Rural America
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
In Appalachia, the Mine Cleanup System Has Collapsed
Coal companies are declaring bankruptcy. State regulators are failing to hold them accountable. And residents are left to suffer the environmental fallout from abandoned mines.
Dan Radmacher
Surging Wheat Prices and Fertilizer Shortages: How the War in Ukraine Could Impact U.S. Agriculture
Both Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of agricultural products. In a market that’s “incredibly global,” U.S. farmers will feel the effects of war and sanctions.
Johnathan Hettinger, Madison McVan and Amanda Pérez Pintado
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