Lovers of the land call for farm programs against soil loss and degradation, for rural communities

One of the first New Deal farm programs was the Soil Conservation Service, successor to the inaptly named Soil Erosion Service. Now it's part of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, but the ethic of soil stewardship lives on in county soil conservation districts -- and in the minds of thoughtful folks like farmer-author Wendell Berry of Kentucky, right, and Wes Jackson, a plant geneticist and president of The Land Institute in Salina, Kan. In The New York Times today, they call attention to the parlous health of our nation's soil.

Soil "is as nonrenewable as (and far more valuable than) oil. Unlike oil, it has no technological substitute — and no powerful friends in the halls of government," they write. Soil erosion and depletion "never enough noticed, has been made worse by the huge monocultures and continuous soil-exposure of the agriculture we now practice. To the problem of soil loss, the industrialization of agriculture has added pollution by toxic chemicals, now universally present in our farmlands and streams. ... Clearly, our present ways of agriculture are not sustainable, and so our food supply is not sustainable. We must restore ecological health to our agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our rural communities."

Berry and Jackson recommend a return to crop rotations that include pasture for hay and grazing, and the "more radical response" of research to develop perennial versions of major grain crops. (Rye may offer the best immediate prospect.) And they call for "a national agricultural policy that is based upon ecological principles. We need a 50-year farm bill that addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities." (Read more)

Daughter of Stinking Creek author returns, tells story of two women who made big differences

Forty years ago, John Fetterman was a top writer at The Courier-Journal in Louisville and spent much of his time chronicling the tribulations of Appalachia, in particular the communities along Stinking Creek in the southeastern corner of the state. He wrote a book, Stinking Creek, and won a Pulitzer Prize for a C-J Magazine story on the funeral of a mountain soldier killed in Vietnam. John Fetterman died young, but took his daughter Mindy to Stinking Creek with him and inspired her to be a journalist. In the last year or so she went back, to report on life there for USA Today, for which she has been a reporter and is now manager of enterprise and innovation.

The result was an insipring story that ran over the holidays in USA Today, The C-J and surely some other Gannett Co. Inc. newspapers, accompanied by an online photo gallery and video. It told the tale of a teacher-farmer, Irma Gall, and a nurse-midwife, Peggy Kemner, left, who had spent 50 years on the creek, educating and serving generations of families with a wide range of health, social, youth and community services -- and are still doing it through tribulations of their own, such as the osteoporosis that has bent Kemner's back. (Photo by Garrett Hubbard)

"Quietly, they advocated birth control and education for women," Fetterman wrote. "Viewed at first with suspicion and distrust, the women known as "the nurses" have, over the decades, proved how much hands-on caring can make a difference in the lives of individuals. ... As family size shrank, the abject poverty that encased Stinking Creek began to ease. The mountains opened up, and the people could see out."

Fetterman says in the video, "I realized that these two women have had as much impact on Stinking Creek as the federal government's War on Poverty," which provides a national frame for her story. To read it, view the photo gallery and watch the video, all of which are worth your time, click here.

Forest Service plans to amend easements, allowing logging roads to be paved for subdivisions

In its final days, the Bush administration is preparing to change U.S. Forest Service easements to "make it far easier for mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions," by allowing logging roads to to paved, Karl Vick reports for The Washington Post.

Vick reports that Mark Rey, a former timber-industry lobbyist who is the agriculture undersecretary overseeing the Forest Service, negotiated the change "behind closed doors with the nation's largest private landowner," Plum Creek Timber Co., which transformed itself from a logging firm into a real-estate investment trust and is building subdivisions in the Rockies, primarily in Montana, where President-elect Barack Obama campaigned against the idea after journalists reported on it and county officials opposed it.

Michael Jamison of The Missoulian reports that officials in Missoula County officials, where Plum Creek owns 57 percent of the private land, that the change "could pave the way for wholesale rural development -- along with all the attendant costs, as taxpayers struggle to deliver urban infrastructure and firefighting" to newly developed areas.

"The uproar last summer forced Rey to postpone finalizing the change, which came after 'considerable internal disagreement' within the Forest Service, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report requested by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)," Vick writes. "The report said that 900 miles of logging roads could be paved in Montana and that amending the long-held easements 'could have a nationwide impact.'" (Read more)

Small-town filmmaker's nationally recognized production can now be viewed online

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress recently announced its 25 additions for 2009, and at the same time a short film added to the list last year became available for viewing online. "Our Day" made in 1938 by Wallace Kelly of rural Lebanon, Ky., left, is a silent, 12-minute movie about a day in his household.

We reported on the film in an item last Jan. 10. Last week, Kentucky Educational Television did a story about it and, with permission of the filmmaker's daughter, Martha Kelly, posted the film on its Web site. To watch it, click here. For KET's page about the movie, click here.

The film gained national attention through Home Movie Day, an annual event held in New York and other cities. It was praised for its sophisticated staging, lighting, camera work and editing. Dave Kehr of The New York Times, a member of the National Film Preservation Board, which picked the movies, called Kelly's picture "extraordinary" and said in his personal blog that it "displays a more sophisticated sense of mise-en-scene [staging] than the great majority of current Hollywood features."

Surgeons starting to disappear from rural areas

General surgeons "are the backbone of rural medicine, and all across the country they are starting to disappear," David Brown writes for The Washington Post. That means longer, more expenisve and in some cases more dangerous trips for specialized services, and it threatens the futire of some rural hospitals.

"Many young physicians are opting for non-surgical specialties, such as radiology or cardiology, in which they can earn as much money as a surgeon with less grueling and unpredictable hours," Brown explains. "Many young surgeons, in turn, choose to concentrate in fields such as transplant surgery or plastic surgery, in which they can make more money and don't have to face (usually alone) the wide range of problems a generalist faces."

The problem is getting worse and is not about to get better, because more than half of general surgeons in rural areas are over 50, "and a wave of retirements is expected in the coming decade," Brown writes. Surgeons are a key element in access to specialized health-care services, he notes: "Without general surgeons as backup, family practitioners can't deliver babies, emergency rooms can't take trauma cases, and most internists won't do complicated procedures such as colonoscopies." (Read more)

Cattle ranchers say they quashed backdoor effort by feds to require registration of farm premises

Mandatory premises registration, the bugaboo of the National Animal Identification System, won't be coming in through the back door, says the leading group of independent cattle ranchers.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has canceled a September memorandum that would have required registration of premises owned by "producers involved in interstate commerce and in any of the federally regulated disease programs," according to R-CALF USA, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.

"R-CALF had demanded the agency retract the memo," reports Tom Johnston of MeatingPlace. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard told Bob Meyer of Brownfield Network that the retraction wouldn't affect states that require premises registration, but "Bullard says there are a number of challenges to state laws either filed or in the works and R-CALF has submitted affidavits in support of some of those producers." (Read more)

Iowa Independent posts its brag sheet for 2008

"In journalism, the scoop is the name of the game," writes Jason Hancock of the Iowa Independent. "The exclusive story is no longer the exclusive domain of the traditional media. In many cases, it’s the small, independent media that are breaking stories and driving the news these days." The Independent, one of five state-based news sites of the Center for Independent Media, claims eight such scoops in 2008.

First on the list is Doug Burns' June 29 prediction that Arizona Sen. John McCain would pick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. The prediction was only in the headline, but Doug wrote it. His lede said (emphasis added) that Palin "could vault from relative national obscurity," and our friend deserves credit for a very perceptive guess, and for much good reporting on a wide range of topics.

Five of the Independent's eight scoops dealt with the presidential election, in which Iowa cast the first votes, made Barack Obama the front-runner and was a battleground state for most of the general-election race before falling into the Obama column. For the Independent's report on itself, click here.

State legislator has bill to ban corn ethanol in N.H.

Even as federal officials consider raising the amount of ethanol in gasoline from the current 10 percent, a New Hampshire legislator has drafted a bill to ban corn-based ethanol from being any part of the mix in his state, Steve Taylor reports in Lancaster Farming, a weekly journal aimed at the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

"It makes no sense environmentally when making a gallon of ethanol has a bigger carbon footprint than a gallon of gasoline, and it makes no sense to allow it to drive up food costs and availability when millions of people around the globe are facing starvation,” David Campbell told Taylor, who writes that the lawmaker is "undeterred" despite advice from "state bureaucrats" who say his idea "is an impossibility in light of ethanol mandates coming down from Washington."

Taylor, who recently retired after a long tenure as New Hampshire's appointed agriculture commissioner, reports that Campbell has allies in "owners of chainsaws, snowmobiles, outboard boat motors, weed whackers and other power equipment who have already seen their machines damaged by fuel containing ethanol. They’re the leading edge of what the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, a Washington trade group, says is going to be a huge and angry mass of equipment owners should the Environmental Protection Agency go along with proposals to allow gasoline to be formulated at more than the current 10 percent level for ethanol content."

Taylor, right, also reports, "Many in the gasoline industry claim ... unscrupulous marketers are boosting ethanol content well beyond the present E-10 limit because they can make money doing it." (Read more)

So, does Taylor think Campbell's idea will go anywhere? "When it comes to setting public policy, New Hampshire is usually either first or last. An ethanol ban will be sure to stir things up, but I'll bet it will get referred to study," he told us in an e-mail. "But the New Hampshire legislature can do some startling things when it looks from the outside like an idea will go nowhere. The best recent example is a law that banned private entities from mining unknowing patients' medical records for profit. The law was recently upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, to the consternation of drug companies, and now a couple of other states are looking to copy."

Threatened, rural South Carolinians accept zoning

Some rural residents of Greenville County, S.C., "have banded together to do what was once unthinkable in the county's rural reaches -- ask the county to add zoning restrictions to their property," reports Ben Szobody of The Greenville News. "The grassroots movement is an example of how traditional property-rights advocates can come to embrace limited land-use rules when large-scale development threatens a way of life."

The move was prompted by a proposal for "a dense, 100-acre subdivision" with septic tanks, Szobody writes. The plan faltered, but it made zoning-shy residents think about "what robust growth is doing to the farthest reaches of a county that still contains vast swaths of prime unzoned property, and how attitudes are changing about planning ahead of growth by way of land-use restrictions." (Read more)

Massey to pay record fine in deadly coal-mine fire

A Massey Energy Co. subsidary agreed last week to pay $2.5 million in fines and $1.7 million in civil penalties for violations that caused a fire that killed two West Virginia coal miners in 2006. "Combined, the $4.2 million in criminal and civil fines appear to amount to the largest government penalty ever in a coal-mining death case," reported The Charleston Gazette.

Aracoma Coal Co. also agreed to plead guilty to 10 criminal violations, including one felony. The violations included "not providing a proper escape tunnel out of the underground mine, to not conducting required evacuation drills, and to faking a record book so it appeared the drills had been done," Ken Ward Jr. and Andrew Clevenger wrote.

The deal with federal prosecutors disposes of more than 1,300 health and safety violations at the Alma No. 1 mine, where the fire occured, and the nearby Henshaw mine. Last month, Massey settled a wrongful-death lawsuit by the two widows. The chief administrative law judge of the federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission wrote that he approved the settlement "reluctantly," because the $1.7 million penalty is 61 percent of the amount the federal government initially sought, while Massey CEO Don Blankenship got a raise of more than 35 percent last year, to "a compensation package that probably exceeded $23 million." (Read more)

Wal-Mart settles most suits over labor violations

Rural America's largest employer, Wal-Mart, agreed last week to settle dozens of lawsuits alleging that it underpaid employees as a matter of course and violated other state and federal labor laws.

"The company disclosed in a regulatory filing earlier this year that it had 76 such cases; resolving 63 in one fell swoop would leave just 12 remaining cases. Wal-Mart settled a case in Minnesota earlier this month," reports Miguel Bustillo of The Wall Street Journal. "Wal-Mart lost similar cases in California in 2005 and Pennsylvania in 2006 and was ordered to pay $172 million and $187 million, respectively, for denying breaks to thousands of employees. The company has appealed both cases and they are not part of the settlement."

Paul Secunda, a Marquette University law professor, told Bustillo that Wal-Mart may have wanted to settle not only to avoid further such verdicts, but "to get their labor house in order" before Congress takes up the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workplaces to be organized by signatures of employees rather than secret-ballot elections. The bill "is fiercely opposed by Wal-Mart because the company worries it will make it easier for workers to unionize," Bustillo writes. Settling the suits could cost as much as $640 million, but Secunda said, "Compared to what unionization might cost them, I think they probably realized it was a small price to pay."

Wal-Mart said the settlements were "in the best interest of our company, our shareholders and our associates. Many of these lawsuits were filed years ago and are not representative of the company we are today." (Read more; subscription may be required)

Support the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues with a year-end donation

The Rural Blog is brought to you by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which helps rural journalists define the public agenda in their communities through strong reporting and commentary, often issues that come at them from far away but have a local impact.

In addition to the blog, the Institute conducts research, holds seminars on issues, makes presentations at other organizations' meetings and maintains a Web site, http://www.ruraljournalism.org/, that is a resource for rural journalists. For the Institute's annual report for 2008, click here.

The Institute is supported by the University of Kentucky and donors to an endowment that is matched by state funds. Donations to the fund are tax-deductible, and this is the time of year when many folks make such contributions. To make a donation to the Institute, through a secure Web site, click here. To make a pledge, via the same site, click here. Thanks for your support.

Many rural TV viewers in fringe areas will lose 'local' stations in transition to digital signals

Millions of rural Americans will no longer be able to watch some local television stations when all stations switch to digital-only programming on Feb. 17. Unlike traditional analog signals, which gradually fade with distance, "digital broadcasts either come in clear or not at all, meaning that those on the fringes of analog coverage areas will lose that reception entirely after the transition," The Associated Press reports. Also, "Many television stations will shift their broadcast footprints with the mandatory transition by changing transmitter locations, antenna patterns or power levels," Joelle Tessler writes.

The Federal Communications Commission released maps last week of the current and expected coverage areas of the 319 stations -- about 18 percent of the 1,749 full-power stations -- that are expected to lose at least 2 percent of their viewers. For a market-by-market list of those maps, click here. (The maps do not account for repeater or translator stations that rebroadcast signals to targeted areas.) In some cases, a more sensitive antenna, plus the converter box needed for all antennas, will bring in the digital signal. Rural residents may also be able to use satellite or cable service to get channels that the FCC deems local. (Read more)

The switch to digital TV is a major story in rural America, but one that many rural journalists may have difficulty covering because it's an unfamiliar subject and the sources are mostly in Washington. The National Press Foundation is sponsoring a free, 75-minute webinar on the subject on Jan. 22. Space is limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, click here.

As Tennessee goes agog at coal-ash spill, enviros urge Obama to block more disposal in old mines

UPDATES, Dec. 29: So many people showed up for a meeting among TVA officials and local residents that it had to be moved to the county high school, Terri Likens of the Roane County News reports. The New York Times has an excellent graphic with its Dec. 25 story on the issues raised by the spill, except it errs in saying the Clinch River flows 100 miles to Chattanooga. (See below.) The mapping mistake recalls some geographic history: In pioneer days, the Tennessee River was deemed to begin at Kingston, at the confluence of the Clinch and the river that flowed through Knoxville, then named the Holston. But Knoxville folks wanted to be on the Tennessee, and they argued that it began at the confluence of the Holston and the French Broad, upstream from their city. They prevailed.

The day after a coal-ash retention pond broke at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Kingston, Tenn., closing a river and inundating about a dozen homes with sludge, 39 environmental groups asked President-elect Barack Obama to reject a pending regulation that would make it easier to dispose of such ash in abandoned coal mines.

On Monday, an estimated 500 million gallons of sludge went into the Emory River near its confluence with the Clinch River, which shortly downsteam flows into the Tennessee River, impounded as Watts Bar Lake. Residents "had trouble coming to grips with the scope," reports Terri Likens of the Roane County News (who took the photo). "Depending on where they looked, the scene was like a moonscape or piles of pavement scraped up from a giant roadway." (Read more)

On Tuesday, the environmental groups said coal ash "has already polluted water in 23 states and the new rule would open the way for more pollution by failing to require consideration of risks to human health and the environment before new disposal sites are approved," reports Don Hopey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Coal-fired power plants produce approximately 129 million tons of waste ash a year, the second-largest industrial waste stream in the nation. About 25 million tons are dumped in coal mines," Hopey writes. "The waste contains numerous hazardous materials including arsenic, selenium, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, boron, thallium and molybdenum. Water pollution has resulted in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, North Dakota and New Mexico." (Read more)

Big electric co-op in trouble; board has a conflict

Kentucky utility regulators made an accounting move yesterday to help East Kentucky Power Cooperative stave off some creditors and ordered a management audit, saying the co-op's "worsening financial problems raise questions about its continued viability." It has suffered setbacks recently in an air-pollution case and a failed attempt to expand its territory.

EKPC, which generates and trasmits electricity, is owned by 16 small co-ops that distribute power to more than half a million consumer-members -- and that each have one director on the EKPC board. The state Public Service Commission said those directors have a conflict of interest because "They must balance East Kentucky Power's need for revenue with the desire for low electricity rates for its customers," Jim Jordan writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The customers' desire for low rates can hurt the long-term health of the company." (Herald-Leader map)

Many other generation-and-transmission cooperatives have similar board structures. Does yours? How's it working?

Injury hospitalization rate is higher in rural areas

Injuries requiring hospitalization occur at a significantly higher rates in rural areas, according to a study that researchers say is the first of its kind.

“As the population density decreases, the risk continues to increase,” said Dr. Jeffrey H. Coben of the Injury Control Research Center at West Virginia University. “If you just look at violence – person against person – the rates are higher in urban areas. But for virtually every other cause of trauma, the risks are substantially greater in rural areas.”

Previous studies found that death rates from injuries are higher in rural areas. This study examined all injuries that prompted admissions to U.S. hospitals in 2004. Hospitalization rates for injuries were 35 percent higher in sparsely populated rural counties and 27 percent higher in more populated rural counties. (The release from Newswise, a research-reporting service, didn't make clear whether the comparisons were with metropolitan-area counties or the U.S. as a whole.) The study is published in the January issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Why is rural riskier? In addition to promptness of care, other factors include higher-risk occupations such as farming, longer commuting distances, and a host of other possible factors. "Previous studies have shown that people who live in rural areas are more likely to take part in risky behaviors such as recreational drug use, drunken driving or failing to use seatbelts," Newswise reports. "Plus a culture of self-reliance may cause people to undertake household fix-up chores that are inherently dangerous, such as roof repairs." (Read more)

Gov. Palin creates Rural Subcabinet for Alaska

Last week, we noted data indicating that reports of mass migration from rural Alaska was no more than would be expected at a time of economic downturn, but Gov. Sarah Palin is creating a new structure to help rural communities deal with what may be a long-term trend. The Rural Subcabinet will also examine rising energy costs and make proposals to strengthen schools and public safety, create more jobs, and improve community infrastructure, writes Pat Forgey in the Juneau Empire.

Although the migration numbers were not as bad as expected, Palin said if economic pressures were causing the trend, the state needs to act: "I want the Rural Subcabinet to look for ways to make certain migration is a result of personal decisions, not despair or a lack of choice resulting from economic pressures or other factors." (Read more)

Rural Kansas towns struggle to keep pharmacies

Having to drive to another town to go to the store or the cinema can be a bother, but when you or a family member are sick it can be a hardship. Communities in rural Kansas are having trouble recruiting qualified pharmacists to open or stay open in their towns, The Associated Press reports. Among the 105 counties in Kansas, 31 only have one pharmacy, and six have none at all. Pharmacies in urban areas often offer signing bonuses and incentives to pharmacists that rural pharmacies cannot offer.

The limited number of pharmacy-school graduates also adds to the challenge. "When the school is only graduating about a 100 a year, and you figure only a handful want to come to a small town, that is hard," says Dick Stanley, who is on a task force to recruit a pharmacist to Hoisington, population 3,000. "You are competing against every other western Kansas community that wants to attract the same person." While recently, state legislators moved to expand the pharmacy school at the University of Kansas, proposed budget cuts are threatening that expansion. (Read more)

Big Gates Foundation grant will create high-speed Internet access in libraries in seven states

Broadband in public libraries, the only form of regular Internet access for many people in rural areas, will improve in seven states with grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Almost $7 million in grants will be shared by Connected Nation, a non-profit broadband advocacy group, and the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy. The grants will support faster Internet connections at libraries in Arkansas, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Virginia.

The foundation's press release notes that, with the economy's decline, library visits have increased significantly. “Our nation’s future depends on our ability to compete successfully in global markets,” ALA President Jim Rettig said. “To maintain our competitive edge, citizens must be guaranteed access to the ever-expanding universe of knowledge, tools, services, and resources available on the Internet. Public libraries not only can and should provide that access, they also act as catalysts for improving Internet service for entire communities." (Read more)

Indiana electric co-op fighting insurance company

Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative, which serves most of Southern Indiana, is thriving but threatened with bankruptcy -- by "an atrociously convoluted deal" it made with an insurance company six years ago, Gretchen Morgensen writes in her "Fair Game" column in The New York Times.

The deal is much too complicated to explain in a short blog item, but Morgenson says it illustrates how "collateral damage from the credit crisis continues to crop up in the most unlikely places." It's also a tale of how investment bankers used a non-profit's tax-exempt status to rack up millions in fees and rob the Treasury of tax revenue. And how John Hancock Life Insurance Co. filed the default notice just as Hoosier Energy was about to strike another deal to avoid it. Hoosier believes John Hancock is trying to use the situation "to generate a quick $120 million," Morgenson writes.

Here's a map of the Hoosier service area, its headquarters, five generating stations and 18 member cooperatives, which have 800,000 member-customers: