Rural News
The Year Ahead: Forces that will Shape the U.S. Rural Economy in 2019
CoBank | Posted on January 29, 2019After hitting an 8-year high in 2018, global economic growth will slow this year. Trade tensions, particularly between the U.S. and China, remain the leading global risk. In the U.S., we project that consumer strength will offset a slowing housing market and weaker business investment to keep the economy growing at a rate of 1.75-2.25 percent in 2019. The Federal Reserve is no longer locked into a tightening cycle aimed at returning to “neutral” conditions. Instead, we expect the Fed to stand pat on rates as it attempts to take its foot off the gas and coast safely through 2019. With a split Congress, it will be difficult to find enough consensus to move legislation in the next two years. However, bipartisan support will likely be strong enough to pass USMCA, and may be strong enough to back an infrastructure bill. Costs will continue to rise for agricultural producers in 2019, adding to their existing financial stress. Resilient land values have supported the roughly 60 percent of farmers that own their land, but persistently weak commodity prices will increase the downward pressure on farmland prices this year. Three significant trade-related issues must be solved this year to restore some normalcy to agricultural markets: legislative approval of USMCA, removal of steel and aluminum retaliatory tariffs, and marked improvement in trade relations with China. CoBank expects some progress to be made between the U.S. and China by the March deadline, but a substantive deal that is acceptable to both sides will likely require more time. The grain, farm supply and biofuel sectors will experience increased competition in 2019 as ongoing trade disputes increase foreign opportunities. Domestic competition will also increase in the farm supply sector as agriculture retailers face the likelihood of price hikes from a more concentrated supplier base. Despite abundant supply and weak margins in the animal protein and dairy sectors, both will continue to expand production in 2019. The dairy, pork and poultry sectors will contend with increased processing capacity and the result of lower processing margins.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's first executive order calls for accelerated rural development
The Tennessean | Posted on January 29, 2019Gov. Bill Lee's first executive order calls for accelerated development in Tennessee's distressed rural counties, a priority he emphasized throughout his campaign for governor. The executive order, issued Wednesday, requires all state executive departments to provide recommendations for how they can better serve rural Tennessee through a "statement of rural impact." His office says the order is a first step by his administration to move forward with plans to spur improvements in 15 rural distressed counties in Tennessee, meaning they are among the 10 percent most economically challenged counties in the nation by the Appalachian Regional Commission, which prepares an annual index.The 22 departments involved in the review have until May 31 to issue their rural impact statements to explain how they serve rural Tennessee. By June 30, each department must release its recommendations for improving service to rural areas.
How Is Rural America Saving Itself?
Wisconsin Public Radio | Posted on January 24, 2019Recent news analysis has asked - and tried to answer the question - of whether we can we save rural America. But our guest says that's the wrong question. He joins us to explore how rural America is saving itself and why rethinking what economic success looks like is key for the future of rural success.
Telehealth changes will increase rural broadband demand
Daily Yonder | Posted on January 24, 2019Several policy changes from Washington, D.C., should accelerate urban and rural telehealth deployments. On November 1 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the body that manages these two healthcare programs, finalized new rules that include payment reimbursements for telehealth. These changes are good news for communities that want broadband to help expand access to healthcare. They will also be welcomed who hope that expanded use of telehealth will increase the number of broadband subscribers. Currently, telehealth service isn’t covered by Medicare and Medicaid in many rural homes, and they don’t reimburse telehealth at all in urban areas. One of the major telehealth benefits is that it enables people to stay at work or home and have electronic doctor “house calls.” Medicaid and Medicare, as a guard against fraud, required patients to get telehealth treatments at a healthcare provider’s facility. Many private-sector insurers take their cues from Medicaid and Medicare as to what healthcare services they reimburse. Altogether, this has stifled telehealth adoption.
Clean energy jobs dominate in Midwest
Daily Yonder | Posted on January 24, 2019Jobs in the renewable-energy sector are a bright spot in the rural economy, according to the report from an environmental advocacy group. Jobs are growing in the clean-energy sector more quickly than in any part of the rural economy.The deployment of clean energy is a major economic engine for the rural Midwest, eclipsing fossil fuel jobs in most states, according to a new report released by an environmental advocacy nonprofit.
Rural Hospitals in Greater Jeopardy in Non-Medicaid Expansion States
Pew Trust | Posted on January 24, 2019In December, two nearby hospitals, one almost 40 miles away, the other 60 miles away, closed their doors for good. The closings were the latest in a trend that has seen 21 rural hospitals across Texas shuttered in the past six years, leaving 160 still operating.Lyle, who is CEO, can’t help wondering whether his Falls Community Hospital will be next.“Most assuredly,” he replied when asked whether he could envision his central Texas hospital going under. “We’re not using our reserves yet, but I can see them from here.”It’s not just Texas: Nearly a hundred rural hospitals in the United States have closed since 2010, according to the Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill. Another 600-plus rural hospitals are at risk of closing, according to an oft-cited 2016 report by iVantage Health Analytics. Texas had the most hospitals in danger of closing (75), the health metrics firm said. And Mississippi had the largest share of hospitals at risk (79 percent).Neither state has expanded Medicaid eligibility to more of its low-income residents under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In fact, the closures and at-risk hospitals are heavily clustered in the 14 states that have not expanded.Those state decisions not to expand have deprived rural hospitals, which already operate with the slimmest of margins, of resources that could be the difference between survival and closure.
Housing program helps workers find homes in rural Nebraska
Sioux City Journal | Posted on January 24, 2019A couple in northeast Nebraska is the first to find housing through the state's rural housing program, which aims to help rural communities increase housing opportunities to better retain workers.The state's $7 million Rural Workforce Housing Fund gives nonprofit development organizations matching grants to construct or rehabilitate housing in rural parts of the state. The goal is to create housing options for middle-income workers who don't qualify for other housing assistance programs but don't have enough for a down payment.
NC Attorney General approves sales of rural hopstials with added protections
Daily Yonder | Posted on January 24, 2019Advocates pushed for provisions in the deal that would promise continued healthcare in smaller communities. They're heartened to see their efforts seem to have worked.
The drug epidemic that began with a corporate marketing plan
Daily Yonder | Posted on January 23, 2019Beth Macy’s book about the opioid crisis in southwest Virginia contains plenty of tragedy — families decimated, lives lost or ruined, proud communities brought to their knees. The biggest tragedy of all, of course, is that the story could have turned out differently.In the earliest days of the crisis, prophetic voices in rural Virginia sounded the alarm. The pharmaceutical manufacturer whose criminal marketing practices helped launch the epidemic didn’t listen. Nor did federal regulators, until the genie was out of the bottle.Macy traces the epidemic from the coalfields of Appalachia to the affluent suburbs and small towns of the Shenandoah Valley. Her role as a working journalist based in the region gave her access to the people who know the story — addicts and their families, dealers, law enforcement, medical professionals, and community activists. Her skill as a reporter and writer combine to give the reader a direct connection to the crisis and its human cost.
Fescue, Florence and a Fresh Start
Hay & Forage | Posted on January 23, 2019“We knew we were in trouble. There was nothing to feed the cows.” That was how cattleman Buron Lanier, Burgaw, N.C., described his feelings after the floodwaters of Hurricane Florence, which were 5-feet deep over a significant chunk of his acreage, receded from his farm last September. “After three days of pounding by Florence, we had 130 acres of totally submerged pastureland,” Lanier said. “When the storm hit, much of our fescue was being prepared for winter stockpiling. We also had our cows calving about that same time,” he added.Once the water receded after two days, Lanier was disheartened to learn that his fields were dead. Such was also true of most vegetation in the area, including fields of Kentucky 31. Thirty three inches of rain fell inSeptember alone.