Rural America

Remembering Charley Pride — and Country Music’s Long-Obscured Black Roots

Pride stood out as one of the very few Black superstars in a whitewashed genre.

Liam Kennedy

2020 Was The Year the Mask Came Off

We learned some things this past year that we shouldn’t forget. Here’s a roundup of stories from Rural America In These Times that bear re-reading.

Joseph Bullington

“This Is Why We Don’t Drink the Water”

Fracking threatens drinking water on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Meet the locals who are fighting back.

Elena Bruess

Our Food System Is Broken and Biden’s USDA Pick Won’t Fix It

Tom Vilsack showed his pro-corporate colors when he served as Obama's ag secretary. To build a just food system under his leadership, we will have to push from below.

Jim Goodman

There Are Only 300 Wolverines Left in the Lower 48. Why Won’t the Government Protect Them?

The Fish and Wildlife Service downplayed the threat of climate change and deferred to industry groups in a recent decision not to protect wolverines under the Endangered Species Act, according to two lawsuits.

Johnathan Hettinger

‘Buy It or Else’: How Monsanto and BASF Forced a Toxic Weed Killer on Farmers

Internal records show the companies knew crop damage from their weed killer would be extensive. They sold it anyway.

Johnathan Hettinger

Recognition of Native Treaty Rights Could Reshape the Environmental Landscape

The U.S. has largely ignored the nearly 400 treaties signed with tribal nations, but that may be starting to change. And some think that could prevent, or even reverse, environmental degradation.

Alex Brown

On Environment, Biden Needs to Do a Lot More than Roll Back the Rollbacks

President Trump gutted almost 100 environmental protections. Here’s a list of the ones Biden should undo first and why he must not stop there.

Jonathan Thompson

Regrowing Indigenous Agriculture Could Nourish People, Cultures and the Land

European settlement, government policies and monoculture have nearly eradicated Native American farming practices. A growing movement is reclaiming them.

Christina Gish Hill

Meatpacking Workers Say Attendance Policies Force Them to Work With Covid-19 Symptoms

As the pandemic rages, punitive attendance policies at corporate meat plants coerce sick workers into showing up, according to activists, experts and the workers themselves.

Heather Schlitz

Trump's Online SNAP Program Helps Amazon and Walmart, But Leaves Rural People Behind

The government's online food assistance program doesn’t include independent grocers and ignores the gaps in rural infrastructure.

Bryce Oates and Debbie Weingarten

How Right-Wing Groups Created an Atmosphere in which Kidnapping the Michigan Governor Made Sense

The alleged militia plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was only the most shocking episode in the campaign to undermine and politicize the state’s response to Covid-19.

Jacob Wheeler

Rural Minnesota Is Getting Less White. Meet the Progressive Women Running to Make the Government Less White, Too.

Immigrants, come to work meatpacking and farm jobs, have rejuvenated Nobles County. These women aim to make sure they're represented.

Sarah Lahm

How Decades of Corporate-Friendly Farm Policies Wrecked Rural America

A Wisconsin dairy farmer explains what Democrats need to do to rebuild rural communities and regain the ground they’ve lost.

Jim Goodman

The U.S. Still Uses Dozens of Hazardous Pesticides Banned in Other Countries

Phorate, for example—the “extremely hazardous” insecticide that is most used in the U.S.—is banned in 38 countries, including China, Brazil and India.

Pramod Acharya

Public Lands Make Up a Third of the U.S. and They're Wildly Popular

Professor John Leshy explains how, in a country that glorifies private property, the public came to own so much of the landscape.

Rhett A. Butler

How Do You Flip Rural Trump Voters? Talk to Them.

In 2016, establishment Democrats all but ignored rural communities. Groups like People's Action are changing that, one conversation at a time.

George Goehl

Native Voters Could Swing the 2020 Election—If They’re Able to Vote

Menominee tribal citizens are working to make Native votes count in Wisconsin

Stephanie Woodard