What's happening with the Center for Rural Affairs? Find the latest on rural America and our work here.
A lot of you want to see more family farms and ranches and more businesses in our rural communities. You also care about healthy food and clean water. But if you’re not a farmer, and I say the words...
- Farm and Food
From September 2015 through May 2016, Women’s Business Center specialists and contracted technical assistance providers delivered 2,592 hours of business counseling to 733 clients.
- Small Towns
Fall is the best time to plant alliums, a plant genus which includes garlic, shallots, chives, leeks and onions. These are some of my favorite vegetables, and are not only incredibly healthy, but impart flavor to any recipe.
- Small Towns
No party has a monopoly on good ideas. However, the dominant party in any partisan legislative body tends to seek to impose a monopoly on the ideas that can even be considered. Partisanship encourages legislators and citizens alike to partake in both lazy thinking and lazy voting.
- Small Towns
Has the political center become the most radical place to work? In this time of piqued partisan rhetoric, it may be. Working at the radical center does not mean that each of us should become a...
- Small Towns
Located near the headwaters of the Elkhorn River, the Stewart Hereford Ranch sits on 13,000 acres in the Sandhills outside of Newport, Neb. The ranch is owned by Roy and June Stewart and their son and daughter-in-law, Jay and Kaye Stewart, who also manage the operation.
- Farm and Food
Kristy and Greg Parr recently moved Custom Sports to Norfolk with the help of a Center loan. The business offers custom embroidery and screen printing, and has nine employees including family members.
- Small Towns
Center for Rural Affairs is seeking participants in Conservation Reserve Program - Transition Incentives Program (CRP-TIP). Are you a landowner in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota or South Dakota who has...
- Farm and Food
On Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, nearly 21,000 students in the Midwest states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota celebrated National Farm to School Month by signing up to crunch into locally and regionally grown apples at noon from the comfort of their own schools.
- Small Towns
Three years ago, family farmers Robert and Kristine Bernt of Clear Creek Organic Farm weren’t sure what to make of farm to school. They were part of a gathering of food producers, rural organizations and food advocates who joined the Center of Rural Affairs at a fire hall in Ord, Neb. to discuss farm to school efforts happening in the region.
- Small Towns
Ask anyone if they’ve noticed weather patterns becoming increasingly erratic over the last 20 years and the answer is usually a resounding “yes!”
- Small Towns
- Policy
About two hours west of Sioux City, Iowa, we dropped by the Santee Sioux Reservation to tag along with LeAnn Red Owl while she visits gardens throughout the community. In the summer of 2016, LeAnn was...
- Small Towns
Renewable energy brings big benefits to the American economy. Case in point: the rising solar industry. By 2015, solar was contributing $18 billion dollars a year to our economy and, according to the latest reports, this same industry has created nearly 209,000 jobs.
- Policy
Fiscal Year 2016 was a record-setting year for Center for Rural Affairs. In 2016, we placed and leveraged over $2.9 million in loans and reached significant numbers of women and Latino entrepreneurs across Nebraska.
- Small Towns
Did you know the inner bark of the willow tree is the original source of aspirin? On a recent August afternoon, we learned this fact from Barbara Salvatore, a Verdigre, Neb., resident whose mind is a storehouse of knowledge about medicinal plants.
- Small Towns
In early September, we launched the Let’s Talk Tour - a series of conversations across eastern South Dakota that we organized - to hear from rural and small town folks about climate, soil and water conservation, and issues related to the region’s energy future. And we talked, but perhaps more importantly, we listened.
- Farm and Food
Have you heard? The Women Food & Ag Network’s annual conference is coming to Nebraska for the first time this year in November. You won’t want to miss out on this important opportunity to gather women...
- Farm and Food
I grew up in the mid-size town of Annapolis, Md. The similarities to rural life were few. I was outside early every morning, but it was to catch the school bus because my high school of 1,100 kids started at 7:17 a.m. We went swimming in the local creek in the summer, but it was in the calm spot between two well-trafficked bridges. So how, after a childhood primarily filled with reading indoors, did I come to love rural places and decide to work at the Center for Rural Affairs?
- Small Towns
On Aug. 3, 2015, President Barack Obama and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Gina McCarthy announced the final version of America's Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan (CPP) builds on the Clean Air Act by placing the first ever limits on carbon pollution.
- Policy
In my work, l meet people who are unable to obtain health insurance on a regular basis. Due to lack of coverage, needed health care services are routinely delayed or denied in ways that significantly impact patient outcomes.
- Policy
