Rural News
As they pick peaches and pine straw, S.C.'s 3,000 migrant farmers rely on advocates and legal aid
The Post and Courier | Posted on May 4, 2018Before Charleston chefs can mine local crops for inventive seasonal recipes, thousands of migrant farm workers will descend on South Carolina's farms to pick and prune this year's peaches, tomatoes and berries. Last year, about 3,000 foreign workers arrived in the Palmetto State through the H-2A visa program, a federal initiative that provides farmers and growers with temporary labor where domestic labor is inconsistent.The state agencies and organizations working to protect these workers by ensuring they have access to legal aid, medical services, fair wages and proper housing will meet Friday to strategize how they can most effectively serve this summer's workers.
Pulling water from Lake Michigan for Foxconn plant approved
The Sacramento Bee | Posted on May 4, 2018The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has approved a request to pull millions of gallons of water daily from Lake Michigan to serve a new Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing plant, helping the Taiwanese electronics giant clear a major regulatory hurdle. Foxconn expects to begin construction on a $10 billion flat-screen plant in Mount Pleasant within weeks. The city of Racine filed a request with the DNR in January to withdraw 7 million gallons of water daily from the lake to serve the plant. The city's application estimated about 2.7 million gallons will be consumed daily by plant operations and evaporation. The rest will be treated and returned to the lake.
Let public schools sell whole milk again, says GOP lawmaker
Washington Examiner | Posted on May 3, 2018A House Republican is pressing the Trump administration to change federal regulations so public schools can sell unflavored whole milk to kids again. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., introduced the Whole Milk Act, along with Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., to codify that change.Under former President Barack Obama, the Department of Agriculture changed federal nutrition standards by allowing schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to sell only unflavored 1 percent milk, not whole milk. But Marino said that change didn't have the effect that regulators hoped
Every state but Missouri has opioid drug tracking. Why are senators against it?
Kansascity.com | Posted on May 3, 2018Missouri is among the 20 worst states for drug overdose deaths, but it was the only state left without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. This week, the Missouri Senate attempted to defund one set up by Gov. Eric Greitens.Greitens ordered the creation of a statewide prescription drug monitoring program, or PDMP, last year amid a growing opioid crisisaffecting Missouri and the U.S.
In Rural Areas Hit Hard by Opioids, a New Source of Hope
Pew Charitable Trust | Posted on May 2, 2018Like many rural areas in the United States, central and southern Delaware had no place for people to get withdrawal management services before the Harrington clinic opened in 2015. It quickly saw there was high demand. When the center looked for money to expand, it found an unexpected partner: the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Using a $1 million low-interest loan from the agency, the center is adding space for counseling, family therapy and primary care. The agency this year says it will dedicate at least $20 million of a $49 million rural telehealth and distance learning fund for projects related to opioid addiction. It also has committed to spending $5 million of a $30 million grant program that pays for buildings and equipment in rural areas for projects related to opioids.The Harrington project, which came before the announcement, is an example of the type of work the USDA wants to support. A provision in the House version of the 2018 farm bill would allow the secretary of agriculture to declare a rural health emergency, allowing the agency to move more quickly than usual and requiring it to reserve money to address the problem.
City upbringing, without pets, boosts vulnerability to mental illness
Science Daily | Posted on May 2, 2018Children raised in a rural environment, surrounded by animals and bacteria-laden dust, grow up to have more stress-resilient immune systems and might be at lower risk of mental illness than pet-free city dwellers, according to new research. The research also suggests that raising kids around pets might be good for mental health -- for reasons people might not expect.
Philanthropic funding equity can't exclude rural
Daily Yonder | Posted on May 2, 2018Rural communities may be left out of philanthropic funding for increased equity, but they’re precisely where equitable solutions are being created. Maybe philanthropy’s ignoring of rural communities is based on a misunderstanding among funders who concentrate specifically on race equity and assume that rural America is all white. Perhaps they don’t realize that 13 million rural residents are people of color and 2 million are immigrants, or that 54% of Native American and Alaska Native peoples live in rural communities.I have heard too many funders talk about not being able to work in rural places because of “lack of scale” or “poor return on investment” or even more boldly about “throwing money into a dying way of life.” I sometimes wonder: Do foundation leaders hide behind those excuses for strategic reasons? Or is it because they wouldn’t know Allen County, Kansas, from an allen wrench, or the Pine Ridge Reservation from their similarly named country club? America has enough forces trying to deny the value of supporting rural communities without philanthropy piling on.
Progressive Coalition launches campaign for rural voters
Daily Yonder | Posted on May 2, 2018The agenda for an effort to reach voters in 72 “critical” rural counties includes universal healthcare, improving public education, countering corporate power, and economic justice for farmers, according to a report. A coalition of rural community organizing groups has launched a campaign to educate rural voters in 72 counties they say are key to winning federal elections. The groups, which have united around a theme of “progressive populism,” will work in 10 states, including swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. The counties are primarily ones where Donald Trump won a majority of votes in 2016 – some by as much as 10 points. Special focus will be on 28 “pivot counties” – where a majority voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but which moved into the Trump column in 2016. The coalition will focus on health care for all, better public education, corporate accountability, a stronger working class and economic justice for family farmers. The organizing strategy will speak against corporate greed, hate and white supremacy, according to the report.
Louisiana veterinarian awaiting trial in fatal dog shooting case
Veterinary Practice News | Posted on May 2, 2018Kelly Folse, DVM, is at home on bond awaiting trial after her Dec. 19 arrest in Louisiana for allegedly shooting and killing her neighbor’s 15-month-old bulldog, Bruizer, six days earlier. Her attorney, who spoke with dvm360, says Dr. Folse has been unable to find employment as a result of the charges brought against her. According to the court affidavit for the charges filed against the 35-year-old veterinarian, Dr. Folse “shot her neighbor’s dog in the head, killing him.” The dog was in its backyard, which borders an elementary school, at the time of the shooting.
Rural Lands At Risk As Ranchers Prepare For Retirement
NPR | Posted on May 1, 2018Outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming is an 8,900-acre former ranch where cattle and horses once roamed. Now it's just open land with nothing but grass. When the owner passed away he didn't have a succession plan. With no obvious heirs, a family member sold it. It eventually became subdivided and a realty company now advertises it for redevelopment primarily as retirement or vacation properties. Lesli Allison, executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance, doesn't want to see more huge ranches like this one broken up into pieces, each with houses and utilities."Then that landscape then is fragmented and is really not available to support agriculture or wildlife and the other values we care about in these landscapes," she says. "All the projections call for a massive transfer of land in the next decade," says Allison. "We're going to see many, many millions of acres of land change hands as these farmers and ranchers age."