Alex Milan Tracy for Underscore
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The dozens of independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations that make up the Rural News Network are developing the broadest news alliance reporting on rural America. These newsrooms are pursuing coverage that provides a more complete picture of what it means to live and work in these communities.
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
‘Big Four’ beef processors under fire as prices for steaks and hamburgers soar
February 25, 2026
McDonald’s and other food industry players accuse packers of collusion and price-gouging.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Is farm labor at risk?
September 22, 2025
Both farmers and workers are worried about what Trump’s immigration crackdown will mean for their livelihoods, their families, and the nation’s food supply.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Guardians of our food
September 19, 2025
The connection between old-growth forests and what’s in your fridge. This article was produced in collaboration with High Country News.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Just how fragile is Alaska’s food supply chain?
September 04, 2025
Rural Alaskans, for whom rates of food insecurity can be twice as high as those living closer to cities and major roads, each harvest on average 300 pounds of wild food each year.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Food is power
September 02, 2025
It’s getting harder for family farms to turn a profit, and those who seek alternatives to the consolidated corporate market must navigate complicated policies and finances in order to sell directly to consumers.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Trump’s big bill leaves the future of food aid in doubt
July 17, 2025
With food stamps no longer protected by the decades-old farm bill coalition, millions are likely to go hungry while Big Ag is showered with new subsidies.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Reviving the Grange
June 16, 2025
At a moment of deep divisions, the nation’s oldest agricultural advocacy group is still reaching across the aisle.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Trump’s assault on small farmers
May 16, 2025
The president’s policies are accelerating farm consolidation and hollowing out farming communities. In a collaboration with Mother Jones, the FERN examines how Trump’s second term jeopardizes small farms as we know them.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Immigrants on the line
March 20, 2025
They fled Haiti only to endure brutal working conditions at a Colorado plant run by the world’s biggest meatpacker. Now they face deportation.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
A palm oil company, a group of U.S. venture capitalists, and the destruction of Peru’s rainforest
December 31, 2024
Ocho Sur marketed palm oil to PepsiCo and Colgate-Palmolive as “deforestation-free.” Exclusive documents tell a more complicated story.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
We need more Native American restaurants
October 01, 2024
From venison chops to grape dumpling soup, Indigenous foods are central to the American heartland — if only we had more places to eat them.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
The whole dam truth
April 25, 2024
Hydropower projects are celebrated as tools to address the climate crisis. But they are far from climate neutral and the downstream threats to biodiversity and Indigenous sovereignty are significant and growing.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
The ranching industry’s toxic grass problem
March 27, 2024
A quarter of the nation’s cattle eat tall fescue, a non-native grass that slowly poisons them. But ranchers have been hesitant to embrace two very different solutions.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
Tribal nations want more control over their food supply
February 21, 2024
Here’s how the farm bill could help.
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Food and Environment Reporting Network
The essential workers missing from the farm bill
February 14, 2024
The legislation has long supported farm owners—but not the people fueling their operations.
RURAL NEWS SPOTLIGHT
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