What's happening with the Center for Rural Affairs? Find the latest on rural America and our work here.
Sustainable and healthy eating is a challenge for many people, especially those in rural areas. However, some people may think the opposite. Recently, Center for Rural Affairs community food...
- Small Towns
In Nebraska, residents may be more connected than we realize. We share ownership of our power. This means Nebraskans have a voice in energy production, transportation, and usage.
- Policy
Growing up on an acreage in rural Nebraska played a vital role in how I understand relationships.
- Small Towns
In the last 20 years, small schools facing budget cuts often removed elective classes. This left skills like cooking and growing fruits and vegetables unlearned. Center for Rural Affairs’ Greenhouse...
- Small Towns
With the help of a grant from the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, students from Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) and staff from the Center for Rural Affairs conducted soil testing on gardens throughout the Santee community.
- Small Towns
Are you one of the many farmers without an identified farm successor? Purdue University says that's around 75 percent, and about half expect nonfamily members to take over. A gradual shift of...
- Farm and Food
In early 2013, Jason Egli and his wife, Gabrielle, were living and working as engineers in Cedar Falls, Iowa. They had been trying for years to find jobs that would allow them to move back home to rural Louisa County, but jobs suited to their experience and talents were hard to come by.
- Farm and Food
- Policy
There is nothing better than slicing up a ripe garden tomato fresh off the vine. However, some may not have the means to grow fresh vegetables in their backyards. At the Center for Rural Affairs, we...
- Farm and Food
- Small Towns
Almost weekly, I read surprising new statistics about capital concentration. The eight richest people in the world now control as much capital as half of the world’s population. The richest 158...
- Lending
Farmers manage crops, maintain equipment, and market products, often while balancing a second job and family demands. Adding a dispute with a crop insurance company is the last thing farmers need...
- Farm and Food
Daily life on a farm outside Lexington, Nebraska, is far from luxurious. However, Vicente Acevedo and Magdalena Barrios wouldn’t have it any other way. “A typical day: I come home from work, prepare...
- Farm and Food
- Small Towns
Wow, this year is flying by! It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the New Year. Together, in the first half of 2017 we accomplished so much because of generous support from donors like you. Thank you.
- Small Towns
Over the years, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grants and loans have served as a lifeline for rural communities, providing critical funding for water and wastewater infrastructure, public and community buildings, and essential community service facilities.
- Small Towns
Tucked within the text of both the House and Senate’s bills to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is language which seeks to fundamentally change the Medicaid program.
- Policy
Problem: The anatomy of the female pelvic region makes women particularly susceptible to inappropriate urethral catheterization. To date, there are no devices that block the vaginal entrance, expose...
- Lending
About six years ago, Nebraska farmers Ruth Ready and her husband Sid stopped into their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office to ask about loan programs and opportunities. While there, Ruth was...
- Farm and Food
As an active and idealistic college student, I traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in a national lobby day for young people who wanted to talk with senators and representatives about supporting renewable energy.
- Policy
Midwestern states have great potential to generate energy from renewable sources. Renewable energy provides these states with clean power as well as several other benefits in the form of new sources of income for landowners that host projects or job opportunities stemming from construction, operation, and manufacturing.
- Policy
Retirement from a farm business may not mean moving away or giving up on mentoring the next generation, but it does entail transferring management decisions to someone else. It can be a gradual or...
- Farm and Food
Tim Graber had just finished applying for a utility rebate for the new solar panels on his turkey building when he was struck by an idea: “Why couldn’t the school do this?”
- Policy
