Barn Raiser

Barn Raiser is dedicated to delivering independent news, insights, and information that empower diverse and actively engaged rural and small-town communities. We support open public discussions by highlighting underrepresented voices and viewpoints on the complex challenges that these communities and their leaders encounter. Our goal is to create a platform where important questions and innovative ideas spark meaningful connections. We promote thoughtful criticism, constructive debates, and empathetic dialogue to rejuvenate social creativity, foster common understanding, enhance democratic involvement, and inspire positive transformation.

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A Primer for Home Gardeners to Keep Your Garden Free from PFAS

1 week ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Bill Pluecker |Ames Alexander

Slick marketing and the ubiquity of misleading “eco friendly” products at big box and local gardening supply stores could lead to unwitting contamination in your home garden. Here are a few tips to help you reduce the risk to your plants and soil. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a large family of chemicals with extremely strong carbon-fluorine bonds that are virtually impossible to break.
Can Democrats Stop the GOP From Taking a Chainsaw to the Farm Bill?

1 week ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Bryce Oates

The first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term have fundamentally shaken up U.S. politics and the federal agencies. Trump has issued numerous executive orders and proclamations designed to cancel and obstruct much of the Democrats’ agenda implemented during the Biden Administration, particularly the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act and anything related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or climate.
‘Clean Water,’ ‘Equity,’ ‘Microplastics’ and Other Words Banned in Leaked USDA Memo

3 weeks ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Justin Perkins |Joel Bleifuss

ARS is the division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tasked with providing the agricultural research, education and economic analysis that protects the health of the nation’s farmland, ensures the safety of the food we eat and develops solutions for diseases, disasters and other threats to the food supply.
Democrats Need to Flex Their Organizing Muscle Says Jane Kleeb

3 weeks ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Joel Bleifuss |Justin Perkins |Jennifer Berkshire |Winona LaDuke

In her new role, Kleeb automatically becomes a DNC vice-chair at Martin’s side, part of a leadership team that says it will move the party in a bolder direction. In a December 19 Barn Raiser op-ed, Kleeb explained why she was supporting Martin for chair of the DNC and running for President of the ASDC.
Farmers in Trump Country Were Counting on Clean Energy Grants. Then the Government Changed the Rules.

1 month ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Ames Alexander |Mario Ariza |Joe Engleman |Winona LaDuke

Some of the roughly 6,000 grant applicants have already completed the solar, wind or other energy projects and are awaiting promised repayment from the government. Others say they can’t afford to take on the projects they’d been planning unless the grant money comes through. A Floodlight analysis shows the overwhelming majority of the intended recipients of this money reside in Trump country—congressional districts represented by Republicans.
Why Red State Rural Voters Are Leading the Resistance to School Vouchers

1 month ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Jennifer Berkshire |Winona LaDuke

Kristina Reser-Jaynes can still recall a time when she’d never heard of school vouchers. Then, a few years ago, the Kickapoo school district in Southwestern Wisconsin that her daughters attend confronted a challenge all too common in small rural communities these days: a declining number of kids. “I started looking into the causes of our declining enrollment and just trying to get better informed,” says Resar-Jaynes, 57, who grew up in this scenic corner of Wisconsin.
The New Mexico Mom Growing Political Power from a Community Garden

1 month ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Gwen Frisbie-Fulton |Winona LaDuke

What she and her children put into those first pots grew, but so did Courtney’s understanding of food, food systems and politics. Fast forward to today, this is how she and a group of neighbors ended up at New Mexico’s State Capitol building in Santa Fe with folders of policy memos under their arms. Courtney taught herself about gardening the way many of us now learn things: the internet.
Undoing the Power of Big Ag

1 month ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Justin Perkins |Anjulie Rao |Joel Bleifuss |Matt Barron

In 1973, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz infamously instructed farmers: “Get big or get out.” Fast forward 52 years, and a handful of multinational corporations control America’s agricultural economy. As the nonprofit, farmer-led organization Farm Action has observed, this is not an accident. Decades of rollbacks in antitrust law, mergers and market manipulation through price fixing and collusion has allowed corporations to control virtually every link in the food supply chain.
Bird Flu Spreads as Musk’s DOGE Cuts Public Health Funding

2 months ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Justin Perkins |Joel Bleifuss |Addie Costello |Anjulie Rao

According to the latest data from the USDA, since 2022, bird flu outbreaks have led to the loss of more than 162 million birds in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, including 20 million birds in the last 30 days. Public health officials continue to maintain that the current risk to humans remains low. While there have been no reported cases of human-to-human transmission, there have been 70 confirmed cases nationally, the majority resulting from farmworkers exposed to the virus from dairy cattle.
In a North Dakota Courtroom, the Battle for Standing Rock Continues

2 months ago | barnraisingmedia.com | Winona LaDuke |Addie Costello

It’s been eight years since the water protectors were cleared off the banks of the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers. It was a bitter ending to a battle to protect the water at Standing Rock, and for most of us water protectors, we have not seen a lot of justice, particularly in North Dakota. The winter of 2016-17 was a mean one.