The House Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill would strip billions in nutrition benefits from American families, according to an anti-hunger group. Rural residents are more likely than metropolitan ones to be participating in the program. Conventional Beltway wisdom is that farm bills pass Congress with relative ease from a rare bipartisan coalition […]
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Hospitals are economic linchpins for rural communities, health advocates say. The farm bill ought to sharpen its focus on preventing more rural hospital closures. Congress should ensure that the farm bill does more to address rural healthcare needs, especially shoring up the finances of struggling rural hospitals, rural health advocates say. Though the farm […]
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In this episode of Inside Appalachia, we’ll travel to the sugar shacks of Appalachian maple producers, and we’ll learn how to use syrup in everything from glazed greens to buttermilk ice cream – and even roasted rabbit. Maple syrup production in West Virginia has increased by about 30 percent each […]
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On a warm day in the middle of an unseasonably dry October, I drive past cornfields, ranch homes, and hollers to meet 70-year-old farmer Tom Johnson. Johnson and his wife, as well as two grown sons and their families, live on the same land that his great-great-great grandfather homesteaded, nearly […]
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In post-Depression-era Appalachia, moonshining was a way of life. It was a respected, although technically illegal, profession. It kept food on the table for the Butler family for over 100 years. Raymond Butler recalls his first job in the family business: “I was about six. My dad put me down […]
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Independent grocery stores, which tend to be more prevalent in rural areas, had a tougher time dealing with the Great Recession than chain grocery stores, suffered worse during the Great Recession than chain stores, are a bigger share of the market in rural areas, While the number of chain grocery […]
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