Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “According to Blue Cross data*, diabetes accounts for 6.3 percent of loss of good health in Minnesota. The Twin Cities area has the lowest diabetes impact, at 5.2 percent, while northwestern counties are hit the hardest with an impact of 8.1 percent. Minnesota’s northwestern counties also demonstrate a significant disparity in the impact of ...

EXCERPT: “According to Minnesota State Demographic Center data, Houston County saw a 4.8 percent decline in population from 2000 to 2015. More than 1,400 people left the county during those years. The smallest towns in the county have been the hardest hit, with Brownsville and Hokah reporting about a 10 percent drop in population. Rural Houston ...

EXCERPT: “Human Services Assistant Commissioner Jim Koppel visited Cedar Mountain Cougar Childcare Center in Franklin, Minn., to emphasize the importance of quality child care, and highlight businesses and communities coming together to address the need for child care. ‘Without consistent, quality child care, children often struggle and are not prepared to enter kindergarten, and parents ...

EXCERPT: “Bob Worth barely kept his composure as he revealed two close friends, both fellow farmers, recently committed suicide. They killed themselves over agriculture stresses, he said, speaking as part of a panel discussion about challenges of farming. “Don’t ever do that to your family,” he urged farmers in the Tuesday, Aug. 1, audience at Farmfest ...

EXCERPT: “The challenge of the “brain drain” from rural America to the big city, in some parts of the country, is very real. But the Pew Charitable Trust’s recent report provides proof that it doesn’t have to be. The reality is that rural America can continue to prosper and grow, but only by using all of the tools ...

EXCERPT: “The community of Vernon Center gained national and even international attention during the week of Sept. 11-17, 1972. Shady Brook Farms just north of the town, owned by Bert Hansen, became the site of the 19th World Ploughing Contest. The yearly gathering blossomed into a 1,400-acre agricultural extravaganza with more than a 1,000 acres of ...

EXCERPT:  “Farmers attending last week’s National Corn Growers Association Corn Congress called for faster access to new biotechnology-enhanced crop traits.  The move reflects growing frustration among NCGA members over excessive regulatory delays in the international marketplace . . . The NCGA’s new policy supports the commercialization of new biotechnology-enhanced corn traits that: a) have been ...

EXCERPT: “Ag is a big deal in this state, generating $16 billion in economic output and 150,000 direct and indirect jobs. Minnesota ranks fifth in the nation for ag production, including livestock (in turkeys it’s first, hogs third and dairy cows sixth). It ranks first, second and third in production of sugar beets, corn and soybeans, ...

EXCERPT: “A new program, one which (Hoffman, MN farmer Andrew) Barsness worked to create, should help beginning farmers in Minnesota. The program, approved this spring, gives a state income tax credit to landowners when they sell or rent land or other ag assets to beginning farmers. The credit equals 5 percent of the sale price, or ...