Journalist Ted Genoways is an award-winning author who has received prestigious fellowships from both the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation. Ted lives in Nebraska, where he grew up on his father’s farm. [node:read-more:link]
The number of jobs in rural America increased in the last year, but rural counties remain well below their pre-recession employment level. A comparison of the geography of jobs in 2007 and October 2017 reveals how unequal the recovery has been. Cities have done much better than rural areas in recovering from the recession, which officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. [node:read-more:link]
When I was young, you could drive up and down country roads and almost everyone was milking cows. Now you can drive for miles between dairy farms.It’s not just dairy. In the most recent Census of Agriculture done in 2012, there were 69,754 farms in Wisconsin, a decrease from 78,463 in 2007. I wonder what the 2017 Census, which is coming our way starting in December, will show when results are released in 2019.Farming hasn’t disappeared. It’s just changing. Some farms are growing larger. More land is leased. [node:read-more:link]
Trophy hunting and other activities involving the targeting of high-quality male animals could lead to the extinction of certain species faced with changing environmental conditions, according to new research. [node:read-more:link]
Anne Hazlett, who oversees Rural Development at USDA, wants to get the word out that RD’s new Innovation Center will soon be open for business, with a new executive at the helm and a long list of challenges to face, including the opioid epidemic that’s been devastating rural communities. [node:read-more:link]
Spooked by rising hostility in Trump country, elite schools are seeking small-town students.That dislocation reflects the widening gulf between white, working-class, rural America and the nation’s more selective institutions of higher education. Elite colleges have tried for years to address a proportional decline of students arriving from areas beyond big cities and suburbs, but their worries have sharpened since the election of Donald Trump. Recent surveys show mounting skepticism, especially among Mr. Trump’s constituents, about the cost and worth of college. [node:read-more:link]
As New Jersey’s black bears fatten on fallen beechnuts, on Monday hunters will get one more crack at “harvesting” the state’s largest land animal before it hunkers down for the winter. It’s possible this could be the last such hunt for a while and the first of several potential environmentally related policy reversals the Garden State could face in the coming years as Democrat Phil Murphy replaces Gov. Christie. Murphy is pledging to institute a moratorium on the hunt.In the first round, 243 bears were killed — a big decrease from 2016 when 562 bears were killed in the same time period. [node:read-more:link]
A group of dogs rescued from Puerto Rico and brought to New Hampshire have fallen ill, and now state health officials have a warning for residents who may have contracted the bacterial infection. Two of the ten rescued dogs have died from the infection. The woman who rescued them tells NBC Boston that she’s doing everything she can to keep the rest of the puppies alive. [node:read-more:link]
The National Academy of Sciences called Thursday for sweeping changes in the pricing, sale and promotion of prescription drugs to make lifesaving treatments more affordable without discouraging the development of new medicines. The federal government should negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, the academy said, an idea pushed by Democrats for years, embraced by President Trump during the 2016 campaign, but opposed by congressional Republicans. [node:read-more:link]
Rural Americans are turning their backs on the industry that made the U.S. the biggest meat-exporting country in the world. Residents of Tonganoxie, a 5,300-person town in northeast Kansas, spent part of the fall hanging white-and-red placards that say “No Tyson in Tongie” on fenceposts and pickup trucks. Their efforts were part of a public push against Tyson Foods Inc., TSN 0.10% the largest U.S. [node:read-more:link]
