Rural America

The U.S. Dairy System Is in Crisis and Exporting More Milk to Canada Won’t Fix It

U.S. farm policies are bad for dairy farmers, cows, customers and the climate. We shouldn’t try to defeat Canada’s dairy system—we should learn from it.

Niaz Dorry

The Gentrification of the Rural West

What happens to a working-class town when developers put a resort where the sawmill used to be?

Ryanne Pilgeram

Death of a Sales Barn: How Corporations Took Over Our Food System

A new report explains how a handful of agribusiness firms came to dominate U.S. agriculture, how they’re ruining rural America, and how we can stop them.

Zoe Pharo

Farmers Reject Nicor's Pipe Dream

Residents of the historic Black farming community of Pembroke, Illinois want an energy upgrade—but they want renewables, not fossil fuels.

Zoe Pharo

How to Live with the New Predator that Stalks the West

Unwilling to share the landscape with grizzlies, wolves and other predators, the U.S. exterminated most of them. With wildfire, we don’t have that option.

Pepper Trail

Swamped by Vacation Rentals, Small Towns in the West Are Fighting Back

An explosion in the number of short-term rentals is contributing to an affordable housing crisis in the rural West. Some communities have responded by banning them.

Erika Bolstad

A Brief History of How Big Oil Outplayed Us All

For a century, the fossil fuel industry has outmaneuvered regulators and the public to lock in its power and profits, at the world’s expense.

Naomi Oreskes and Jeff Nesbit

In Defense of Hunting

In our age of ecological collapse, hunting animals for food is as relevant as ever.

Joseph Bullington

This Map Shows How Growing Seasons Are Shifting Due to Climate Change

EPA data shows that in some parts of the United States, the growing season is 50 days longer now than it was 1895.

Sky Chadde

After Ida, This Louisiana Tribe Is Organizing Its Own Recovery

Armed with agricultural knowledge and mutual aid networks, the Houma people aren't waiting on the government to rescue them.

Joseph Bullington

The Curious Case of Carter County: How a Small Town in Montana Stopped Shrinking

On the Great Plains, these days, rural towns tend to wither. But in remote eastern Montana, one community is bucking that trend. How?

Eric Dietrich

When Conservation Means Fencing Out Black Farmers

In southern Illinois, conservation groups see a chance to protect rare oak savannas. Black farmers and hunters see their way of life being bought out from under them.

Tony Briscoe

How Farmers Markets and Food Trucks Became a Beachhead for Gentrification

In gentrifying neighborhoods, developers use food options to lure in more affluent residents, and longtime residents find themselves forced to compete against the “urban food machine.”

Pascale Joassart-Marcelli

Mourn the Extinct, Fight like Hell for the Living — a Wildlife Reporter’s Plea

The 23 species declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show us how much we have to lose. They should also motivate us to fight to stop further loss.

John R. Platt

Rural Areas Struggle to Compete for Nurses as They Face Dire Shortages

Covid has overwhelmed hospitals, prompting many overburdened nurses to change careers or retire early. The shortages have hit rural areas particularly hard.

Aallyah Wright

Welcome to the Pyrocene

Our society’s appetite for one kind of burning—fossil fuel combustion—has thrust us into a new Fire Age that is reshaping the Earth.

Stephen Pyne

GDP: A Countdown to Doom

The numbers we use to measure the economy’s recovery from Covid also measure the rate at which we barrel into ecological catastrophe.

Joseph Bullington

Growing food sovereignty on the shores of Lake Superior

On a small Wisconsin island, members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and volunteers provide fresh food and restore ancestral connection through gardening.

Kip Dooley