Year: 2020

EXCERPT: “White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Deborah Birx traveled through rural Minnesota on her way to St. Paul to meet with Governor Walz and other local health and policy leaders. And she says she noticed a difference in who’s wearing masks and taking other COVID-19 precautions. ‘There is a real attention to these mitigation efforts ...

EXCERPT: “Don Tschida grows corn, beans and small grain on land that his father and grandfather farmed before him. On his central Minnesota farm, he also raises a small herd of beef cattle and two barns of broiler chickens . . . Starting this week, farmers in parts of Minnesota, including in Morrison County, will face ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says it will fund 38 new electric vehicle charging stations along four corridors in the state. The 38 new stations will expand the electric vehicle charging network by more than 2,500 miles in greater Minnesota, the MPCA says. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of electric vehicle registrations nearly doubled, ...

EXCERPT: “As COVID-19 spread in Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz shut down public life, the child care industry struggled from lack of income as children stayed home with their parents. But even during rocky economic times, which have led businesses of all stripes to close their doors over the last five months, some Minnesotans have managed a ...

By Whitney Oachs, Research Intern As discussed in our recent 2020 State of Rural Report, most farmers were barely getting by before the onslaught of COVID-19. While agricultural land values have remained at historic highs, low commodity prices and increased costs of production have resulted in negative net income, contributing to declining mental health for ...

EXCERPT: “A new report released this month found 248,000 acres of public land in Minnesota — land owned by the taxpayers — that you can’t legally get to, with no public access and surrounded by private property. There’s another 55,000 acres of landlocked public land in Wisconsin . . . The plots are national and ...

EXCERPT: “Our neighbors to the west, the Dakotas, are known for their colorful sunflower crops. But the flowers have been popping up in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, too. For a farmer in Pierz, in rural northwestern Minnesota, the plants started as a good protein source for livestock before turning into a popcorn source for ...

EXCERPT: “St. Louis County is seeking proposals to address mental health, youth substance abuse and food insecurity in the Northland. When a community health assessment was done for the county in 2019, it identified mental health, youth substance abuse, and food insecurity as three priority areas of focus. ‘We were seeing data in the food ...

EXCERPT: “Lynn Barten has been a family child care provider for 22 years, a mainstay in an industry that has a shrinking workforce.  Barten first ran the business out of her Alexandria home, but then bought a second house to have more space for the operation. She has earned child care credentials, an associate’s degree, and ...