UPDATE: The event referenced in this story has been postponed due to inclement weather. The story will be updated when a new date and time are announced. (3:57 p.m. MDT, Aug. 7, 2024)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is highlighting its investments in rural America with an event coming up soon in western Virginia.
The gathering will feature local leaders and businesses and discussions of how the federal government has supported them through recent spending packages like the Inflation Reduction Act.
Anthony Flaccavento is a Virginia farmer and the executive director of a group helping to organize the event: the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative. He said a lot of people living in cities might look at rural areas in a negative light.
"The first big goal is to say to the broader media and the country, 'Hey, we're not dead yet. In fact, we're fighting back and having really effective, impactful work,'" Flaccavento pointed out.
The stakeholders at the roundtable are involved in industries like food systems management, agroforestry and affordable housing. Flaccavento acknowledged the federal government has rapidly improved how it connects with and invests in smaller communities in the past few years. Rural counties have grown in population since the pandemic after a decade-long trend of decline.
The event will be open to the public, at The Inn at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, at a date soon to be determined. It will kick off a series of similar gatherings across the country. Flaccavento is especially excited for people to learn about ACME Panel Company in Radford. This is a small business creating stormproof, insulated building materials.
"That's the kind of innovation that's creating local jobs," Flaccavento stressed. "It's also building structures that are perfect for a world experiencing climate change, much more energy efficient, and much more storm resistant. So they're a stellar example."
The federal government has invested billions in trying to spur economic growth in rural America. Flaccavento added grants and programs for broadband, ag innovation and manufacturing have made an especially big impact.
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This month, a North Dakota network of rural hospitals enters its second year of trying to make local operations more efficient, so they can keep the doors open for patients and keep their local communities thriving.
The Rough Rider High-Value Network was announced in October 2023. It is made up of 23 independent, critical access hospitals in smaller towns and cities across the state. Leaders from the facilities share best practices and ways to keep costs lower.
Kylie Nissen, executive director of the North Dakota Rural Health Association, said she is encouraged by the effort, knowing the long-standing struggles hospitals and clinics in these areas have faced.
"It's not only closures that we're concerned about, it's rural community members (who) don't want to see their hospital bought out by a large system, too," Nissen observed. "Because then, the decision-making and the care for their local community just isn't there."
Since it began, the collaborative has secured at least two desirable contracts with commercial health insurers, benefiting all member hospitals. In its August forecast, Becker's Hospital Review reported five North Dakota hospitals were at immediate risk of closing within the next two to three years.
Nissen pointed out the ripple effect of keeping the hospitals independent and running efficiently, while improving patient care, can be felt across an entire community.
"Health care is huge when it comes to economics," Nissen stressed.
She added a healthier population, that does not have to travel as far for appointments or other care needs, results in a stronger workforce. She acknowledged they are still navigating challenges, like reducing maternal care "deserts," noting federal grants are competitive. The state of North Dakota chipped in $3.5 million to help get the Rough Rider Network started.
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Recent Minnesota policy moves are in the national spotlight, with Gov. Tim Walz on the Democratic presidential ticket.
Rural areas within the state are assessing high-profile law changes and program funding.
Minnesota's adoption of free school lunches for all students, has been a major focal point since Gov. Walz became the Democratic nominee for Vice President.
Former Bridgewater Township Supervisor Kathleen Doran-Norton said universal lunches and a new child-tax credit are helping families from smaller towns and cities experiencing poverty.
She said some of the challenges felt statewide do resonate in rural areas.
"All of these," said Doran-Norton, "what we might think of as separate issues, sort of, are interconnected."
But she painted the lack of childcare access as a crisis unfolding in rural communities, and said it hurts employee recruitment for businesses.
Last year, Minnesota set aside $300 million for early childhood initiatives. And a new Paid Family and Medical Leave program starts in 2026.
The Walz administration and Democratic leaders have faced scrutiny for using a significant portion of a record surplus for these investments.
It's unclear just how much these programs and added support will propel Minnesota's small-town landscape.
Doran-Nortan said she's hopeful, but indicates policymakers still have a lot of work to do, including healthcare access.
"We're seeing rural clinics and hospitals close," said Doran-Norton. "I think in Northern Minnesota, [an] area the size of Massachusetts does not have OBGYN care."
During her time as township supervisor, Doran-Nortan said she realized the need for rural areas to make themselves more climate resilient - conveying the importance of bigger agencies helping with things like flood mitigation.
However, Midwestern states like Minnesota are considering carbon capture projects that feature underground pipelines.
These ventures, fueled by federal incentives, are creating conflict in rural areas over public safety and landowner rights issues.
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By Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Eric Galatas for Colorado News Connection for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration
In Colorado, a new online database hopes to bring attention and collaboration to rural businesses, primarily those in the outdoor industry.
Rural is Rad was started by Kelly Mazanti, TJ Smith, and Robin Hall, who all own small businesses based in rural Colorado. They discovered a shared interest and mutual frustration over growing businesses in rural communities.
The group met during West Slope Startup Week, a conference that brings together startups based in the rural Western Slope of Colorado for a week of networking, lectures, and discussions. They wanted to build something that would continue to bring together rural brands in the outdoor industry and create a space where customers could find these brands in one place.
“We have to support each other because I have found that the people who live in these [rural] places are the most courageous and creative people that I’ve ever met,” Mazanti said in a Daily Yonder interview.
Mazanti runs Buttnski, an apparel brand based in Summit County, Colorado. She sees her role as a business owner in the community as a way to support economic development in a rural county and contribute to a thriving community.
“As a founder, my goal is to build this headquarters of operation for Buttnski in Summit County so that we can employ people and contribute to economic development and become not only an industry hub in our community but also a place where we can help develop how this community grows,” she said.
Rural counties with outdoor recreation opportunities can attract more residents who have more money than non-recreational rural counties. However, recreational economies also tend to have lower wages and can drive up housing prices in a community, which pushes lower-income people to other areas.
Mazanti hopes that Rural is Rad can connect rural business owners and communities to help solve challenges like this.
It can be harder for small brands and businesses in rural communities to gain traction. Rural small business owners struggle with the lack of access to financing, broadband speeds, and increasing cost of doing business.
The Rural is Rad database hopes to address this by bringing rural brands to a larger audience outside of their home communities.
Colorado has a plethora of opportunities for rural businesses through their Rural Opportunity Office including the Regional Resiliency & Recovery Roadmaps Program, the Rural Data Dashboard, and the Rural Technical Assistance Program.
“I think if I was trying to do this in any other state, I wouldn’t have this kind of support or the type of resources and community around me,” Mazanti said.
She sees collaborations with everyone from the statewide governmental organizations to nonprofits like Startup Colorado to small-town chambers of commerce as vital for the success of the Rural is Rad movement. “Colorado is an example, and it’s a great place to start this kind of a movement.”
Rural is Rad plans to host events and workshops for business owners. The second Rural is Rad week is scheduled to start on Small Business Saturday (November 30th, 2024). This week will highlight rural brands and offer consumers a way to support rural small businesses during the holiday shopping season.
“We can utilize that directory year-round to point people toward these to discover new brands. But then during Rural is Rad shopping week, which happens once a year, that can be an opportunity to further promote these smaller, more unique brands and founders that people may never have heard about,” Mazanti said.
Currently, Rural is Rad’s database features 17 brands from jewelry makers to backcountry bathroom kits to campgrounds. Brands and service providers can join Rural is Rad by filling out a survey on the website.
Mazanti hopes to expand the database to eventually include all of rural America.
Ilana Newman wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.
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