Often schools close out of a belief that taking this step will save money and help students. Whether or not those benefits materialize, there are downsides for the locals.
Big challenges call for big responses.
Brian S./Shutterstock.com
2019 was a big year for dire warnings about the state of the planet, but crises can spur solutions.
Strips of native prairie grasses planted on Larry and Margaret Stone’s Iowa farm protect soil, water and wildlife.
Iowa State University/Omar de Kok-Mercado
Investing in farming methods that improve lands and water, and in rural infrastructure and markets, could bring new prosperity to agricultural communities.
Families in rural areas are harder for the Census Bureau to reach.
Rafa artphoto/Shutterstock.com
A sociologist spent over a year interviewing black, white and Latino residents of a declining coal town in central Pennsylvania, plumbing the sources of their political disillusionment.
Bottled water distribution in Glenwood, Iowa, where massive spring flooding along the Missouri River disrupted drinking water treatment, April 3, 2019.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
By appealing to the hearts and minds of their white neighbors, Native Americans are carving out common ground. Together, these different groups are building unity through diversity.
Sunset over an Iowa farm.
BJontzPhoto/shutterstock.com
A climatologist who studies precipitation trends explains how climate change is projected to make flooding events in the Midwest more severe and more frequent.
Rock Hills Ranch in South Dakota uses managed grazing techniques to maintain healthy, diverse plant communities in its pastures.
Lars Ploughmann
US agriculture is dominated by large farms that rely on chemical inputs. In contrast, regenerative farming makes land and water healthier by mimicking nature instead of trying to control it.
Since the Great Recession, the employment rate has gone up — but some rural groups lag behind.
Josh Sorenson
Many Americans view the Amish as living simply and in touch with the land, but their views about the environment are complicated and not always ‘green.’
Rural Westerners have been stereotyped as angry ranchers who hate government. But for every gun-wielding militia member, there are many others who work collaboratively to protect what they value.
Suburbanites now outnumber urban and rural dwellers.
Ursula Page/shutterstock.com
Towns are embracing their eccentric visitors as a way to boost their struggling economies.
A barn that can hold up to 4,800 hogs outside Berwick, Pa. The state says the farm is in compliance with regulations, but residents have gone to court seeking relief from odors.
AP Photo/Michael Rubinkam
Many people who live near large-scale livestock farms complain about noxious smells, air and water pollution and health risks. With little help from regulators, they are turning to lawsuits.
Florida gun owners marching with loaded firearms
REUTERS/Chris Tilley
Here’s a challenge for gun control proponents: Watch 100 videos made by gun owners and gun rights advocates. One scholar watched these videos over five years and something surprising happened to her.
Soybean crop on a family farm near Humboldt, Iowa, 2017.
USDA/Preston Keres
Congress is drafting the 2018 farm bill, which will guide agriculture, nutrition, trade and rural development policy. A former agriculture secretary explains how this bill reaches far beyond farms.
A supporter of Cliven Bundy protests in Nevada.
AP Photo/John Locher
Federal rules governing television stations were meant to keep them connected to the communities they serve. The Trump administration wants to weaken those rules, and those civic links.