The New York Times | By William Neuman | June 9, 2011 

Early each morning, Jim Maguire milks the sheep and goats and feeds the pigs on his small dairy farm here before heading off to his day job as a public defender in San Luis Obispo County. His wife, Christine, makes cheese and tends the animals.

But in recent years, Ms. Maguire has added some new chores: changing linens and serving food to the guests who stay at Rinconada Dairy’s two bed-and-breakfast units, one in a private wing of the farmhouse and the other in a remodeled corner of a barn. Money from the paying guests is now enough to pay for the animals’ feed, one of the farm’s biggest expenditures.

“The whole idea is to get the farm in a productive state so that it carries itself, so that it pays its own way,” Mr. Maguire said early on a recent morning as he watched sheep file onto the raised stainless steel platform of an automatic milking machine. “The farm stay is an important economic portion of that.”

The United States Department of Agriculture predicts that this year the average farm household will get only about 13 percent of its income from farm sources. Agritourism is appealing because it increases the family’s income from the farm, potentially reducing the need for off-farm jobs.

The U.S.D.A.’s census of agriculture, which is conducted every five years, estimated that 23,000 farms offered agritourism activities in 2007, bringing in an average of $24,300 each in additional income. The number of farms taking part fell from the previous census, in 2002, but at that time the average agritourism income per farm was just $7,200. Read more about Small U.S. Farms Find Profit in Tourism

Omaha World-Herald | By Ross Boettcher | May 19, 2011

C&C Meats in Diller, Neb., has nearly tripled its workforce since getting broadband Internet access in 2001. (Photo by RossBoettcher, World-Herald)

DILLER, Neb. — In this small town southwest of Beatrice, companies like C&C Meats are thriving on the trickle of broadband that connects them to the outside world.

Back in Washington, D.C., politicians have used C&C Meats as an example of the impact that barely adequate high-speed Internet can have on businesses in rural America.

The small Midlands towns once built on railroad tracks and paved highways now need a new kind of infrastructure to carry them through the 21st century and beyond.

Without adequate Internet speeds, small businesses will stagnate or crumble, as will rural economies, leaving residents with little choice but to move to larger cities and urban areas.

On Wednesday, Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was among a delegation from Washington that visited C&C Meats and its owners, Chad and Courtney Lottmen.

Genachowski, who came to the state at the request of Rep. Lee Terry, is leading the movement to expand broadband access and overhaul the Universal Service Fund.

The fund, which is administered by the federal government, contains $8 billion that is used to provide reasonably priced telecommunications services to all U.S. citizens.

Currently, all telecommunications companies that provide service between states — including long-distance and local telephone companies, wireless telephone companies, paging companies and pay phone providers — are required to contribute to the fund, as are carriers that provide international services. Read more about Rural broadband a ‘necessity'

 The Des Moines Register | By Adam Belz | May 14, 2011

The Columbus Dispatch | By Mary Beth Lane | May 3, 2011

RENDVILLE, Ohio — It’s a tiny town with a big history.

Rendville, population 36 by the latest census count, is the smallest village in Ohio, but one with a rich legacy in the civil-rights and labor movements.

The quiet of Rendville’s block-long downtown in the hills of southeastern Perry County is broken only by the whistle of the coal trains that still travel alongside Rt. 13.

Village Council meetings don’t take long. Usually, it’s a matter of voting whether to fill this pothole or whack the weeds. Read more about Ohio’s smallest town, Rendville, was ahead of its time in racial equality, fostering civil-rights and labor leaders

The New York Times | By William Neuman | April 12, 2011

Bill Hammitt on his farm near Portsmouth, Iowa, where he has terraced the land, refrained from tilling and taken other measures to curb soil erosion.

When prices for corn and soybeans surged last fall, Bill Hammitt, a farmer in the fertile hill country of western Iowa, began to see the bulldozers come out, clearing steep hillsides of trees and pastureland to make way for more acres of the state’s staple crops. Now, as spring planting begins, with the chance of drenching rains, Mr. Hammitt worries that such steep ground is at high risk for soil erosion — a farmland scourge that feels as distant to most Americans as tales of the Dust Bowl and Woody Guthrie ballads.

Long in decline, erosion is once again rearing as a threat because of an aggressive push to plant on more land, changing weather patterns and inadequate enforcement of protections, scientists and environmentalists say. Read more about High Prices Sow Seeds of Erosion

The New York Times | By Bill Pennington | April 22, 2011

Kent Koch, 23, splits his time completing his senior year at St. Cloud State University, playing baseball and running Loretto, Minn.

LORETTO, Minn. — The late-afternoon baseball practice was over and Kent Koch, the second baseman and senior captain at St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota, was in a hurry.

After showering quickly, he put on dress clothes, packed a large shoulder bag and hustled out of the locker room.

“Good luck, Kent,” teammates yelled after him.

Koch, 23, was not on his way to a date, a fraternity dinner, a final exam or a job interview. With the bag — full of budget reports, sewer projections and municipal contracts — tossed in the back of his Jeep, he began an hourlong drive to his hometown for a City Council meeting.

It was a meeting that Koch would preside over as the first-term mayor of the city of Loretto. Last November he was elected with 61 percent of the vote. He’s not only one of the youngest mayors in America, but he’s also almost certainly the only mayor who is also a college student and a key player on a nationally ranked N.C.A.A. team. Read more about St. Cloud State Second Baseman Takes Reins of His Hometown of Loretto, Minn. (Population 700)

Fast Company | By Ariel Schwartz | March 31, 2011

Imagine if Apple tried to charge you every time you accidentally glanced at an iPhone on the street. That's basically the policy that Monsanto, an agriculture giant whose patented genes are in 95% of all soybeans and 80% of all corn grown in the U.S, enforces. The company is notorious for suing farmers that the company suspects of violating patents in even inadvertent manners. Monsanto has sued hundreds of farmers and received over $15 million from these patent-violation cases (PDF), which have included incidences of farmers being sued because pollen from nearby farmers' genetically Monsanto-brand genetically modified crops blew over the fence onto their field. Now, finally, organic farmers are fighting back. Read more about Genetically Modified Showdown: Monsanto Sued by Organic Farmers

NPR.org | By Martin Kaste | March 29, 2011

The oil sands of Alberta, Canada, constitute one of the biggest proven oil reserves in the world. Today, Canada is the single biggest foreign source of oil for the U.S., and industry analysts project that 20 years from now, it may be supplying one-fourth of all U.S. oil needs.

But getting all that oil across the border requires heavy-duty infrastructure, and some new projects are causing cross-border tensions. Read more about As Canadian Oil Moves South, Americans Push Back

The New York Times | By Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Gebeloff | March 23, 2011

SIOUX COUNTY, Iowa — In the 1970s, the divorce rate was so low in this rural northwest Iowa County that it resembled the rest of America in the 1910s. Most of its 28,000 residents were churchgoers, few of its women were in the work force, and divorce was simply not done.

So it is a bitter mark of modernity that even here, divorce has swept in, up nearly sevenfold since 1970, giving the county the unwelcome distinction of being a standout in this category of census data.

Divorce is still less common here than the national average, but its sharp jump illustrates a fundamental change in the patterns of family life.

Forty years ago, divorced people were more concentrated in cities and suburbs. But geographic distinctions have all but vanished, and now, for the first time, rural Americans are just as likely to be divorced as city dwellers, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times. Read more about Once Rare in Rural America, Divorce Is Changing the Face of Its Families

The Bismarck Tribune | By Christopher Bjorke, Photo by TOM STROMME/Tribune Rapid  | March 26, 2011

Western North Dakota’s economic growth is built on oil and gas, but the oil boom also runs on electricity.

While oil and gas companies are making big investments in the state’s oil patch, the region’s rural electric cooperatives have had to spend more and more on power lines and substations to keep up with the surging demand.

NPR.org | By Nancy Shute | March 21, 2011

It's officially spring, and people are hitting the farmers markets, looking for fresh, local greens. That can be a challenge in many parts of the country. But some farmers have mastered the unusual art of growing greens straight through the winter.

At the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market in Washington, D.C., people line up in the rain on a Sunday morning, standing in a line 10 deep, just to buy mustard greens, arugula and kale.

"We've come out of the winter doldrums," says one customer, Guilia Adelfio of Chevy Chase, Md. "We're into salad mode."

Farmer Zachariah Lester, who is selling at the market, has salad greens. But he also has a profusion of kale: Scottish curly kale, red Russian kale and dark-leaved toscano. There's spicy Piso mustard; a mellow Italian chard called Barese; and a bitter chicory mix with radicchio, endive, escarole and Rossa di Verona.

These greens are not only beautiful; they're among the most healthful foods out there. "They have such a fabulous nutritional profile," says Joan Salge Blake, a clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University.

Fresher Is Better

Aside from the obvious vitamins, Blake says, "leafy greens are full of nutrients Americans are falling short of, like calcium, potassium and fiber." Locally grown greens are likely to be more nutritious, she says, because vitamins deteriorate the longer vegetables are shipped and stored. And fresher greens are tastier, making it a pleasure for people to eat their veggies.

But most people live in places where nothing grows in winter. Read more about Old-Time Methods Yield Spring Greens All Winter

Sedgwick becomes first town in Maine to adopt protections

ChelseaGreen.com | March 8, 2011

SEDGWICK, MAINE – On Saturday, March 5, residents of a small coastal town in Maine voted unanimously to adopt the Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinance, setting a precedent for other towns looking to preserve small-scale farming and food processing. Sedgwick, located on the Blue Hill Peninsula in Western Hancock County, became the first town in Maine, and perhaps the nation, to exempt direct farm sales from state and federal licensing and inspection. The ordinance also exempts foods made in the home kitchen, similar to the Michigan Cottage Food Law passed last year, but without caps on gross sales or restrictions on types of exempt foods.

Local farmer Bob St.Peter noted the importance of this ordinance for beginning farmers and cottage producers. “This ordinance creates favorable conditions for beginning farmers and cottage-scale food processors to try out new products, and to make the most of each season’s bounty,” said St.Peter. “My family is already working on some ideas we can do from home to help pay the bills and get our farm going.”  Read more about Maine Town Passes Landmark Local Food Ordinance

The New York Times: Editorial | February 23, 2011

The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission to stop subsidizing rural phone lines and start subsidizing rural broadband connections is long overdue. Right now an estimated 14 million to 28 million Americans have no way of getting access to the Internet.

The Universal Service Fund was established in the 1990s to provide subsidies to telecommunications companies to install lines and hook up phones in areas where there weren’t enough subscribers to guarantee them a profit. Last year, the fund spent about $8 billion to support rural phones and subsidize phones in poor neighborhoods, schools and libraries.

The fund has fulfilled its original mission, and it needs to meet new technological demands. Virtually all of the country’s rural areas now have access to land lines or cellphone coverage. The real deficit is access to high-speed broadband, which can also deliver phone service. Read more about New Rules for New Technology Long Awaited in Rural America

The Quincy Herald-Whig | By Deborah Gertz Husar | February 19, 2011

Rural hospitals do more than just provide health care.

They provide well-paying, stable jobs and stimulate the local economy with purchases of goods and services -- a multimillion-dollar impact in Hancock and Pike counties thanks to Memorial Hospital in Carthage and Illini Community Hospital in Pittsfield -- based on data from the Illinois Hospital Association.

"Memorial Hospital plays a vital role in supporting and strengthening the economy of our community and the state, which is even more important now during the current economic downturn," said Ada Bair, president and chief executive officer of Memorial Hospital. "By providing jobs for a wide range of health care workers and spurring more economic activity through our spending on goods, services and capital improvements, Memorial Hospital is a key cornerstone of the local and state economy."

Memorial employs 200 people, resulting in 130 additional jobs for the community, IHA data shows, and it generates a total annual impact of $22.78 million on the local economy. Read more about Illinois Hospital Association report: Rural hospitals provide well-paying, stable jobs and boost local economy

 The New York Times | By Kim Severson | February 17, 2011

Jonathan Little of Thomasville, Ala., only has dial-up internet at home, and frequently uses the library to connect.

COFFEEVILLE, Ala. — After a couple of days in this part of rural Alabama, it is hard to complain about a dropped iPhone call or a Cee Lo video that takes a few seconds too long to load.

The county administrator cannot get broadband at her house. Neither can the sportswriter at The Thomasville Times.

Here in Coffeeville, the only computer many students ever touch is at the high school.

“I’m missing a whole lot,” Justin Bell, 17, said. “I know that.”

As the world embraces its digital age — two billion people now use the Internet regularly — the line delineating two Americas has become more broadly drawn. There are those who have reliable, fast access to the Internet, and those, like about half of the 27,867 people here in Clarke County, who do not.

In rural America, only 60 percent of households use broadband Internet service, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Commerce. That is 10 percent less than urban households. Read more about Digital Age Is Slow to Arrive in Rural America

BroadcastingEngineering | By Phil Kurz | February 9, 2011

The FCC launched a rulemaking proceeding Feb. 8 aimed at revising its long-standing Universal Service Fund (USF) with the goal of expanding the nation’s wireless and wired broadband Internet network to rural America.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seek to transform universal service and intercarrier compensation policies and programs to provide funding to make broadband service available and affordable in remote, rural areas and tribal lands.

The USF, established under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, has, among other things, helped to connect rural America to telephone service. However, according to the FCC, elements of the fund have become inefficient and wasteful. Read more about FCC proposes modernizing funding mechanism to bring broadband to rural America

The Texas Tribune | By Morgan Smith | February 7, 2011

MARATHON — If you close the school, you close the town.

The phrase has the burnish of a truism in this outpost amid the vast, high-desert expanse of far West Texas, about 50 miles north of Big Bend National Park. The 400 or so residents here are closely watching the fate of their tiny public school — and working hard to keep it open.

The senior class at Marathon Independent School District will have a valedictorian this spring — Michelle Campbell, 17. She is also the only senior. With a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment of just 56 students, Marathon ISD. is one of the smallest districts in the state.

But for Marathon’s ranchers, artists (trendy Marfa is 60 miles away), a growing number of retired baby boomers and the occasional political celebrity (the large family ranch of the state comptroller, Susan Combs, is nearby), the school’s fate is critical to the survival of this remote town known for its blend of the frontier and funky.

Now a new initiative, a foundation created by residents to help support the school, offers fresh hope for the area. And if what is happening here is successful, it could serve as a model for rural towns scattered across Texas looking to shield their way of life from the death knell of school closings. Read more about In West Texas, a Town's Fate Tied to Its School