The Rural Blog

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Shopping rural helps small communities -- and it's a romp through one-of-a-kind gifts, practical gear and artful whimsy

Celebrating all the holidays in November and December can be more fun when shopping rural in-store or online. When gift-givers choose to buy from small-town businesses, they support local communities and get to spend their hard-earned gift-giving dollars on delightful, original items that can't be found at larger retailers. Below are just a few stops for readers to browse and hopefully, take time to enjoy the ingenuity, resourcefulness and craftsmanship rural businesses offer.

Mohr's art captures rich rural moments.

Inspired by the 1803 diary writings of midwife and tallow candle maker, Martha Ballard, 1803 Candles celebrate the nostalgia of simpler times. Like Ballard's candles, 1803 Candles are made by hand. Located in tiny, Waterman, Illinois, many of the company's employees are moms who work while their children are in school. 1803 Candles can be purchased online but can be discovered and smelled at a local shop with this handy finder.

Rural Cloth promotes rural as a lifestyle and strives to sell
high quality clothes that tout fashion and function.

Shop Rural can supply ideas and inspiration for gift-giving budgets of all sizes. The site supports "Small Towns and Small Batches" for hand-picking gifts that are special and support local artisans. The options go from craft woodworking to whimsical gnome-shaped soaps made from goat milk. Shop Rural is for small-town businesses only, so there's no mass production and the site does not take commissions. Shop Rural is still growing and has artist listing packages from $2 to $8.

Bookshop.org makes supporting independent bookstores simple. Avid readers need books, and bookgivers can choose a favorite rural/local bookstore to receive the full profit from their Bookshop.org purchases. Many smaller bookstores also offer book purchases through their own websites, which are "powered" by Bookshop. In Hazard, Kentucky, a local bookstore called "Read Spotted Newt" has a website full of local offerings along with the option to order books directly from its site through Bookshop.

When perusing the web for outdoor adventure and nature lover gifts, Rural is Rad is a stop that offers an online database featuring local businesses in Colorado. The site has beanies, nature notebooks, hand-knitted hats and gloves, specialty ski apparel, hiking equipment and hiking guides and journals to go with it.

Shopping rural helps small communities -- and it's a romp through one-of-a-kind gifts, practical gear and artful whimsy

Mohr's art captures rich rural moments.

The art of Bonnie Mohr captures the beauty and spirit of life lived closer to nature. Whether it's cows, cats, old trucks, luscious landscapes or children playing in the snow, Mohr's work captures the unique perspective and warm wisdom of rural living.

Inspired by the 1803 diary writings of midwife and tallow candle maker, Martha Ballard, 1803 Candles celebrate the nostalgia of simpler times. Like Ballard's candles, 1803 Candles are made by hand. Located in tiny, Waterman, Illinois, many of the company's employees are moms who work while their children are in school. 1803 Candles can be purchased online but can be discovered and smelled at a local shop with this handy finder.

Rural Cloth promotes rural as a lifestyle and strives to sell
high quality clothes that tout fashion and function.

Rural clothing styles are just as diverse as rural people, but for giftgivers seeking ranch, farm or outdoor life gear, the options start with flannel and go beyond. There's Rural Cloth for "those who live in small towns, like rodeos, bull riding, hunting, fishing, cold beer, backyard BBQs, and football." Duluth Trading is also a very rural pick. Headquartered in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, the company is serious about rural Americans being comfortable and ready for anything. The company even has "Fire Hose Workwear" and heirloom gardening bib overalls. Find a local store here.

Bookshop.org makes supporting independent bookstores simple. Avid readers need books, and bookgivers can choose a favorite rural/local bookstore to receive the full profit from their Bookshop.org purchases. Many smaller bookstores also offer book purchases through their own websites, which are "powered" by Bookshop. In Hazard, Kentucky, a local bookstore called "Read Spotted Newt" has a website full of local offerings along with the option to order books directly from its site through Bookshop.

Thanksgiving dinner is less expensive this year, but the small decline doesn't make up for 2022's dramatic increases

Serving up this year's Thanksgiving dinner will cost 5% less than it did in 2023. The average price of this year's turkey dinner with all the trimmings rings in at $58.08, compared to 2023's, $61.17, and 2022's painful $64.05. And while the decrease is welcomed news, this year's Thanksgiving meal is still 19% higher than it was in 2019, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation's 39th annual survey.

To tally this year's Thanksgiving dinner costs, the AFBF sent out volunteer shoppers who checked prices Nov. 1-7, which is notably before most grocery store chains began featuring deep discounts on whole frozen turkeys. U.S. turkey prices declined in 2024, with the average price for a 16-pound turkey at $25.67 or $1.60 per pound, down 6% from 2023.

Several other ingredient prices declined, including the cost of whole milk, which dropped more than 14%, and the price of fresh vegetables decreased by 6.4%. Those decreases helped offset the price hikes on dinner rolls and stuffing cubes, which increased by around 8%.

Individual Prices:

16-pound turkey: $25.67 or $1.60 per pound (down 6.1%)
14 ounces of cubed stuffing mix: $4.08 (up 8.2%)
2 frozen pie crusts: $3.40 (down 2.9%)
Half pint of whipping cream: $1.81 (up 4.7%)
1 pound of frozen peas: $1.73 (down 8.1%)
1 dozen dinner rolls: $4.16 (up 8.4%)
Misc. ingredients to prepare the meal: $3.75 (down 5.1%)
30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix: $4.15 (down 6.5%)
1 gallon of whole milk: $3.21 (down 14.3%)
3 pounds of sweet potatoes: $2.93 (down 26.2%)
1-pound veggie tray (carrots & celery): $.84 (down 6.4%)
12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries: $2.35 (up 11.8%)

Can social awkwardness at holiday functions be avoided? No, but preparation can help manage it.

Holiday get-togethers can be
awkward. (Adobe Stock photo)

The holidays can be the best time of the year, but it can also be the most awkward. As we reconnect with family, friends and coworkers, conversations can veer into uncomfortable stories or political views that lead to dead silence or arguments. In her opinion for The Conversation, philosopher Alexandra Plakias "offers a few strategies people can use to minimize awkwardness and deal with it when it does, inevitably, happen." A condensed version of her tips is shared below.

Know your goals, know your roles. Uncertainty is the oxygen of awkwardness. Before you engage in a potentially awkward or contentious interaction, ask yourself: What do I want to get out of this? . . . I’m not suggesting that some forethought will make things go smoothly or guarantee that no one’s feelings will be hurt. But it will help you feel more confident in your ability to navigate toward your desired outcome.

There’s no ‘I’ in awkward. Awkward situations breed intense self-consciousness. This is both uncomfortable and counterproductive. By focusing on yourself, you’re not attuned to the people around you or the signals they’re sending – signals that could offer you a pathway out of the awkward situation. So make sure you’re paying attention to the other players in the drama, not just your own discomfort.

Plan, coordinate and be explicit. People do so much planning in other areas of their lives, yet they expect social interactions to just flow effortlessly. . . . Have some go-to topics or questions at hand. . . .If you expect to see someone with whom you have an unresolved relationship – an estranged family member, or an old friend you ghosted – try to do some prep work in advance. Emails or letters can give people a chance to process reactions without putting them on the spot.

Laugh it off. Despite your best efforts, awkwardness does strike, offer people a way out – they’ll probably grab it. This doesn’t need to be momentous; it could be a little joke, a small-talk topic, or even – and only if things get very desperate – knocking a spoon off the table to break the silence.

Consider the alternatives. These strategies might help you avoid awkwardness. But take a moment to consider whether you really want to. Awkwardness is the result of social uncertainty; it slows things down and curbs your confidence. . . . If things are awkward, it’s worth looking around to see what role that awkwardness is playing, and what might take its place if it’s gone.

Alexandra Plakias

Alexandra Plakias is an associate professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College in New York. She's a moral psychology expert who studies social awkwardness as a way to explore how it "it stops people from engaging with difficult topics and challenging conversations." For more of her insights on social awkwardness, read her full article here.

Yelloh, once known as Schwan's Home Delivery, closes due to 'insurmountable business challenges'

Yelloh started out as Schwan’s home delivery business
in 1952. (Yelloh photo via Twin Cities Business)

After years of decline, the frozen food delivery icon formerly called Schwan's closed its doors after 72 years of service. The company's direct-to-consumer delivery model increased its popularity among rural communities, where its signature yellow trucks became synonymous with good people and food. "At its peak, the company delivered meals and ice cream across 48 states," reports Aimee Ortiz of The New York Times. "But critics and experts said the company became frozen in time, ceding ground to competitors and modernity."

The company's setbacks began in the late 1980s, "with fewer people home as drivers came, the relationships between drivers and customers that had been built over decades began to diminish," Ortiz explains. "Then came membership stores like Costco, which could compete on frozen food price and quality, and on top of that regulatory changes added restrictions to their truck operations."

In 2019, Schwan's sold a group of its frozen food grocery store brands in a deal that forced the company to relinquish the "Schwan's" name and suppliers. The company renamed its service "Yelloh," but many loyal consumers were put off by the new name. "The 2022 rebranding was a failure on multiple levels, said Ken Moskowitz, who is the founder of Ad Zombies and has been a marketer for 40 years," Ortiz reports. "By changing the company’s name, decision-makers 'threw away all that history,' Mr. Moskowtiz said."

The loss of Yelloh's food suppliers also cut into its customer base. "The home delivery service carried Schwan’s items until early 2024, but soon enough customers lost access to many of their favorite entrees, snacks and desserts, including the Schwan’s ice cream that had made the company famous," Ortiz explains. Ed Johnson, a retail and consumer products expert, said "that he could not speak directly to what exactly caused Yelloh’s demise, but that it’s 'very hard to sustain that business in a world where there’s more choice.'"

Yelloh released a statement that explained the closure was due to “'multiple insurmountable business challenges,” including “economic and market forces, as well as changing consumer lifestyles,'” Ortiz reports. "The closure means that about 1,100 people across 13 states are out of a job."

The debate over fluoride in public water may just be getting started: Local stories and knowledge can help

Fluoride is a mineral that helps prevent
tooth decay. (Photo by G. Rosenke, Unsplash)

The decades-long practice of adding fluoride to public water supplies to prevent tooth decay is under fire from anti-fluoride activists, including "fluoride foe Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was tapped for a top spot overseeing public health as head of the Department of Health and Human Services," reports Joseph A. Davies for the Society for Environmental Journalists. Kennedy wants "to remove fluoride from drinking water, and President-elect Trump has said he supports the idea."

Adding fluoride to public water sources began in the 1940s; however, the decision to add fluoride is not made at the federal level. Davis explains, "The federal government has no legal authority to require fluoride in drinking water — not the EPA or any other agency. But some 13 states (plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico) do — they currently have laws requiring utilities to add fluoride to drinking water. Hawaii is the only state to prohibit it. . . . Not only that, but laws in 37 states allow local governments and utilities to choose for themselves."

Davis writes, "The public should know the facts. For environmental journalists, that means local stories."

A recent court case won by anti-fluoride activists "ordered the EPA to reevaluate its rule on fluoride in drinking water, using the Toxic Substances Control Act rather than the SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act)," Davis explains. "The suit came after controversial research by the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program suggested fluoride could harm the IQ of growing kids."

The political atmosphere and anti-fluoride sentiment by some citizens is pushing the fluoride debate into more local community spaces. Davis shares these story ideas and sources.

Story ideas:

Does your state require fluoride to be added to public drinking water systems? Talk to your state regulators.
What are the main drinking water utilities in your audience area? Do they add fluoride? Talk to local managers about the issue.
Does fluoride occur naturally in the source water(s) of your local utilities? How much? Is it below or above the maximum contaminant level (MCL)?
Does your utility fully inform customers about fluoride in water (as they are legally required to under the SDWA)?
What does your local or state health department think about fluoride in drinking water?
Talk to your dentist and other local dentists about their views on fluoride.

Reporting resources:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: The EPA oversees implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, with most enforcement carried out by the states.
Centers for Disease Control: The main U.S. public health agency.
National Institutes of Health: This scientific research agency has studied fluoride in water.
World Health Organization: This international public health agency has recommended a level for fluoride in drinking water.
American Dental Association: The main professional association for general dentists in the United States.
Fluoride Action Network: A nongovernmental organization that opposes addition of fluoride to drinking water.
Food & Water Watch: A nonprofit NGO opposed to fluoride in drinking water.

Friday, November 22, 2024

The U.S. is developing wave energy, and its success could help remote areas with no access to electricity

Waves could be a constant source of clean energy. (Photo by Todd Diemer, Unsplash)

In the simplest of terms, waves are energy moving through water. Given their existence as flowing energy, it's surprising that up until the past two decades, waves were untapped as a possible U.S. electricity source.

"At a moment when large offshore wind projects are encountering public resistance, a nascent ocean industry is showing promise: wave energy," reports Sarah Raza of The Washington Post. Off the coast of Newport, Oregon, "a $100 million effort with funding from the Energy Department aims to convert the power of waves into energy. . . . PacWave, a project of Oregon State University, represents a necessary step for commercializing wave energy."

Located about seven miles from shore, PacWave's site spans 2.65 square miles of ocean, where most testing is done underwater and unseen by Newport's residents. Raza explains, "Subsea connectors are waiting to be plugged in like extension cords to wave energy converters. . . . With deep-sea offshore testing, companies will see how much power these energy converters can produce, whether they can hold up in rough ocean conditions, what environmental impacts they might have and how the devices will interact with each other."

Once the technology undergoes more experimentation and decision-making by scientists, its potential success could be a "game-changer." Raza writes, "There’s enough energy in the waves off America’s coasts to power one-third of all the nation’s homes, said Matthew Grosso, the Energy Department’s director of the water power technologies office."

Wave energy could be particularly appealing for rural areas with high energy costs and little to no access to electricity. "In small, remote communities that depend on more expensive diesel fuel, wave power could ease energy woes," Raza reports. PacWave Director Dan Helli told Raza, "There are remote communities in Alaska where everyone is running on diesel generators, they’re not on the grid, they have no electrical system."

Is organic farming possible for large agricultural operations? In Iowa, it has been successful, and the trend is growing.

Jack Fehr harvesting organically grown soybeans.
(Photo by Keith Schneider, The New Lede)

Midwestern agriculture has its fair share of industrial farms that use chemicals to enrich soils, kill bugs and prevent weeds to increase crop yields. But amid the region's miles of traditionally grown crops, Clear Creek Acres farm is growing 50,000 acres of corn, soybeans, oats and other crops "without the use of synthetic chemicals," reports Keith Schneider of The New Lede. Clear Creek Acres "farmers fertilize the land with chicken litter and hog manure and weed much of the land by hand, or with non-chemical tools, such as new laser weeders."

Located in the rural northern Iowa town of West Bend, the farm's unconventional farming practices began in 1998 when "Barry Fehr experimented with raising chemical-free soybeans on 45 acres," only to produce, "the most expansive and profitable area of organic grain production in Iowa, and possibly the United States," Schneider writes. "Fehr family farms are nearly matching the yields of crops grown conventionally."

Meanwhile, agriculture chemical companies such as Monsanto-owner Bayer and Syngenta maintain that "weed killers, insecticides and other pesticides are essential to robust food production, and that a growing global population requires use of the chemicals in agriculture," Schneider reports. "But 71-year-old Dan Fehr, who has been farming more than 50 years, says 'that is debatable.'”

Organic farming isn't the most common practice in Iowa, but its popularity is growing. "Clear Creek is part of a wave of growth in chemical-free agriculture in and around Iowa," Schneider adds. "The number of organic farms in Iowa increased from 467 to 799 from 2011 to 2021, and ranks sixth in the nation for the number of chemical-free farms. The state is first in organic corn and soybean production."

Despite the sector's growth, many farmers still fear the investment involved in switching. Schneider explains, "Jack Fehr, 28, said his family is setting an example for other farmers who fear converting to organic farming takes too long, costs too much, yields too little, and can’t be done successfully except on small farms."

The practice is "a high wire act balancing the lower cost for supplies [such as fertilizer and pesticides] against the higher costs for labor," Schneider writes.

Still, many farmers see the benefit of avoiding farm chemicals. Schneider adds, "Iowa, in particular, suffers from extensive farm-related water pollution, and cancer is prevalent. Indeed, Iowa has the second-highest and fastest-rising cancer incidence among all U.S. states, according to a 2024 report issued by the Iowa Cancer Registry."

Expert, best practices resources for journalists from Reporting on Addiction are available and free

Reporting on Addiction is a collaborative movement staffed by media professionals working to decrease addiction stigmas by sharing leading practices for covering all types of addiction.


Photos can help readers connect and remember. (ROA photo)

One of the project's best offerings is its website's visual guide, which allows journalists to access photo portrayals that illustrate addiction experiences from multiple real-life angles. This addiction-sensitive photography helps journalists report on substance use while sticking to a principle of "do no harm."

The photos also help readers develop a more memorable and connected understanding of how illegal drugs harm individuals and communities. Access their one-page visual style guide here.

Applying for Reporting on Addiction's expert database
takes less than five minutes. (ROA photo)

The project also gives options for newsrooms of various sizes, including professional and student newsroom training, research-based reporting resources, and an active expert database for question-and-answer sessions.

For journalists covering the opioid settlement's terms, disbursements and news, the site has a series of recorded "Fireside Chats" and a Slack channel to help reporters inform readers about where, when and how opioid litigation money will be handled in their community.

As added support, Reporting on Addiction offers downloadable, free resources that include:

Language style guide
Digital Security Toolkit
Trauma-Informed and Empathetic Reporting Toolkit

They also offer one-to-one and group training for individual journalists or their newsrooms.

Working on behalf of an unknown data company, an electric utility plans to build a natural gas plant in rural Louisiana

The gas-fired power plant would increase greenhouse
gas emissions. (LED photo via Floodlight)

Electric utility Entergy wants to build a $3.2 billion natural gas plant in rural northeast Louisiana to provide energy for an unnamed company's data center. Some people are "calling the development a 'godsend' for the region, where one in five people live in poverty," reports Pam Radtke of Floodlight. However, environmental and economic concerns have left some officials and residents questioning the viability of a project that creates more fossil fuel emissions and could result in electricity rate hikes.

Whit Cox, regulatory director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association, told Radtke, "Entergy is proposing to add huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions." Radtke adds, "And a Louisiana utility consumer group questions whether the cost of the new plants will be passed onto residential customers."

If Entergy's construction is green-lighted by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, "Louisiana would join a cohort of states building natural gas power plants to meet the pressing demand for electricity to run data centers being built by Amazon, Meta, Google and others," Radtke reports. "Data centers are forecast to account for up to 12% of all U.S. electricity demand by 2030."

Like other plants intended to feed energy-guzzling AI owned by data behemoths, Entergy's project targets land in small-town rural America where good-paying jobs can be hard to come by and land is cheap. "In its filings, Entergy says the data center will employ 300 to 500 people with an average salary of $82,000," Radtke adds. "The utility calls the development a 'game changer' that will bring a 'historic investment' to the region."

Even if environmental concerns are put to rest, Louisiana residents are worried the plant could drive up their utility bills. "Costs not paid by the data center, either through electricity rates or separate agreements, would be spread across Entergy’s 1.1 million Louisiana customers, although the utility says the proposed deal 'largely insulates [Entergy’s] other customers from paying for the upgrades required' for the data center," Radtke reports. "The PSC will take up the project for the first time [this month] as it considers hiring outside consultants to help evaluate the proposal."

Growing up on a junkyard helped this sculpture artist learn how to 'find beauty in the overlooked'

Book cover jacket of Jeffie Brewer's newly released book Joy Machine (K.Co Press graphic)

Growing up on a junkyard may sound depressing, but for Jeffrey or "Jeffie" Brewer, an East Texas native sculpture artist, his childhood days living among discarded things helped him develop his quirky, playful artistic style. He shares some of his artistic wisdom and childhood experiences with Olivia Weeks of The Daily Yonder. A condensed version of their Q&A is shared below.

Weeks: Tell me about yourself — who are you, what do you do, and where do you live?

Brewer: I’m just an artist specializing in colorful, silly, sometimes thoughtful sculptures that bring a touch of playfulness to public spaces, private homes, galleries, and museums. I live and work in East Texas, where I make things out of metal, often inspired by my childhood, the natural world, and whatever is rattling around in my brain at any given moment.

Weeks: Can you tell me about your town, Nacogdoches, and maybe a little about East Texas in general?

Brewer: Nacogdoches and East Texas in general have a character all their own – there’s something deeply rooted, raw, and nostalgic about the place. It’s home to lush, dense forests, rolling fields that stretch endlessly, and a lot of Texas history. The area has a quiet charm that speaks to a slower way of life, full of folks who are deeply connected to this place. . . . At my core, I am a redneck, with a thin veneer of culture and worldliness.

Weeks: In your book, Joy Machine, you write about growing up on a junkyard, and about how formative it was to your work. What were those early artistic explorations like? Did they all start with other people’s junk?

Jeffie Brewer's art brings a sense of playfulness into spaces.
(Photo by David Kimling via The Daily Yonder)

Brewer: Growing up in the junkyard taught me to find beauty in the overlooked, to take pieces from the past and either repurpose them or simply collect them. It was more a place for learning about industrial tools and working with my hands than a place for making art, per se. . . . The junkyard offered a space to destroy and rebuild, almost like a lens to see the world through. It gave me skills and memories that would later shape my understanding of what art could and would be.

Weeks: You seem to have always been into monsters and animals and creatures of all kinds — I’m thinking of your lovely 'Burds.' Where does that come from? And what’s your relationship like to the characters? Do they have personalities to you?

Brewer: Animals, creatures, and whimsical shapes have always fascinated me – they offer such freedom for imagination. 'Burds,' and other characters, let me play with personality, form, and storytelling. I see each creature as having its own charm and quirks, and in many ways, they become real to me, carrying a personality as I work on them.

Jeffie Brewer's book, Joy Machine, was released this month from K.Co Press.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Tired of big-city decisions, rural counties in some states work to form their own governments

New Illinois activists encourage residents
to "leave Illinois without moving."

Voters in rural towns and counties are working to break away from their state's blue-voting big cities and create their own governments. The "breakup" process has already begun in Illinois and California and is gaining momentum in "other states where vast swaths of red, rural counties are dominated by a few blue cities," reports Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. "More residents are pushing to break off and form new states. . . . A group called New Illinois State declared itself independent from actual Illinois and passed the first draft of a new constitution."

On Nov. 5, voters in rural Iroquois County, Illinois, "backed the idea of forming a new state with every Illinois county except Cook, home to Chicago and more than 40% of the state’s population," Barrett explains. "The nonbinding resolution also passed in six other counties," which means nearly 33% of the state's counties voted to leave the Chicago area behind.

Location of Iroquois County
in Illinois (Wikipedia photo)

Iroquois County resident and "new state" activist Phil Gioja, explained his motivation to Barrett, saying, "There’s a lot of people in Chicago, and I think that they make a lot of decisions that affect people downstate. It’s just sending a message that ‘Hey, you know, there’s people that would like to be part of the conversation, and often aren’t.’" Still, Gioja "doesn't expect a New Illinois anytime soon."

Even if counties were allowed to form separate states, it's uncertain that new states could financially survive without the funding they receive from bigger city revenues.

Counties working to "divorce" their bigger city counterparts and create new states face potentially messy uphill battles. "Becoming new states would require the consent of the existing legislatures — extremely unlikely in most blue states — as well as Congress," Barrett writes. Paul Preston, founder of the New California State, "plans to petition Congress for statehood based on the argument that the current California government is a one-party communist state, and technically, they have seceded from the Union already.'"

Preston's approach may seem ridiculous to some but "appealing to Congress is a strategy that could work," Barrett reports. Jason Mazzone, a constitutional law professor at the University of Illinois, who told Barrett, "It seems far-fetched. But we live in uncertain times. So if you’ve got the right people in Congress — and I don’t think we do have the right people in Congress — you could do it.”

Some public schools continue to increase the number of vaccination exemptions given to kindergartners

Graph by Kavya Beheraj, Axios, from CDC data

Even before the pandemic years, the number of vaccination exemptions issued for kindergartners entering public schools was on the rise. According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when allowances from school years ending in 2012 to 2022 were tallied, the "nationwide median rate of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions nearly doubled," report Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj of Axios. The political debate over Covid-19 vaccinations could be adding to "vaccine skepticism among a relatively small but growing number of parents."

Schoolchildren are vaccinated to "reduce the spread of childhood illnesses — some potentially fatal — that once plagued the country, such as polio," Fitzpatrick and Beheraj explain. To be admitted to public school, children are required to have several vaccinations; however, "exemptions can be given for both medical and non-medical reasons." Some studies have "found an increased risk of infection from vaccine-preventable diseases among exempt children."

The number of exemptions public schools give varies by state, and the primary push to question vaccination requirements is driven by Republicans. Axios reports, "As of 2022, Idaho (9.8%), Utah (7.4%) and Oregon (7%) had the highest median kindergarten vaccination exemption rates. Mississippi, New York and West Virginia were tied for the lowest, at 0.1%. . . .with 85% of Democrats agreeing with such a requirement compared to 57% of Republicans. . . .While Democratic support for vaccine requirements held steady between pre- and post-pandemic years, Republican support took a remarkable nosedive, falling from 79% in 2019."

Despite the increase in parents seeking vaccination exemptions for their children, the number of students who aren't vaccinated remains relatively low. The nationwide median kindergarten vaccine exemption rate has "stayed at 2.5% or higher since 2020, coming in at 2.7% in 2022, the latest year for which data is available," Fitzpatrick and Beheraj write.

Most Americans support the national childhood vaccination program. A Pew Research Center survey revealed that "when it comes to the measles, mumps and rubella shot, 88% of Americans said the benefits outweigh the risks, compared to 10% who feel the opposite," Axios reports. "The share expressing confidence in the value of MMR vaccines is identical to the share who said this in 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak."

Office of Rural Health releases strategic plan to help address health disparities between urban and rural areas

The CDC will will release an updated method for
urban-rural classification in 2024. (Adobe Stock photo)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "unveiled its Rural Public Health Strategic Plan, which outlines the priorities, objectives and outcomes the agency hopes to see over the next five years as it collaborates with stakeholders on how to improve the health of rural residents," reports Liz Carey of The Daily Yonder. This plan is the overarching guide for CDC and its Office of Rural Health to use as it works to address health disparities between urban and rural areas.

The plan has four primary focuses: "Engaging with community health partners, strengthening rural public health infrastructure, advancing rural public health science, and improving rural public health preparedness and response," Carey explains. "The plan isn’t regionally or state-specific, but it is a step toward an action plan."

To help all stakeholders develop strategies within the four focus points, "the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC, will release an updated method for urban-rural classification, before the end of the year," Carey reports. "That will make researching rural health issues easier, Katy Backes Kozhimannil, the co-director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center told Carey. One of the issues facing researchers is determining the rurality of subjects."

Dr. Diane Hall, the director of the CDC’s Office of Rural Health, told Carey, "We really wanted the strategic plan to actually be strategic, but also be actionable. But more than that, we wanted it to be relevant to the lives of people that live in rural communities.”

U.S. Surgeon General outlines ways to address disparities among smokers, including many who are rural Americans

Secondhand smoke harms people who don't smoke.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Over the past decade, the rate of U.S. adults and teens who smoke has hit its lowest level since 1965, but "disparities remain among the 36 million adults and 760,000 kids who smoke," reports Ken Alltucker of USA Today. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report that outlined identifiers for those who continue to smoke, which are often the same descriptors used to depict American rural populations: Poorer, less educated, Native American, and lacking access to medical care.

Native Americans, specifically those in Alaska, often live in some of the most remote pockets of the country, where medical access isn't readily available and many residents live in poverty. Alltucker writes, "Smoking is more common among American Indian and Alaska Native people than other racial and ethnic groups. . . . People living in poverty are more than twice as likely to smoke than those who earn non-poverty wages."

Rural populations tend to be heavier smokers than their urban counterparts, and the more rural residents smoke, the unhealthier their broader community becomes. Alltucker explains, "Because cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke kill nearly half a million people each year nationwide, Murthy said an accelerated effort is needed to limit disparities in smoking rates and reduce secondhand smoke."

The report also calls for "limiting the nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products to 'minimally addictive or nonaddictive levels,'" Alltucker reports. "Such a move could prevent more than 33 million people from starting to smoke. . ." This change could have a positive effect in rural populations where "kids are also more likely to start smoking at a much younger age and smoke daily, making addiction more severe and smoking harder to quit," the American Lung Association reports.

The Surgeon General's report "cited 2023 research that projected a nationwide ban on the sale and marketing of menthol cigarettes would prevent up to 654,000 deaths in the next four decades," Alltucker reports. But controlling the flow of cigarettes isn't going to happen overnight, and in the meantime, rural access to medical education and smoking cessation programs is needed.

Murthy told USA Today, "What's at stake are the lives of our kids and adults across America. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the country − 490,000 lives we lose every year to tobacco-related disease. Despite all the progress we've made, that remains the truth today."

Cherokee Nation's mobile drug unit delivers life-saving care to some of its most remote-living members

A tribal member unloads the Cherokee Nation harm-reduction
van. (Photo by Shane Brown, Native News Online via The Guardian.)

A new program in Oklahoma is using a mobile drug unit to distribute harm reduction and drug safety supplies to rural Cherokee Nation members struggling with addiction, reports Elyse Wild of The Guardian. The traveling service is part of the tribe's overall "Native people taking care of Native people" effort to address the severe risks and lack of access facing Native Americans with substance-use disorders.

The drug unit van can be the first point of contact for an addicted tribal member to receive life-saving supplies and education. Coleman Cox, who drives the unit, stops along drug "hot spots" in remote northern Oklahoma and sets up tables "with black bins of naloxone, a drug to reverse opioid overdoses, along with testing strips, clean syringes and wound-care supplies," Wild writes. "The mobile unit typically sees 16 regulars from the community, he says. Some days, no one comes. It all depends on the patterns of drug use and the current drug supply."

The Cherokee Nation "is the largest of the tribes, with more than 450,000 citizens worldwide and 141,000 people living within its sovereign boundaries," Wild explains. "Mobile harm reduction is uniquely suitable for tribal nations. . . where culture and connection are measures of health, harm reduction mitigates the isolation of active addiction." Cox told Wild, "Native people heal as a community.”

With the mobile unit, the Cherokee Nation can reach more remote members who need physical and cultural help coping with addiction. "The effect of culture on addiction health in Native communities is not purely anecdotal," Wild adds. "A doctoral research project conducted by the University of Arizona in 1992 with the Shuswap First Nation community in Alkali Lake, British Columbia, found that employing substance abuse treatment with cultural practices such as sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, drumming, singing and powwows were instrumental in reducing the tribe’s rate of drug and alcohol abuse by 95% from 1970 to 1985."

Friday, November 15, 2024

When it comes to thanking U.S. military veterans, Americans have many ways to show appreciation

Thanking military veterans can be in-person or through
advocacy. (Photo by Wesley Tingey, Unsplash)

The list of things most Americans can agree on might seem short sometimes. But surveys show it includes an affection for U.S. postal workers, pride in our National Park Service and a shared belief that our military veterans deserve good jobs and health care upon retirement. And while Veteran's Day is in November, the entire month can be a time for Americans to express their appreciation and care for military veterans.

One way civilians can support veterans is by getting to know their backgrounds and thanking them in person when possible. For instance, roughly 20% of the U.S. military hail from rural America and many experience homesickness. While serving in the U.S., most military personnel live on bases across the country. Here is a list of where you can find them. Thanking your serviceman or woman can begin with asking where home is or what branch they served in and where.

Another way to assist current veterans is to help them find viable employment as they re-enter civilian life. To that end, every November, Forbes magazine teams up with market research firm Statista to "survey more than 24,000 veterans (those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, the Reserves or the National Guard) working for companies with more than 1,000 employees in the U.S.," reports Rachel Rabkin Peachman of Forbes. Respondents are asked to rate and review their employers "on criteria ranging from work atmosphere and salary to health benefits, career development opportunities, and programs tailored to veterans." Forbes' full list of "Best Employers for Veterans" is here.

Providing medical and mental health care for veterans also needs civilian advocacy. Since 20% of the U.S. military call rural America home, it makes sense that around a quarter of all retired military live in rural places, which can be peaceful and scenic, but can also make getting to and from health care providers challenging. Supporting rural telehealth and broadband expansion can be another way to help veterans thrive.

For people looking for more hands-on ideas that make veterans know they are appreciated, the Wounded Warrior Project has more suggestions here.

A glimmer of hope for U.S. overdose deaths: They are at their lowest levels since 2020, but officials warn to press on

A snapshot of overdose deaths from January 2015 to January 2024
(CDC graph, based on data available for analysis)

The U.S. opioid epidemic isn't over, but national totals for overdose deaths have declined for 12 months in a row, with current numbers "slowed to the lowest levels since 2020," reports Alexander Tin of CBS News. The decrease in deaths is attributed to several factors; however, experts warn that now is a time to "double down" on current efforts and keep looking for new ways to prevent drug abuse from starting.

American overdose deaths peaked in 2023, but the latest trend offers hope and some reassurance that current treatments are saving lives. "Around 70,655 deaths linked to opioids like heroin and fentanyl were reported for the year ending June 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates, falling 18% from the same time in 2023," Tin writes. "Almost all states, except for a handful in the West from Alaska through Nevada, are now seeing a significant decrease in overdose death rates."

In Appalachian states, such as West Virginia, where opioid addiction among residents was disproportionately high, overdose deaths have steadily declined with the rest of the nation. Emily Rice of West Virginia Public Radio reports, "A Sept. 1 analysis of provisional overdose death rate data from the CDC shows a rapid decrease in the number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. and this time West Virginia appears to be keeping pace."

Even with good news, the current rates remain grim. Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, told Tin, "We are encouraged by this data, but boy, it is time to double down on the things that we know are working. It is not a time to pull back, and I feel very strongly, and our data shows, that the threat continues to evolve." Brian Mann of NPR reports, "Roughly 100,000 deaths are still occurring per year. . .fentanyl, methamphetamines, xylazine and other synthetic chemicals are more poisonous than ever."

But the roughly 10.6 percent decline in overdose fatalities still speaks to some success. Tin writes, "Arwady pointed to a long list of factors that officials hope are contributing to the decline, ranging from broader availability of the overdose-reversing spray naloxone, also known as Narcan, to efforts to ease gaps in access to medications that can treat opioid use disorder."

Youth education programs may be contributing to the decline. Tin explains, "Trends in what health officials call 'primary prevention' have also improved in recent years — meaning fewer people using the drugs to begin with. As an example, Arwady cited CDC surveys showing a clear decline in high school students reporting that they have tried illegal drugs."

Defying the odds, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez appears close to 2nd term in the House; she wants Democrats to change

Perez helped her constituents recover more than $3 million from federal agencies.

U.S. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez would like Democrats to take a long look in the mirror and reconsider who they're villainizing and how that tactic has alienated voters. "For two years, Representative Perez, a Democrat from a rural, red district in Washington State, has been criticizing her party for being too dismissive of working-class voters," reports Annie Karni of The New York Times. "[She] says her party needs to stop demonizing others and change the candidates it supports."

Perez is a young, plain-spoken Democrat who is close to winning her second term in Congress after a neck-and-neck race. "Long considered perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat in the House, [Perez] defied the odds. . . . Even with President-elect Donald J. Trump at the top of the ticket and winning her district for the third cycle in a row . . . ," Karni writes. "She declared victory in a statement after a newspaper in her district called the election for her, although The Associated Press had yet to do so."

In the Q&A below, Perez shares some of her thoughts on her election and where she thinks Democrats should go from here. For the full interview, click here.

Karni: How did [you win], and what can Democrats learn from you?
Perez: I just refused to let this race be nationalized. It’s not about the message. It’s about my loyalty to my community. The fundamental mistake people make is condescension. A lot of elected officials get calloused to the ways that they’re disrespecting people.

Karni: How do you feel about the re-election of Donald J. Trump?
Perez: I guess I’m still wrapping my head around where to go and what to do. But even when the national current changes, we still have all the same issues here.

Karni: What were your thoughts about Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign?
Perez: When Harris first came out, I was open to talking with her. I know she called a lot of my colleagues; she never called me. I’ve had one interaction with Harris, at her Naval Observatory Christmas party. . . . I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees. I was strong-armed into taking a picture. I said, 'Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live. ' She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was, it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers."

Karni: Do you think the Democratic Party will be forced to change after this crushing election cycle?
Perez: It’s a lot easier to look outward, to blame and demonize other people, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we can do. It is not fun to feel accountability. It requires a mental flexibility that’s painful. So who knows?

All creatures big, small, tiny and 'ugly' are needed on this planet: Here's how journalists can cover them.

An orange fungus grows out of leaf debris in a Maine forest.
(Photo by Alyssa Mattei, National Park Service via SEJ)

It's small and somewhat weird, but let's protect it. Say what? If day-to-day environmental journalism is difficult, reporting on barely-known species, which often look like sci-fi inventions, can be more challenging. But it's worth noting that while some species lack the glamour or beauty of creatures "situated toward the apex of the food chain," [apex animals] are nothing without every lesser-loved organism below them," report Bethany Brookshire and Douglas Main for the Society of Environmental Journalists.

What's the best way to describe "seemingly unlovable species and ecosystems to life and get our audiences invested in their stories?. . . Often, the most compelling way to report on the non-human world is to talk about people — about how we are like those creatures or why we need those plants or ecosystems," Brookshire and Main explain. "That might seem a little self-centered. But looking closer, it becomes clear that what this kind of coverage cultivates is not self-obsession. It’s empathy."

Another option is "finding the larger stories that odd species are embedded within," SEJ reports. A National Geographic feature "[looked at] ice worms, tiny invertebrates that live on glaciers and climate change. . . . A slight tweak in the protein that makes ATP, the cellular currency of energy, helps these creatures stay active at very low temperatures. People might not care about ice worms. But they care about the effects of climate change on biodiversity, and they care about potential human benefits from other species’ quirks."

Benji Jones, an environmental correspondent, "believes that another way to get people to care about obscure organisms is to make them characters in a story — as he recently did when writing about Appalachian salamanders," SEJ reports. "That often means emphasizing that these organisms — whether plants or animals or yeast — are really not as different from us as they seem, Jones says. They, too, have wants and needs and challenges. . . . A tree or salamander can’t speak for itself, but the people who care about these species can."

Write with imagination. "It’s harder to get audiences to care about the small, the spineless, the aesthetically unappealing. But seeing ourselves in other creatures sparks curiosity. And from curiosity, it’s only a short step to caring," Brookshire and Main add. "Journalists might have to dig a little deeper to find the common ground humans share with other species. But it’s there if you dig deep enough. Making those connections can open the door to understanding and compassion."