wind farms need large amounts of land, rural areas attract much of that development. But the economic benefit from the industry in those areas is unclear. A new study from the global Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that renewable energy development does have a positive impact in rural areas, but is enhanced with a specific policy framework and long-term strategy, which many of those places don't have.

Case studies in 16 rural regions of Europe, Canada and the U.S. were examined for two years. Researchers found that renewable energy development grew by 26 percent from 2005 to 2010, to the point that it provides about 20 percent of the world's power. According to the report, "Linking Renewable Energy to Rural Development," such projects can provide communities with new revenue sources, new jobs and business opportunities, affordable energy, capacity building and community empowerment.

However, the report says public policy on such projects should be "grounded in local conditions and opportunities . . . that focus on the competitiveness of rural areas." The report suggests rural communities embed energy strategy in local economic development, integrate renewable energy within supply chains in rural economies -- such as agriculture, forestry and green tourism -- ensure local acceptance by being clear about benefits to the community, and avoid types of renewables that aren't suited to specific communities.

Renewable energy should be integrated into a community rather than being forced into a community where it doesn't fit. Report author Raffaele Trapasso told Andreas Breyer of Solar Novus Today that "Renewable energy should not be considered as a stand-alone sector within the rural economy. It should be connected to local activities and business; possibly to a core specialization within the community."

The full report is available for purchase from the OECD, but the executive summary can be accessed here.

Climate change to dim mountains' vibrant fall colors?

The Appalachian mountains that stretch from Georgia to New York are known for brilliant color changes in the fall. It's a defining feature of many rural mountain communities, but those colors may become less vibrant as climate change continues to warm the planet and reduce rainfall, Robynne Boyd of Scientific American reports. (Photo by Ivy Brashear, 2010: Fern Lake on the Kentucky-Tennessee border)

There was a "desynchronization in leaf color changes" this year, Appalachian State University leaf specialist and biologist Howard Neufeld told Boyd. Basically, some trees turned colors before others. Dogwoods and some maples turned in early August, but oaks didn't start turning until the middle of October. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says this schedule of change appears to be genetic. "Trees of the same species turn in unison whether on high or low [altitude] if located within the same latitude," Boyd reports.

Temperature and precipitation seem to have the biggest impact on leaf color, said Neufeld, who publishes an annual fall color report. "Conditions leading up to the fall were ripe for good fall color -- sunny, cool, no severe drought," he told Boyd. "But they didn't develop. I don't know why that is." But he does provide a theory: trees produce volatile organic compounds, which reflect the sun's radiation back into space. This "VOC armor" will not stay strong forever, Boyd writes. "It will weaken as the climate warms, and will one day demonstrate the same higher temperatures as most of the rest of the country."

Plants are cooled by evaporating water through their leaves, but "many tree leaves were were damaged as a result of the inability of root systems to supply sufficient water to leaves that experienced high temperatures" this year, Cornell University plant biologist Karl Niklas told Boyd. "The damage to leaves earlier in the season meant that many leaves could not color up or simply died while still attached." (Read more)

ABC answers 'pink slime' defamation suit by packer

ABC News claimed First Amendment protection in a motion filed yesterday to dismiss Beef Products Inc.'s $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit against the network, Lisa Keefe of Meatingplace reports. BPI filed suit against ABC in September for disparagement and tortious interference after a series of ABC reports last spring about lean finely textured beef started a media blitz, and out the term "pink slime" into the popular lexicon. BPI was once a leading manufacturer of LFTB.

ABC's multi-part filing in a U.S. District Court in South Dakota offers several arguments for dismissal: BPI can't allege libel because the original complaint is about how LFTB was described, meaning only product-disparagement allegations can be made; ABC's reports don't qualify as disparagement because they didn't question LFTB's safety, only whether people would want to eat it; and the news reports are considered protected speech under the First Amendment as "imaginative expression" and "rhetorical hyperbole." The term "pink slime" was coined several years ago.

The filing "emphasizes the network's role as a watchdog for the public interest," Keefe reports. From the filing: "BPI's complaint . . . directly challenges the right of a national news organization, two USDA scientists, and a former BPI employee to explore matters of obvious public interest -- what is in the food that we eat and how that food is labeled." BPI counsel Erik Connolly told Keefe that he could oppose the motion to dismiss. (Read more)

Rural broadband gap inhibits more than video and social networking; education and health at stake

The yawning technological gap between rural and urban America is growing. And since it's about speed -- about how fast and at what volume consumers can send and receive data -- it's not about to slow down, ever. That's the word from a policy analyst who is pushing government and private business to join together to even the playing field for rural America. To not do so, he warned, is to risk agriculture, manufacturing, education and health care in a vast part of the country, writes Julie Ardery of the Daily Yonder.

“Networks that connect research institutions in the United States can move 100,000 times more data per unit of time than the dial-up connections that some Americans still must use,” policy expert Hanns Kuttner told a gathering at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. “The technology gap is not a fixed deficit that once filled, stays filled. The technology gap will be larger—much larger—in the future, along with the information and technology gap, unless significant action is taken to overcome it.”

Ardery reports that 9.8 million rural Americans lack access to broadband speeds sufficient to handle common Internet functions such as videostreaming, which has become a mainstay in education, business and health care. "The Federal Communications Commission now defines 'basic broadband' as at least 4 megabits per second download speed and 1 megabit per second upload speed," the capacities needed for video and social networking. ("The National Broadband Map, below, which uses the more conservative thresholds of 3 Mpbs for download speed and 768 kbps for uploads, estimates 16 percent of rural Americans now lack access to basic broadband. In contrast, only 0.3% of urbanites lack broadband access," Ardery writes.) 

The disparity has significant implications for education and health, Kuttner says. He looked at the education gap in rural America, where the difference between college graduation rates for urban and rural counties has widened from 9.5 to 12.6 percent since 1990, and says each percentage point "represents $625 billion in lost wages and economic activity over a lifetime." He also points to the likely impact the technology differential, if not taken on by governmental entitities working together, will have on rural life expectancies because of rural hospital inefficiencies. (Read more)

To read the entire "Broadband for Rural America" report, go here. To view the National Broadband map interactively, and to enter your own address to find out what broadband speeds are available in your area, go here.

Nonprofit helps rural people improve homes, says 'poverty looks different in rural areas'

Rural, faith-based, nonprofit organizations often rely on volunteers and don't have much money, forcing them to raise funds in some interesting ways. Alabama Rural Ministry, which works to improve poverty housing in the state's eastern rural areas, is doing just that. Allison Griffin of The Prattville Progress reports that for the past four years the ministry has led a fundraising campaign called "No More Shacks!" during which Director Lisa Pierce spends a week in a makeshift shack next to a busy road in or near Auburn, Ala.

Pierce spends all day, every day, in the shack answering questions of passersby and collecting donations. This year, she built another shack and invited area preachers and volunteers to stay in it for 24 hours. Her goal is to raise $50,000, with all proceeds going directly to home repairs for low-income rural people. ARM typically works with elderly people or people with disabilities who are often on fixed incomes. (Photo by Mickey Welsh: Pierce works on shack)

Pierce started ARM at the Auburn Wesley Foundation 15 years ago, and has seen the organization grow ever since. "Working in outlying areas is the primary focus, Pierce said, because 'poverty looks different in the rural communities,'" Griffin reports. Many rural families are living on family land and dignity is very important to them, making even those who are need the most help reluctant to ask for help. "ARM spends times with the families it helps, getting to know them and letting them know that the work they will do is a partnership," Griffin writes. And ARM stays in touch with them when the work is done. (Read more)

Car-deer collisions keep rising; W.Va., S.D., Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania are the riskiest states

Hitting a deer with your car is becoming more common in rural areas, especially during the mating season, which is on now, but the chance of hitting one is higher in some states than others.

State Farm Insurance Co. annually calculates the odds of hitting a deer by using claims data and licensed-driver counts from the Federal Highway Administration. The company found, for the sixth consecutive year, that the chance of hitting a deer is greatest in West Virginia. (Photo by Joe Kosack, Pennsylvania Game Commission)

From second to fifth are South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The number of deer-related collisions nationally has increased by 7.7 percent over the past year, according to State Farm. The rate of deer-related accidents per driver increased over last year in each of the top five states. (Read more)

Coal-to-gas switch doesn't deter climate change as much as gas industry says, due to U.S. coal exports

The U.S. natural-gas industry says it is helping curb climate change by reducing the use of coal, but even as utilities have switched from coal, more U.S. coal is being shipped and burned overseas, which then contributes to climate change, according to a new University of Manchester study.

The International Energy Agency reported five months ago that the "shale revolution" had helped decrease U.S. carbon emissions by 450 million tons over the past five years, the largest drop among all countries it surveyed. But it did not account for increases in coal exports. There has been a "substantial increase" in coal exports to the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe and Asia, Pilita Clark of The Financial Times reports. According to the study, "More than half of the emissions avoided in the U.S. may have been exported as coal," Clark writes. (Read more)

Eastern Ky. must face facts, improve schools and health, and fight corruption, native son writes

Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies, based in Whitesburg, Ky,. in the shadow of Pine Mountain, writes a 3,172-word essay in the Daily Yonder, which the center publishes, about the ills of his native Eastern Kentucky and his prescription for a better future.

"Not only are we the poorest part of the United States, the life expectancy here has slipped below that in countries like China and Mexico. We are ranked at the top in psychological maladies like clinical depression. Embarrassingly, we are the part of Appalachia where other parts of Appalachia send a Santa Claus train to help us come up with Christmas gifts for our children," Davis writes. "If what you are doing takes you to the bottom of the barrel, try doing something different."

That means facing the long-term facts about coal, Davis argues: "We are able to ignore facts about natural gas replacing coal in the market, the ever-declining need for miners, and all manner of scientific data about carbon’s role in climate change. . . . It is both convenient and comforting to believe that coal can save us because it confirms a story we have always been told. . . . We have done a lot of damage to the land and the people. If we continue to lead people astray, to believe things that we know in our bones are lies, to stand by as a culture of corruption infects our genuine prospects for moving forward, then we are going to get crazier. And if we refuse to acknowledge the reality of where we currently stand, then we don’t have much of a shot hanging on here."

Davis lays out several ideas for economic and community development, but says whatever measures are taken will fail if they do not challenge "the corrosive role of local corruption," he writes, citing Worlds Apart, a book in which Cynthia M. Duncan "points out that a culture of local corruption in many poor counties in the coalfields and in the Delta contributed to the disparity and their ultimate dysfunction." Duncan's main conclusion was that educational attainment is the great advantage a prosperous rural county in New England had over its chronically poor counterparts in Appalachia and the Delta.

"The schools are here. We just need to make them better, a lot better," Davis writes. "The health facilities and care providers are now mostly in place, we just need to make the system work. We have vocational schools and community colleges with training as their core services; we just need to make them more productive and a good deal more imaginative." He also calls for a push to improve the region's poor health status and fighting the drug addiction that plagues it.

"Many poor rural communities have been transformed from hard-scrabble to self-sufficiency and, in some unusual cases, to high-tech and amenity-rich zones of great wealth," Davis writes. "Strategies that work are not overnight 'get me a grant' successes; they are more often plodding developments where the benefits may only come a generation or two down the pike. That might not sound like much of a solution to an out-of-work miner who has truck, car, and house payments he cannot make, but in this neck of the woods we did not get to where we got fast, and it is going to take a serious do-over to get us out." He concludes, "Sometimes the proper response is courage. And sometimes the safest way forward is taking the greatest risk." (Read more)

Farmers cut irrigation to preserve Ogallala Aquifer

High Plains farmers who depend on the Ogallala Aquifer to irrigate crops are now reluctantly trying to conserve water to preserve the underground water source that has sustained bumper crops in the region for decades. Years of heavy use have depleted the aquifer to the point where some wells are drying up, and the federal government estimates there are two decades or less of adequate supply for irrigation. The drought has added to water-use fears, as farmers pumped more Ogallala water onto their crops to counteract it.

Farmers are afraid using the water source at current rates could eventually end irrigated agriculture and devastate communities that rely on it, leaving the next generation with few options, Mark Peters of The Wall Street Journal reports. Farmers in the High Plains face "a larger challenge for irrigated agriculture," Peters writes. Irrigation accounts for about one-third of annual water demand, and competition for water increases along with population.

Farmers who rely on the Ogallala agree that changes need to be made, but the devil is in the details, Peters reports. The High Plains Water Conservation District in Texas will start limiting water withdrawals in 2014. Some farmers in Kansas, where agreements have been made to cut water use, fear farmers in other states won't follow suit. Drawing boundaries on which fields can be irrigated and which should not be is drawing the most farmer ire, and concerns about water supply are "particularly acute" in western Kansas and northern Texas, where irrigation has long been used. (Read more)

Drought made Corn Belt ethanol states import corn

Areas that were spared by this summer's drought had record corn crops, and are now sending that corn into the Corn Belt, which suffered some of the largest crop losses in decades. Ethanol producers in No. 2 corn state, Illinois, imported millions of bushels from North Dakota. Northern corn was even sent to key livestock states, including Texas and Oklahoma. Southern states shipped up the Mississippi River into the interior, reversing traditional trade patterns, Julie Ingwersen of Reuters reports.

"Atypical corn shipments are not unheard of in the agricultural market," Ingwersen writes, but "Traders say the scale of this year's upheaval is unprecedented." It's been fueled mostly by the difference in drought-hit central states and unharmed bumper harvests in bordering states, and the prevalence of a naturally occurring toxin, aflatoxin, that can harm livestock.

"The unusual grain flow could foreshadow a scramble for quality corn supplies in the months to come as end-users work through the smallest U.S. harvest in six years," Ingwersen writes. The shift of corn trade could benefit logistics firms and big merchants, including Cargill, which said "atypical trade flows" would spur more demand for trading advice, she reports. Railroad companies are also gaining from the shift. (Read more)

Newspapers wary of tying Sandy to climate change

Hurricane Sandy left massive flooding in areas that have never seen flooding, and it's now causing snowstorms in Northern Appalachia. Many media outlets dubbed the event "Frankenstorm," but "Not one major newspaper has reported the scientifically established link that carbon pollution fuels more extreme weather," reports Rebecca Leber of ThinkProgress, which has a liberal viewpoint.

ThinkProgress did a search of major national newspapers and found that Sandy was mentioned at least 94 times, but terms like climate change, global warming and extreme weather weren't mentioned at all. She suggests two possible reasons for the disconnect: The presidential candidates have been silent on climate change and left it out of the debates for the first time since 1988, and climate denial campaigns try to undermine science. "There is still a gulf between public understanding and the scientific consensus," Leber writes. Al Gore says Sandy was worse because of global warming.

Atmospheric blocking events like the one that intensified Sandy are caused by warming temperatures, melting sea ice and rising ocean levels. Blocking events also shift jet streams further from normal patterns, and climate researcher Jennifer Francis told Andrew Revkin of The New York Times that Sandy's blocking event "may have been boosted in intensity and/or duration by the record-breaking ice loss this summer." Late season hurricanes aren't unusual, she said, but Sandy started during an anomalous jet-stream pattern and an autumn with record-warm sea temperatures in the Atlantic. "It could very well be that general warming along with high sea-surface temperatures have lengthened the tropical storm season," Francis said.

Rural libraries facing budget concerns; residents depend on them for several services

Rural people often depend on local libraries for various services, including free Internet access and as a place to host events. But in the face of a slew of budget cuts and financial strain, many are being forced to reduce staff, cut operating hours or even close branches. (Joplin Globe photo by T. Rob Brown: Seneca Public Library branch manager reads to children)

Marcia Warner, former president of the Public Library Association, told Roger McKinney of the The Joplin Globe in Missouri that "when towns have to choose between funding police and fire department or libraries, libraries often lose." This, despite the fact that rural libraries are doing everything from holding reading groups for toddlers, to teaching seniors how to use new media. "There's that lifelong learning piece, and libraries are the ones helping to do that," Warner told McKinney.

McKinney tells the story of a community that realized that before it was too late. The Seneca Public Library in Seneca, Mo., a branch of the Neosho-Newton County Library, was slated for closure when residents rallied, keeping the facility open through June so the library system could buy some time and search for other funding. Losing the library would be a great loss for the community, many residents told McKinney. (Read more)

Grain bin and silo entrapment deaths stay steady as other farm fatalities drop; teen boys at risk

The rate of serious injury and death on U.S. farms has fallen, but the number of people dying by entrapment in grain bins and silos has remained steady, with the annual number of such accidents rising over the past decade and reaching a peak of 26 in 2010. Many of the victims are teenage boys, with 14 dying since 2007. "The deaths are horrific and virtually all preventable," John Broder of The New York Times reports. (Mirror-Democrat photo by Bob Watson: deadly Illinois silo accident rescue in 2010)

Experts say the high rate of silo deaths can be blamed on the large amounts of corn being stored in the U.S. to meet global demand for food, feed and ethanol-based fuel. The persistence of such deaths "reveals continuing flaws in the enforcement of worker safety laws and weaknesses in rules meant to protect the youngest farmworkers," Broder writes. Last year, the U.S. Labor Department attempted to strengthen farm child labor laws, but backed down after push-back from farmers who claimed they shouldn't be told by the government that their children can't work on the family farm. The legislation was never directed at farmers' families and wouldn't have covered conditions on small operations, which account for 70 percent of grain entrapments, Broder reports. Experts say most farmers are aware of the risks, but don't have the proper equipment or training to protect their workers against grain avalanche.

Purdue University agricultural professor William Field told Broder "virtually every entrapment is preventable" by following Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines. Those guidelines require employers to turn off all power equipment before workers enter silos, provide workers with a harness or supporting chair and have an observer watch grain bin and silo workers at all times. (Read more)

New EPA water pollution tracker tells water quality in local communities' rivers and streams

The Environmental Protection Agency released a new interactive map about river and stream quality on the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. The map allows users to find out if waterways in their communities are polluted, with what, and what's being done to reverse the pollution. It could be a helpful tool for citizens, especially journalists, who can use the map to help them keep track of local efforts to clean up -- or let be -- polluted rivers.

"How's My Waterway?" also provides detailed descriptions of each type of water pollutant, the likely sources from which they came and potential health risks. Most information is based on 2010 data. "The practicality and convenience of [the map] may be its best asset," notes Appalachian Voices, an environmental advocacy group based in Boone, N.C. "Not many of us have time to sift through databases searching for the creek behind our community or our favorite fishing spot."

To check the health and quality of your local rivers, click here to access "How's My Waterway?"

Deaths from COPD more common in those who live in rural areas; smoking may be to blame

Deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are more common in rural and poor areas, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report says many factors contribute to this trend, including higher smoking rates, lower air quality and limited access to health care.

Researchers analyzed Census Bureau data, identifying more than 900,000 deaths from COPD between 2000 and 2007. Of those, about 88 percent were people over 65 -- and rural areas had the highest number of COPD deaths. Smoking is the top risk factor for the disease, which the third leading cause of death in the United States. Study co-author James Holt told Health Magazine that "COPD patients, especially those in rural and poor areas, may benefit from additional case management and risk reduction." (Read more)

AP defends, clarifies its use of 'illegal immigrant'

In response to requests that it stop using the term “illegal immigrant,” The Associated Press has defended and clarified its position on the term.

Tom Kent, deputy managing editor for standards and production, wrote that the AP doesn't use terms like “undocumented immigrants” or “unauthorized immigrants” because they "can make a person’s illegal presence in the country appear to be a matter of minor paperwork. Many illegal immigrants aren’t 'undocumented' at all; they may have a birth certificate and passport from their home country, plus a U.S. driver’s license, Social Security card or school ID. What they lack is the fundamental right to be in the United States. Without that right, their presence is illegal."

To concerns that the term connotes a criminal violation, not a civil one, Kent wrote, "Both are laws, and violating any law is an illegal act (we do not say 'criminal immigrant')." And to the notion that “illegal immigrant” suggests the individual's "very existence is illegal," he write, "We don’t read the term this way. We refer routinely to illegal loggers, illegal miners, illegal vendors and so forth. Our language simply means that a person is logging, mining, selling, etc., in violation of the law — just as illegal immigrants have immigrated in violation of the law." The AP Stylebook advises not to use terms like “illegals” and “illegal alien.”

Kent wrote that “illegal immigrant” is not accurate in some cases, "such as when referring to a child who was brought to the U.S. by parents who came here illegally," writes Mallary Jean Tenore of The Poynter Institute. "Kent doesn’t offer specific examples of when staffers should use 'illegal immigrant,' but he does offer some best practices, including this one: 'Be specific about nationalities. Don’t let terms like "illegal immigrants" be used synonymously with one nationality or ethnic group.' The AP Stylebook updated its entry on 'illegal immigrant' last year to address the nuances of the term." Tenore notes that some news organizations no longer use the term, and why. (Read more)

Billionaire's independent campaign for Mitt Romney includes magazine in weeklies and dailies in 4 states

So much money has gone into the presidential election for broadcast advertising that at least one outside group is trying a special section in weekly and daily newspapers to persuade voters in the swing states of Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, Virginia and Florida.

"In a retro move for a new media age, one conservative super PAC is spending more than $1 million in Wisconsin and four other battlegrounds on a breezy, pro-Romney, 12-page color 'magazine' . . . in some weekly papers on Thursday and daily papers on Sunday," reports Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"We're trying to get outside the clutter box," Will Feltus, ad man for TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, who is funding the $10 million Ending Spending Action Fund campaign, told Gilbert, who writes: "The group's rationale is twofold: The airwaves are almost hopelessly saturated with TV spots, and newspaper readers are highly cost-effective targets for political communications because of their propensity to vote."

"The best predictor of whether somebody is going to vote or not is whether or not they read the newspaper," said Feltus, "who did media buying and targeting for the 2004 George W. Bush re-election effort," Gilbert reports.

Eastern Kentucky University gets $25,000 to work on mobile application for rural newspapers

AT&T has given Eastern Kentucky University $25,000 to explore the application of mobile technology for rural newspapers and develop a working model "that improves both audience reach and content richness," a university news release said.

The year-long project will start with a survey of current best practices and an effort to reduce the environmental impact of mobile technology while seeking "improved sustainability of capital and human resources," the release said. Researchers will work with the staff of The Eastern Progress, the campus weekly, to apply the model. The third phase will be a workshop for editors in the university's 22-county service region to present guidelines for applying the model.

Other partners in the effort are the Kentucky Press Association and the university's Department of Communication, including journalism and public-relations faculty. The department is headed by Dr. Elizabeth Hansen, who chairs the steering committee of academic partners of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which is based at the University of Kentucky and publishes The Rural Blog. (Read more)

Rural states with declining immunization rates also show high incidence of whooping cough cases

In the state that once had the highest immunization rate, Vermont's medical community is not so proud of anymore. Fewer people are vaccinating their children in the nation’s most rural state, reports Dr. Wendy Mahoney, a private practioner in the state. But Vermont isn't alone. Stories about declining immunization have come in from across rural America, Mahoney writes in the Daily Yonder, and they "come in the midst of a pertussis outbreak the likes of which Vermont has not seen in years, if ever." Pertussis is whooping cough.

Mahoney says she can find one reason for the recent outbreak: a new law in her state, like some in other rural states, that allows parents to exempt their children from required vaccinations "because of a personal, moral, or other belief." Mahoney says many rural residents use the exemption, which she finds hard to fathom in the face of scientific advances that prove that vaccination has ended smallpox, wiped out polio in most of the world, and controlled measles, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, influenza type b and other infectious diseases.

The top map shows the estimated percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who have been exempted from receiving one or more vaccines in the 2011–12 school year. Comparison with the other map shows that states with large numbers of exemptions are those where whooping cough is making a comeback. (Centers for Disease Control maps)

A comparison between states with low vaccination coverage rates and those reporting higher numbers of whooping cough cases shows some, though not consistent, overlap. (Read more)

Romney counting on heavy turnout in rural areas

Romney in Van Meter, Iowa. (Getty Images)

In order to offset the urban electoral advantage of President Obama, Republican challenger Mitt Romney will need heavy voter turnout in the small towns and rural areas of Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University in Ames, told Bloomberg Businessweek. A poll of rural voters last week by the Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Ky., has Romney ahead by 22 percentage points in non-metro areas of nine states where the race is close. The new rural numbers go far in explaining why the presidential race is in a virtual tie now.

In the Rural Strategies poll, Romney outscored Obama by a large margin, 62-32, on the question of who would better improving the economy. The governor also led on topics including values, the economy, Medicare and Social Security, the who’s best for the middle class and the federal deficit. Obama drew very close on women’s issues and health care, where Romney held small two- and three-point leads. Nationwide, rural residents represent 16 to 20 percent of the population, dependign on how "rural" is defined. (Read more)

What Obama could have said in coal country: what he and Byrd did for miners with black lung

Coal industry's Kentucky license plate

This week Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette asked several people what the president should have talked about in Appalachian coal country. And they gave the president some ammunition that sounded surprisingly potent. (Read more)

Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder found this piece most effective: "The most important law passed during the last four years for coal miners ... may be one of the most unpopular in rural West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky. It’s the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and within that law are benefits coal miners have been seeking for the past 30 years."

Before he died in 2010, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia inserted a provision into the health-reform law saying that if a person had worked in an underground mine for at least 15 years and suffered from the effects of black lung (coal workers' pneumoconosis) , coal dust was the presumed cause of the problem and the miner was due benefits. In the past, explains Bishop, "X-rays would be taken of ailing lungs and doctors would try to discern if coal dust were the cause. Because coal companies would appeal judgments and it is hard to tell from an x-ray if damage has been done by smoking or coal dust, ... only about 15 percent of the miners who applied for  benefits received them."

Since 1969, when the first federal black-lung benefits were authorized, 70,000 coal miners have died from black lung. (Read more)

Rural Media Group buys firm to reach the big cities

The Rural Media Group bought another cable network this week to expand its programming into more markets. The Omaha, Neb.-based company said it had purchased FamilyNet from Interactive Television and Gaming Networks. The deal expands Rural Media's distribution by almost 15 million homes, into more than 61 million in all 50 states. Rural Media, which produces RFD-TV and Rural TV, now has access to major markets including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. (Read more)

Europe briefly banned imports of U.S. horsemeat; likely to be more difficult after July 2013

The sale of U.S. horsemeat to Europe via Canada and Mexico was halted by the European Union, then lifted, but tighter regulation is in the works. The International Equine Business Association's Sue Wallis, a horse-slaughter advocate, told Julie Harker of Brownfield Agriculture News that the suspension could have had "troubling consequences" had it not been ended. (Photo by Kelly Kruszewski)

Earlier this month, the EU notified Mexican and Canadian horsemeat plants they couldn't export to Europe unless the horses had been in the country where they were slaughtered for a minimum of 90 days. "Within three months, we would have had some 48,000 head of horses with nowhere to go," Wallis told Harker.

Cheryl Hanna of Examiner.com reported the suspension was announced one day after the release of a European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumers report saying "Veterinary records for horses are 'insufficient' to guarantee health standards relating to the European Union's concerns about U.S. horses' medication histories." The EU will require lifetime medication records for slaughtered horses by July 31, 2013, she reports.

Survey of rural bankers shows improvement of economic conditions in Central U.S.

After a three-month slump, the Rural Mainstreet Index of economic conditions in a 10-state area of the Central U.S. has started to climb. The Creighton University survey of bank CEOs shows the rural economy above "growth neutral" for the first time since June. Lead researchers Ernie Goss said in the October RMI report, "Negative impacts of the drought are being more than offset by the positives of very strong incomes from high agriculture and energy prices."

Farmland prices and farm equipment sales surged, notes Julie Harker of Brownfield Agriculture News. Only18 percent of bankers surveyed said 2012 crop yields in their areas are higher than last year, and almost 70 percent are lower. Hiring increased, but "at a snail's pace," Goss reported, and the index of bankers' confidence in the economy for the next six months was up from September, but is still weak.

The RMI ranges between 0 and 100, with 50 being growth neutral. October's survey places the index at 56.6, notes the Hamburg Reporter, in Iowa's southwestern corner. The farmland-price index reached 71.7, its highest mark since March. October is the 33rd consecutive month that it has risen. "Loan demand unexpectedly plummeted for the month," the Reporter notes. It dropped to 44.2 from September's mark of 70.2. Goss wrote in the report that the drought "failed to increase the demand for loans from farming and nonfarming organizations in the region." The Reporter lists the RMI for individual states: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Wyoming.

Farmland values keep rising; crop insurance shored up farmers during drought, and they love to buy land

Despite this summer's oppressive drought, farmland values are still soaring. Purdue University Extension agricultural economist Craig Dobbins told Agri-Pulse that at least two factors are at play: the drought is seen as a one-year event, with next year expected to be better, and crop insurance helped mitigate many farmers' losses.

Land values are increasing by double digits in some areas mostly because farm income is high and farmers love to buy land. The average farmland value increase ranged from a 26.7 percent increase in the Northern Plains to a 4.1 decline in the Southeast, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Corn Belt has the highest values, with land selling at about $5,560 an acre.

The continued increase in land value could be "a double-edged sword," Dobbins told Agri-Pulse, because it could prevent non-farmers from entering the industry. "For someone who is not in the farming business, it is going to be more difficult to get in and you are going to have to do it in some way that has not traditionally been done," Dobbins said. "You are going to need to be a clever entrepreneur, or very rich. It's not going to be impossible, but it is going to be extremely difficult."

Agri-Pulse is a weekly, Washington-based newsletter available by subscription; a free, four-week trial can be accessed here.

Native peoples losing aspects of nature-linked culture because of chemical contamination

"For decades, indigenous people in the United States and Canada have been burdened with health problems linked to environmental pollutants," Brian Bienkowski of Environmental Health News reports. "But that isn’t their only sacrifice: Pollution is crippling some tribes’ culture, too." Native foods, water, medicines, language, ceremonies, traditional hunting and fishing techniques have all been jeopardized by pollutants and development. When native people lose those vital aspects of their lives, Bienkowski writes, "their identity is lost, too." (EHN photo by Elizabeth Hoover: Mohawk girls attend garden ceremony. Soil contamination is discouraging gardening, EHN reports.)

The Anishinaabe Tribe lives on the Aamjiwnaang reservation east of Michigan's "thumb" across the St. Clair River near Sarnia, Ontario. The area is known as Chemical Valley because it's home to 62 industrial facilities, about 40 percent of Canada's chemical industry. Benzene, cadmium, formaldehyde and lead "permeate the reservation," Bienkowski writes. The tribe considers the cedar tree sacred. They use it medicine, teas and in ceremonies. But when a private lab found elevated levels of cadmium in reservation cedars in 2006, the tribe stopped using them to evoke their cultural traditions.

The St. Lawrence River runs through the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, also in southern Ontario, on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, and has provided the tribe with water, food and identity for centuries, Bienkowski reports. In the early 1980s, the river was polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, from upstream aluminum foundries, contaminating the water, fish and people. "But there's an impact that blood tests can't measure," Bienkowski writes. "The relationships and experiences that took place on the river are now endangered as the community avoids it out of fear."

The Tewa Pueblo in New Mexico are dealing with contamination from uranium mining. "Animals have died off or left, the water is no good. This is not the world that we know and rely on," tribe member Kathy Sanchez told Bienkowski. "It's contaminated our culture."

The Yu'pik on Alaska's St. Lawrence Island have blood levels of PCB about four times higher than the U.S. average, through marine mammals that are essential to their diet and culture. (PCBs accumulate up the food chain.) "It's not an option to change our diet," Vi Waghiyi, tribe member and director of Alaska Community Action on Toxins. "But the joy of a successful hunt and sharing the food has been replaced with people wondering, will this harm my family?" (Read more)

Minnie Pearl's hometown paper marks 100th anniversary of her birth, touts statue funding

Last week, with an item about a newcomers' feature in the Hickman County Times of Centerville, Tenn., we ran a photo of the model of a statue of Minnie Pearl, to be placed at the old courthouse in her native county. Today would have been the rural comedian's 100th birthday, and the Times noted it in this week's paper, with a story about how Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon became Minnie Pearl of Grinders Switch, and a photo of her with Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry.

The paper also promoted two auctions being held in conjunction with the anniversary, to raise money for the statue (which would replace one removed by a dissatisfied donor) and make the courthouse a cultural arts center. A radio auction on KIX-96 FM runs until 8 p.m. CDT. To get a list of items and make a bid, call 931-729-2900. Also ending tonight is The Pearl On-Line Art Auction, with 160 items created by local artists. For details, go to www.ThePearlAuction.com.

Ethanol makers might go to more productive butanol

Some ethanol refiners in the Corn Belt are considering switching to butyl alcohol. Butanol is more attractive to refiners because it has some advantages over ethyl alcohol: It produces more energy, is easier to handle, and more of it can be blended into a gallon of gasoline. But producing it will take costly retrofits at ethanol plants. (Photo: Butanol production)

Several companies, including Butamax Advanced Biofuels, ajoint venture of  BP and DuPont, have developed ways to make butanol the same way as ethanol, through yeast fermentation and distillation. Butamax CEO Paul Beckwith told Henry Fountain of The New York Times that making butanol that way should be attractive to ethanol producers because they won't have to adopt a new production method. He also said new butanol-specific plants could be built, including some that use switchgrass or other nonfood raw materials similar to cellulosic ethanol plants.

Ethanol producers are wary, though, saying they prefer to talk with gasoline companies before making the switch. Highwater Ethanol CEO Brian Kletscher told Fountain that the company sees potential in butanol production, but he wants to talk to gas refiners before making a final decision. Butamax estimates that converting a small ethanol plant to butanol could cost $10 to $15 million. (Read more)

Google mapping roadless places; some see risks

Google Street View has mapped more than 3,000 cities all over the world, as well as many rural areas. But now the Internet giant is tackling America's natural spaces. The company plans to map wild places across the country, and eventually the world, with Google Trekker, a 40 pound backpack-like contraption that contains much of the equipment found in Google's Street View cars. Google hopes to map everything from the Appalachian Trail to Antarctica, and maybe Mount Everest. (NPR photo: Google's Craig Robinson with Google Trekker)

Google Trekker's inaugural journey was into the Grand Canyon. It snapped pictures and collected Global Positioning System data with its 15 specially designed lenses and two GPS receivers. Google plans to map places its cars can't go, and Street View director Luc Vincent said they came to the Grand Canyon first because it is "iconic," Steve Henn of NPR reports. Each image collected will be tagged with precise location data and the angle at which the photo was taken. Vincent said data has to be precise because Trekker is going to places where GPS is sometimes not reliable.

"The end result will be a smooth, continuous eye-level view of the trial," Henn reports. "It will allow anyone who is online -- at home or with a smart phone -- to virtually peer down the Bright Angle trail and see the sun stream over the rim of the canyon walls." Grand Canyon National Park public affairs director Maureen Oltrogge told Hunn she worries Google backcountry maps could give hikers a false impression of trials because Google only maps on sunny, good-weather days. She said it's possible hikers would not be prepared, which could put them in danger. (Read more)

Is the Extension Service still useful in the digital age? It seems so, but adjustments may be needed

It's been 100 years since extension services came to rural areas across the country, and in an age of much more advanced technology, with information a few clicks away, some people wonder if it is time to rethink the usefulness of the Cooperative Extension Service, Jonathan Knutson of Agweek reports. North Dakota State University Extension Service director Chris Boerboom says extension skeptics are wrong because extension is vital.  "There's a lot of information available and a lot of places to get is," Boerboom told Knutson. "But [extension is] still the place to go when you want reliable, unbiased information."

But the service's value isn't always an easy sell, Knutson wrote, especially when government budgets are dwindling. South Dakota State University's extension director Barry Dunn told Knutson budget issues forced a restructuring of the service in many states. "We have to prove ourselves every day, that we really are the safe, trusted, unbiased, scientific place to go for information," Dunn said. North Dakota, Minnesota and Montana's services say they don't plan to restructure. Extension officials in at least four states say they are offering more online services for farmers.

Extension services in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Montana all say they will lose millions in funding if federal sequestration happens at the end of the year. They're also facing staff shortages as baby boomers  begin to retire, with the trend being more pronounced in North Dakota where 32 county positions were filled within two years. (Read more)

Some want to strip food stamps from Farm Bill, but that would make it hard to pass

Republican critics of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, have become more vocal, with many calling for severing the long-connected ties between it and farm programs in the Farm Bill, Agri-Pulse reports. The move would make it harder to maintain farm subsidies, so it seems unlikely to go anywhere. But at a time when all federal programs and the control of Congress and teh White House are up for grabs, Agri-Pulse asks an important question: Would it be possible, in a House  "dominated by urban dwellers, to find 218 votes for passing a bill devoted only to helping farmers?"

Until the 1960s, farm bills were mostly devoted to the commodity title. But when Congress became increasingly urban and suburban, farm-state representatives folded food stamps into farm policy to win majorities, Agri-Pulse reports. "Ever since inception of food program, there's always been a linkage between farm products and food assistance," said Roger Szemraj, agriculture and nutrition expert at OFW Law, a Washington firm.

Because there are fewer farmers and fewer congressional districts in rural areas, he said, the food-stamp portion of the Farm Bill gives urban representatives a reason to support the legislation. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., told Agri-Pulse this summer that it would be hard to pass a bill only about farming without SNAP attached to it because it wouldn't get enough votes.

Agri-Pulse is available by subscription only, but a free trial can be found here.

County rates of rural uninsured vary greatly

The rate of uninsured aged 18 to 65 in rural counties has grown faster than in exurban and urban counties since 2005, but varied greatly from county to county, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder. (Yonder map: Red counties, more than 25 percent uninsured; green, less than 12 percent)

In 2005, the rate of rural uninsured wasn't much different than the rate of uninsured in cities or exurban counties, which are part of metropolitan regions, but where most residents live in rural settings, but in 2010 most rural counties exceeded the national average of 17.7 percent. The overall rural rate is 18.4 percent.

"You don't have to look too hard at the map to see where the counties are in rural America that have the smallest percentages of people with health insurance," Bishop writes. "Thirty-two of the 50 rural and exurban counties with the largest percentages of uninsured are in Texas." The top 10 counties with the lowest rates of uninsured are in Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, Iowa and South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Seven of those 10 are exurban. (Read more)

People outside the newspaper industry should object to Postal Service's deal with junk mailer, writer says

The U.S. Postal Service's deal with a junk-mail company is a scandal, Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane opines in his latest column.

The advertisements "already reach consumers via newspaper inserts," Lane writes. "What the deal would do is alter the national flow of advertising, to the financial detriment of newspapers like the one you may be holding. Struggling print media need this like a hole in the head." Noting that newspaper interests have sued to block the deal, Lane noted, "This gives me a conflict of interest, of course. Still, even people who don’t draw a newspaper paycheck should be able to appreciate what’s wrong here."

Lane argues that the old Post Office "was envisioned as a utility, providing a delivery network to all companies and individuals on more or less equal terms. Now, in its technological obsolescence and financial decrepitude, and with the encouragement of both Congress and its regulator, the postal service has been reduced to helping one private-sector entity out-compete another. . . . Our far-flung postal system used to epitomize American democratic efficacy. Today, however, Congress’s failure to deal with mail’s inevitable decline is a case study in democratic dysfunction." (Read more)

Community foundations can boost rural education, community development, other causes

Leaders in four Kentucky counties are lauding the creation of private endowments for their counties through the help of a regional community foundation. The judge-executives of Boyle, Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties said the endowments "will help meet the requests from non-profit agencies, for scholarships or funding for the arts, education, or health and human services," Greg Kocher of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Rural communities often have difficulty attracting philanthropy, but community foundations like the Wilderness Trace Community Foundation, which is helping the four counties, and the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky give local people and expatriates a trusted place to donate money, often by bequests. As the baby-boom generation begins to pass, billions in wealth will be transferred to succeeding generations -- or to a philanthropic interest. For example, Boyle County expects $400 million to be transferred within 10 years, and it hopes to capture 5 percent of that, resulting in $20 million, with a $1 annual million payout. In Mercer County, the endowment has reached $83,000. When it reaches $100,000, an advisory group of eight citizens will determine how the earnings will be used. (Read more)

Small-scale study: Lack of chemical fertilizers, herbicides doesn't hurt crop yields or profits

A new study concludes that commercial agriculture can shed much or all of its chemical consumption in favor of more natural and organic processes without losing any crop yield or profit. In fact, the nine-year Iowa State University study shows that more organic processes produced more corn and soybeans.

Beginning in 2003, researchers planted three plots: one replicating the conventional method of planting corn one year and soybeans the next, adding a routine mix of fertilizing chemicals; another using a three-year cycle that included planting oats; and one using a four-year cycle and planting alfalfa, along with integration of raising livestock, manure from which was used as fertilizer.

Not only did the longer rotations produce better crops, they also "reduced the need for nitrogen fertilizer and herbicides by up to 88 percent, reduced the amount of toxins in groundwater 200-fold and didn't reduce profits by a single cent," Mark Bittman of The New York Times writes. "In short, there was only upside -- and no downside at all -- associated with the longer rotations," he continues. There was an increase in labor costs, but Bittman counters that profits remained stable.

Bittman does not address the question of scalability, whether these methods could be adopted on mass scale, and where the labor would come from. He hints at those questions by writing, "Perhaps most difficult to quantify is that this kind of farming — more thoughtful and less reflexive — requires more walking of the fields, more observations, more applications of fertilizer and chemicals if, when and where they’re needed, rather than on an all-inclusive schedule." (Read more)

Nonprofit project begins mapping rural arts and culture from residents' point of view

An arts and culture map of rural America has been completed and is now available. The Rural Arts and Culture Map is the creation of The Art of the Rural, a nonprofit organization that gathers perspectives about the state of rural arts and culture, in collaboration with Appalshop, Australia's Feral Arts and the Denver-based M12 Art Collective. The map is an attempt to quantify the dynamic and complex arts and cultures of rural areas across the country. (Map shows location of shared resident stories)

Art of the Rural contributing editor Rachel Reynolds Luster said last January on the Daily Yonder that such a map was needed because culture maps often miss what is most important to rural communities. An accurate cultural atlas for the country "involves layers, so you could compare things such as settlement patterns, language, music, native populations, native plants and domesticated crops," she wrote. The map would allow people to find out where most people in an area go to church, how many residents have broadband, where the nearest hospital is located, or what people do for work and recreation.

The organization will use the map to "present new perspectives from rural America, with a focus on rural youth, rural-urban exchange, and a sustaining interest in the changing face of rural America; the next generation, and their membership in diverse ethnic and cultural communities," according to the Rural Arts and Culture Map website. The project is driven by the people in rural communities, who have opportunities to share pictures, video, audio, and text to help "create new rural narratives." To read more about the project and view the interactive map, click here.

South Dakota journalists praise McGovern, who was shaped by his rural roots and returned to them

George McGovern, who died as he marked his 40th anniversary as the Democratic nominee for president, was shaped by his rural roots, but unlike many politicians who climbed the national pinnacle, he returned to them, notes political reporter Chuck Raasch of USA Today, who got to know McGovern long ago in their native South Dakota. (USAT photo)

"Rarely was a politician so shaped by the geography of his upbringing," Raasch writes. "It is why, I think, after he left public office that he took a largely untrodden path back to South Dakota to live part-time. A lot of politicians never come home once they’ve left public office. The allure of Mitchell was never something he was ashamed of, even when other politicians or the pressies covering him would crack jokes about the Corn Palace," Mitchell's other claim to fame. "It was there, growing up in the dust and the suffering of the Great Depression, that this son of a Methodist minister was grounded in the knowledge that there are many things bigger than you in this great big world, but that knowledge is never an excuse for not trying to make that world better." (Read more)

Seth Tupper, editor of The Daily Republic in Mitchell, writes that McGovern's "popular image . . . is that of a hopeless liberal, too radical to win even his home state in the 1972 presidential election.
That image, while lasting, is only a caricature. His was a life of puzzling contradictions that made him, like most legendary politicians, nearly impossible to define. . . . He was born and raised in what many Americans consider the middle of nowhere. Yet, in rapid succession, he rose to become a debate champion, pilot, war hero, college graduate, doctor of history, college professor, director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, congressman, director of Food for Peace, senator, Democratic presidential nominee, ambassador, Medal of Freedom recipient and author. Among South Dakotans, few if any can be called more accomplished." (Read more)

"The worldview that George McGovern brought to more than half a century of public life was shaped by witnessing privation on the farm during the Great Depression and hunger in Italy during his service as a decorated bomber pilot in World War II," writes Jim Webster in Agri-Pulse. Webster was on the staff of McGovern's 1968 Senate and 1972 presidential campaigns, where he was head of Rural Americans for McGovern-Shriver. Webster says McGovern's "Real legacy is his contribution to food and nutrition policy, especially overseas food aid and agricultural development." Agri-Pulse is available by subscription only, but a free trial can be found here. 

AP takes a long look at 'the war on coal,' the facts and the future beyond the election-season slogan

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Lisa Jackson, Sen. Joe Manchin, President Obama
and United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts
are targets of Senate challenger John Raese. (AP)

According to Central Appalachian coal operators, and many of the miners who work for them, there's a war on in America, and electing a new president will end it, writes Vicki Smith, West Virginia reporter for The Associated Press, in a 2,500-word story that compares the political rhetoric to the facts and looks to the future.

"The war on coal is a sound bite and headline, perpetuated by pundits, power companies and public relations consultants who have crafted a neat label for a complex set of realities, one that compels people to choose sides," Smith writes. "It’s easier to call the geologic, market and environmental forces reshaping coal — cheap natural gas, harder-to-mine coal seams, slowing economies — some kind of political or cultural 'war' than to acknowledge the world is changing, and leaving some people behind."

Noting that there was a real war over coal in West Virginia almost 100 years ago, when federal troops put down rebellious miners, Smith writes, "To hear the industry tell it, those who remain are an endangered species in the cross-hairs of overzealous environmental regulators directly responsible for wiping out thousands of jobs. But in war, casualties are often inflated. The numbers are eye-catching, but the details are lost." Smith notes that many miners find jobs at other mines, and U.S. Department of Labor data show that coal jobs have grown in Central Appalachia since 2008, with consistent gains in West Virginia and southwest Virginia, and ups and downs in Kentucky.

But the prospect of a second term for President Obama, whose administration has tried to be tougher on coal, has set off alarm bells in the region. Coal executives appear to have convinced miners they are fighting for their way of life, and "war sells because fear sells," Smith writes. Georgetown University linguistics professor Deborah Tannen told Smith that wars on anything -- coal, women, drugs -- are emotionally charged metaphors that take over political discourse. For politicians, war is about "destroying the opposition so they can get the power back. For media, it's about grabbing the attention of an easily distracted public. The more polarizing the voices, the more entertaining the story." But she says such language contributes nothing to real understanding, and "has a corrosive effect on the human spirit."

The election aside, the language has been somewhat softer. Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett brought with him from West Virginia the "Friends of Coal" campaign, which is promoted by more than 55,000 license plates in a state that also lies in the Illinois Basin coalfield. "Instead of seeing the industry as faceless men in suits, they see the pickups next to them at the supermarket parking lot, the tags instantly identifying the like-minded," Smith reports.

Meanwhile, Mason Adams of The Roanoke Times reported a similar story. Southwest Virginia's coal economy is declining because of "numerous challenges: a less expensive competitor in natural gas; a worldwide slump in coal used in making steel; and rising costs from federal clean air and water regulations." But, Adams writes, in the region's perception, coal has but one enemy: the federal government.

Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette writes, "The Obama administration's moves to more strictly police the mining and burning of coal have been more modest -- and in some ways far less successful -- than they are portrayed by the industry's public relations barrage and by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, according to regulatory experts who have closely followed the issues." (Read more)

Coal companies sell cheaply to foreign markets, with help from low-cost federal leases in West

"Asian economies, hungry for coal, stand to gain from a U.S. program meant to keep domestic power cheap and abundant," reports Patrick Rucker of Reuters. Mining companies pay the U.S. government to mine federally owned land in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. "Selling that coal cheap at a time of increasing exports across the Pacific could amount to a U.S. taxpayer subsidy for industrial rivals like China," Rucker writes.

Coal exports have increased since 2009, and could reach record highs this year, as companies including Peabody Energy and Arch Coal Inc. rush to sell surplus coal overseas "in deals that can double or triple their margins," Rucker reports. "If [companies] can find ports to reach Asian markets easily, it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in additional profits and marginally lower coal prices for countries in those markets." Some Pacific Coast towns are fighting efforts to establish and expand coal ports, Lorna Thackeray of the Billings Gazette reports.

The Bureau of Land Management says the program has generated more than $9 billion revenue over the past 10 years. But at least six former federal officials worry this plan essentially means U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing cheap Asian energy. "A key question is whether the taxpayer is getting a fair return on the use of those lands," said Lynn Snarlett, former deputy to Republican interior secretaries from 2005 to 2009. The Governmental Accountability Office is examining whether coal companies are paying fair market value for coal mined on federal lands. (Read more)

Scientist says drought hurting evergreen trees in Southwest; long-term, could be worst in history

Many scientists have said that this summer's drought may become the norm for the U.S. as climate change contributes to massive droughts. This could have a devastating affect on the nation's crops, as witnessed this summer, and has already started moving corn production north. Extreme drought could also have a huge impact on U.S. forests, as one University of Tennessee researcher concluded in an article published this month in Nature Climate Change.

By analyzing tree ring data from the year 1000 to 2007, researcher Henri Grissino-Mayer, left, and a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Arizona and Columbia University have evaluated how drought affects the productivity and survival of confer trees in the Southwest. Trees grow slowly during drought and will produce smaller rings as a result. During times of plentiful water, they grow fast and will have wider rings.

Grissino-Mayer said the analysis revealed the most recent drought actually began in the late 1990s and has lasted through the following decade, and that it could last even longer, becoming the worst drought in history. "Looking forward to 2050, our climate-forest stress model suggests we will see worse drought and increased tree mortality than we've seen in the past 1,000 years," Grissino-Mayer said. "This drought will be exacerbated by increasing temperatures globally, foreshadowing major changes in the structure and species composition of forests worldwide." (Read more)

Pesticides impair bumblebees' ability to find food

A new study shows that agricultural pesticide use is killing worker bumblebees and impairing their ability to gather food, which means colonies vital for plant pollination are more likely to fail where pesticides are used. The British study was published in Nature this week.

Scientists exposed colonies of bumblebees to the pesticides neonicotinoid and pyrethroid over four weeks at levels similar to what they would experience in the field. "Chronic exposure ... impairs natural foraging behavior and increases worker mortality, leading to significant reductions in brood development and colony success," the University of London study concluded.

The United Nations estimates that a third of all plant-based food depends on bee pollination, Alister Doyle of Reuters notes. A 2011 UN report estimated that bees and other pollinators do work that is worth $200 billion a year, and they have been declining in several countries. The study's findings "underscored the importance of wider testing of pesticides" to make sure they won't harm bees, Doyle reports.

Conference about mountain regions' similarities, differences to begin Thursday at U. of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky's Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will be hosting their first Global Mountain Regions Conference from Oct. 25 through Oct. 27. The event is a "transnational exploration and conversation of the shared economic, social and historical challenges that mountain regions face within both national and global contexts," a university press release says.

Co-organizer and Appalachian Center director Dr. Ann Kingsolver and co-organizer Sasikumar Balasundaram have pulled together experts in a broad array of topics, and hope discussions can reveal what mountain regions across the world have to offer each other and the global community as a whole. Each session of the conference will pair one expert from Appalachia with one from another region, including Ecuador, Wales, Pakistan and China. Topics will include discussion of the perspective of children, the contribution of bees, disaster recovery, journalism and much more.

The conference begins on Oct. 25 at 8 a.m. and runs through Oct. 27. All events will take place in the University's W.T. Young Library auditorium. For more information, click here.