Rural America
The mission of Rural America In These Times is to make the issues faced by rural America part of national discourse and to overcome the rural-urban divide.
We seek to build bridges, facilitate communication and foster cooperation between urban people who understand the value of a healthy and sustainable agricultural system, and the farmers in our rural communities that provide food that we all eat.
Latest Stories
Meatpacking Plants Disproportionately Pollute Poor, Non-White Communities
Postville, Iowa has long dealt with the fallout from Agri Star Meat and Poultry, the town’s largest employer—and the same is true in many towns near meatpacking plants.
John McCracken and Mónica Cordero
Despite Support for Trump, Rural Voters Split with Republican Party on School Vouchers and Abortion
2024 vote tallies show rural areas are more politically complex than popular party and media narratives would have us believe.
Lane Wendell Fischer
The "Yellowstone" TV Show Is Over, but Not the Damage It’s Done to the West
The caricatured version of Montana sold by the show is helping ruin a place its creators never truly understood.
Johnathan Hettinger
Southern Workers Prepare For An Uphill Battle Under Trump
For too long, the labor movement ignored the South. Today, Southern workers are taking on entrenched racism, right-to-work laws and the incoming Trump administration as they organize for their rights.
Stephen Franklin
Not in Our Nursing Homes
In Wisconsin, seniors are leading the charge to protect their own healthcare.
George Goehl
Can Native Voters Carry Montana?
From Billings to Fort Peck, organizers are working to register Indigenous voters—and believe they might shift the needle.
Joseph Bullington
Trump Meets Hurricane Victims then Heads to Fundraisers with the Oil Bosses Driving the Climate Crisis
"Hosting a fundraiser with Big Oil CEOs while we're still counting the bodies from Hurricane Helene is like hosting a fundraiser with the NRA in the midst of a school shooting.”
Edward Carver
Study: Because of Pesticides, Living in Farm Towns Is as Risky as Smoking
New research shows that the pesticides used heavily by industrial agriculture contribute to inflated cancer risk in farm country, “with few areas spared.”
Shannon Kelleher