Rural America

These Poop Lagoons Can Poison Waterways, but Regulation Is Patchy

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) produce dangerous amounts of animal waste, but only one third of them have a federal permit.

Madison McVan

The Rural Vote Is Again in Play

The midterms showed that rural voters must be an integral part of the Democratic strategy if they want to win in 2024.

George Goehl

Will Lithium Mining Turn California's Salton Sea into a Green Energy Sacrifice Zone?

Once a tourist destination, the Salton Sea faces ecological collapse, toxic dust storms—and maybe a lithium boom.

Paige Oamek

After Platinum Health Took Control of Noble Sites, All Hospital Workers Were Fired

A private-equity startup acquired two rural Missouri hospitals during the pandemic. In March, it suspended all hospital services.

Sarah Jane Tribble

The 40-Year Robbing of Rural America

Since the 1980s, says Professor Marc Edelman, financial capital has developed imaginative new ways to seize assets from small towns and rural areas.

Olivia Weeks

The Working-Class Loggers Who Saved an Old-Growth Forest

Often cast as villains in the Northwest’s environmental battles, timber workers have a connection to the forest that goes far beyond jobs.

Steven C. Beda

Salmon or Dams? The U.S. Might Finally Pick Salmon.

The Biden administration has recognized that removing dams is an issue of tribal justice and the only way to save endangered salmon.

Rocky Barker

No, More Pipelines Aren’t the Solution to High Gas Prices

Reviving Keystone XL wouldn’t lower gasoline prices but it would increase carbon emissions, environmental destruction and toxic pollution.

Ted Williams

How a Small Town in Maine Stopped a Silver Mine

A Canadian company planned to mine silver nearby, so town residents used Maine's “home rule” powers to ban industrial mining and protect their water.

Julia Conley

After Yellowstone Floods, Tourism Workers Lose Their Jobs—And Their Housing

Many Yellowstone workers depend on their bosses for a place to live. When the flood washed away their jobs, they lost their housing, too.

Joseph Bullington

Meet the Appalachian Women Facing Down the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Across years and several southern states, these organizers have helped drive the massive gas pipeline to the brink of defeat.

Ben Bolling

Beware the Corporate Appropriation of “Sustainable” Farming Practices

Long-standing methods of agroecology can feed people, restore ecosystems and transform our food system—but not if agribusiness hollows them out.

Philip A. Loring

Trailer Park Residents Take on Venture Capitalists—and Win

As gentrification sweeps the West, investors are buying up mobile home parks. Residents of this Colorado park got together and bought it themselves.

Joseph Bullington

They Pick Food All Day, But Many Farmworkers Go to Sleep Hungry

Immigrant farmworkers in the U.S. often live in food deserts without access to the fruits and vegetables they spend their days harvesting.

Astra Lincoln

The Radical Immigrant Farmers Who Helped Defeat the Robber Barons

Beginning in the 1840s, revolutionary German immigrants introduced agrarian radicalism to Texas and shaped the U.S. tradition of rural socialism

Thomas Alter II

“It Tears You Apart Mentally and Physically”: The Health Crisis Afflicting Black Farmers

Farming is a stressful occupation. Black farmers face the additional burdens of racism, debt and fear of displacement.

Safiya Charles

The Food Crisis Didn’t Begin with the War in Ukraine

Even as the failures of industrial agriculture become obvious, U.S. agribusiness aims to force it on the rest of the world.

Jim Goodman

Bad Prison Food Can Cause Health Problems that Linger After Release

Due to unhealthy food, people in prisons and jails experience high rates of diabetes, heart disease, mental health issues and illnesses related to foodborne pathogens.

Lela Nargi