Fact-based reporting of politics, history, culture, religion, environment, agriculture, and Native people of rural and small town America| Barn Raiser
This is the first article in an ongoing Barn Raiser series covering rural veterans issues. James Jones is a 54-year-old disabled Army veteran. After four years of active duty—some of it in the Gulf War—and four years in the reserves, Jones says he has a “multitude” of health care problems. Ask him to list his health care needs and he sighs and reels off a long list. “Oh my, I have a multitude of stuff. There’s PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], a right arm injury, my right sho...| Barn Raiser
This is the second story in a two-part series on the public history of trees, centered on the essay collection Branching Out: The Public History of Trees. Read the first part here. Until the 20th century, more than 4 billion American chestnut trees stretched from southern Canada down to Mississippi and Alabama. “To those who lived in the eastern United States, especially Appalachia, the tree was invaluable,” writes Carolyn Barske Crawford in the opening of her essay “ ‘The Most Usefu...| Barn Raiser
A Wisconsin appeals court has ruled that the state’s Department of Natural Resources has the authority to regulate large-scale animal farms, a blow to big farm groups amid their decades-long fight to scale back environmental oversight. This particular legal battle began in May 2023, when two organizations representing industrial-scale dairy farms sued the DNR. They argued that the agency had overstepped its authority by requiring big livestock farms, called Concentrated Animal Feeding Opera...| Barn Raiser
There was a time when Iowa mattered. From 1972 to 2020, we hosted the first-in-the-nation caucuses, despite a population that is overwhelmingly white and unabashedly rural. Every four years, the entire country learned how neighbors spent an evening gathered together to hash out their stakes in the democratic tug-and-pull—physically switching candidate allegiances or sticking to them to gain influence in the electoral process. Other states were impressed by how seriously we took our responsi...| Barn Raiser
With the report’s neutered language around industrial farming practices, MAHA supporters—and critics—dig in for the battles ahead.| Barn Raiser
Bari Senecal, 60-something, waits outside the emergency department the morning of August 7 at Columbia Memorial Hospital in the city of Hudson, New York, sitting on her aluminum-frame rollator. Brought by ambulance from the outskirts of Columbia County the night before, she waits for a car service to drive her back. The sky above is hazy with smoke blown in from far-away Canadian forest fires. She drags from a cigarette while she waits. “I fell three stories,” Senecal explains. “I was o...| Barn Raiser
Editors’ note: J.D. Scholten is one of two rural Democrats in the Iowa State Legislature. When he is not in Des Moines representing the citizens of District 1, which includes Sioux City on the state’s western border, Scholten, 45, is the only state legislator to play professional baseball while actively serving. (His 2024 Sioux City Explorers jersey is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame after he became the oldest person in league history to earn a pitching win). On June 2, Scholten, wh...| Barn Raiser
I recently spotted a white Kia Sedona bearing Laramie County plates driving south on Yellowstone Road in Cheyenne, Wyoming; maybe the driver had just been to one of their kids’ schools. Wherever it had been, the minivan was plastered with stickers celebrating “momhood.” A thought came to me: When did being a “mom” become a calling? Mothers and their allies have long been political forces. Think of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), founded in 1980, and Moms Demand Action, started...| Barn Raiser
The slim, long-legged bobcat rested quietly in her leafy enclosure at the Ohio Wildlife Center, in rural Powell, Ohio. Occasionally she yawned, groomed her paws or walked along a thick branch suspended between constructed sleeping platforms. Nearly two centuries ago, her species was becoming barely a memory. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, bobcats (Lynx rufus) historically roamed throughout Ohio and North America, yet by around 1850 the bobcat had been extirpated from t...| Barn Raiser
From the Pequot War to the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, trees have played a central role in North American history.| Barn Raiser
Connor Barnes brings his butchering craft straight to small-time livestock farmers via a custom-made box truck, a relief to many in a consolidated industry.| Barn Raiser
Iowa elected officials are preparing to trash 60% of the state’s historical archives with no transparency or input from the public.| Barn Raiser
On the street, one sign read “Defend Public Lands,” with an image of an assault rifle. Others bore creative and bilingual profanities directed at Trump, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who oversees most of the country’s public acreage and Sen. Mike Lee, the Republican from Utah, who on June 11 had proposed a large-scale […]| Barn Raiser
For health care providers serving rural immigrant communities, moving beyond the framework of legal status opens up new possibilities for care.| Barn Raiser
Barn Raiser connects local and national perspectives through a network of writers and contributors who live in and care about rural and small town communities. By giving voice to shared concerns, and by reporting on local organizing strategies, Barn Raiser will leaven the commons with local connections.| Barn Raiser
We welcome and encourage accredited news organizations to republish our original articles. Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles under a BY-NC-ND 3.0 US Creative Commons license. (Here’s the legal code). Here’s what it comes down to: Attribution. You must give appropriate credit and provide a link to the original story. You may do […]| Barn Raiser
If Mr. Krugman was serious about having good ideas about rural America, he would get to know the people who live there.| Barn Raiser
Rural America is losing affordable housing at an alarming rate, fueling a growing housing crisis and surge of homeless residents.| Barn Raiser