Opioid settlement funds won't be enough for some of the country's hardest-hit regions to rebuild and recover

For many counties, the opioid settlement funds won't be
enough to address the losses. (Adobe Stock photo)

As the first $50 billion in opioid-related settlement funds gets distributed to states, counties and municipalities, a painful reality is setting in: It won't be enough for these places to rebuild or recover what has been lost, report Arian Campo-Flores and Jon Kamp of The Wall Street Journal. 

Community leaders are finding that "the funds only cover a fraction of their wish list. Some of their projects likely aren't even eligible because of confusion over restrictions on how the money can be used."

Whitley County, Kentucky, is an example of a region that received settlement funds, but county leaders quickly recognized that the money would only scratch the surface of what is needed to spur recovery, the Journal reports. Whitney Wynn, a Horizon Health outpatient facility director, "wants to establish the area's first detox facility. Ideally, she said, such a center could send patients to a residential treatment site. But the settlement money wouldn't cover both projects."

Other regions are using the settlement money paired other funding to create facilities and programs to support change. "In Dickenson County, Va., officials are allocating $250,000 of roughly $330,000 in settlement funds received thus far for the rural area's first residential treatment facility," Campo-Flores and Kamp write. "The project's price tag is $7.7 million, so the remainder is coming from sources including a loan from a regional economic development authority."

Kentucky is expected to receive about $900 million in settlement funds, with "half administered by the state and half going to local governments," the Journal reports. While that sounds like big money, it isn't when compared with what the crisis has cost. "In 2017, Kentucky's estimated cost from deaths and lives undermined by addiction exceeded $24 billion. Per-capita costs there were among the nation's highest."

Robbie Williams, a judge-executive in Floyd, Kentucky, told the Journal the $1 million the country has received so far is just "a drop in the bucket" compared with what the opioid crisis has cost the community. He added, "We have so many unmet needs; we really don't know where to start."

The Journal reports, "Meanwhile, the opioid crisis — which started with pain pills and is now fueled by fentanyl — continues killing at a record pace. "

As industries try to move away from using products with 'forever chemicals,' here's one possible replacement

Soy oil has multiple uses in food and
industry. (Wikipedia photo)

PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, have been linked to human illnesses and diseases but are still being used in commercial products because there isn't a functional substitute.

One of those products is firefighting foam, but Wisconsin farmers think they may have a solution, which was recently tested in Dalton, Georgia, reports Courtney Everett of Wisconsin Public Radio. "Farmers and volunteer firefighters were using a new soybean-based product called SoyFoam, which holds the potential to significantly reduce the health risks associated with PFAS exposure."

Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board President Pat Mullolly, who was present at the demo, told Everett, "It looked like the consistency of paint. It was a brown-type substance, maybe a little bit thicker than salt. They inject that into the water stream, and it creates foam." Everett added, "According to Mullolly, the biodegradable foam could eliminate the use of PFAS in firefighting foam. The chemicals have been linked by the U.S. Fire Administration to health risks and groundwater pollution."

Although SoyFoam technology is in the testing phase, "Mullolly is hopeful the product and other ongoing state projects can grow Wisconsin's agricultural economy," Everett reports. "Economic opportunities for soybean farmers across the United States are growing, Mullolly added." He told her, "There's some soy oil in Goodyear tires and Skechers shoes. Dalton, Georgia, is the world headquarters for Astroturf, and they're using soy oil in their polyurethane."

Add to your energy information reporting toolbox with this data source; many of its charts are free to use

An IEA chart showing the world’s total energy supply from 1990 to 2020
by source. Many of IEA's charts are free to use. (IEA Chart via SEJ)

The International Energy Agency offers some of the best information for reporters wanting to develop a broader understanding of global energy with trustworthy data, reports Joseph A. Davis of the Society of Environmental Journalists. "What IEA offers is data about the global energy situation. But it's solid data, probably the best available."

Among IEA's 31 member countries, almost all are Western and European. "What nearly all of these countries have in common is that they are the major world players in energy markets, mostly as consumers but also as producers. Its members represent 75% of world energy demand," Davis writes. "It does not include China, India, Saudi Arabia or Russia."

While the Energy Information Administration is more of a "just-the-facts data supplier," Davis explains, "the IEA is not averse to taking positions. If it has a bias, it is pro-energy. . . . It is an enthusiastic chronicler of the energy transition (from fossil fuels to renewables), but it also cheers on nuclear energy. It supports gender equality in the energy industry (currently in an awful state, with IEA statistics to prove it)."

A lot of IEA's data is free, but more premium reports and data may require registration/payment. Some best practices for using IEA data:

• Remember that the data represents a subset of the global market. While some nonmember data is included, its not comprehensive.
• To get your feet wet, start with Energy Statistics Data Browser. Davis adds, "It also has browsers and trackers for energy efficiency, carbon capture, oil stocks (inventory), end-uses, hydrogen, climate pledges, critical minerals, electric vehicles and more."
• IEA's chart library contains many high-quality options that can be used under a Creative Commons license (but do check).
• While good data can bring new depth and understanding to stories, "We remind you that shoe-leather and in-person reporting is needed to round out the human side of the data," Davis writes. "Groundtruth everything you can."

Learning practices and knowledge from Native Americans can help support nature, farming and more

Native Americans have worked with nature to support themselves and the land for centuries. "These time-honored practices work with the natural world’s rhythms," reports Samuel Gilbert of The Washington Post. "Some might even hold the key to a more resilient future." Below are five of Gilbert's indigenous practices that can help humans tend to Mother Nature while caring for their communities.

Zuni waffle gardens look like an 'earthen waffle.'
(Photo by Curtis Quam via Civil Eats)

Zuni waffle gardens are made with rows of sunken squares "surrounded by adobe walls that catch and hold water like pools of syrup in a massive earthen waffle," Gilbert writes. "The sustainable design protects crops from wind, reduces erosion and conserves water."

Controlled or "cultural burns" were used by Indigenous people "to improve soil quality, spur the growth of particular plants," Gilbert adds. "Prescribed burning has returned as state and federal agencies recognize the importance of fire in managing forests."

The use of acequias, which are ancient irrigation systems dating back to the 1600s. "The name can refer to both the gravity-fed ditches filled with water and the farmers who collectively manage water," Gilbert explains. "The earthen ditches mimic seasonal streams and expand riparian habitats for numerous native species."

Learn from dryland farmers. "The Hopi nation in Arizona receives an average of 10 inches of rain per year — a third of what crop scientists say is necessary to grow corn successfully," Gilbert adds. "Yet Hopi farmers have been cultivating corn and other traditional crops without irrigation for millennia, relying on traditional ecological knowledge rooted in life in the high desert."

Some seeds are 'arid-adapted.'
(Adobe Stock photo)

Find and cherish diverse, resilient seeds. Gilbert writes, "Aaron Lowden, a seed keeper and traditional farmer from the Acoma Pueblo, a village west of Albuquerque, has successfully returned dozens of varieties of traditional arid-adapted seeds such as Acoma blue corn, Acoma pumpkin, Acoma melon and other crops to his pueblo."

To read Gilbert's additional suggestions, which include clam gardens and jaw-dropping indigenous architecture, click here.

Friday's quick hits: This bot cleans up; sculpture park honors enslaved people; trying weird veggies; camping trip plan

(The Searial Cleaners photo via Route Fifty)

Almost everyone knows what a litterbug is, but what about a litterbot? In Detroit, a litterbot named BeBot "will sift through the sand and suck out trash like cigarette butts, bottles, food wrappers and other small pieces of plastic to help prevent trash from making its way from the Detroit River, which flows between the U.S. and Canada, into Lake Erie," reports Kaitlyn Levinson of Route Fifty. "The robot is roughly the size of a riding lawn mower and weighs more than 1,300 pounds. It uses a metal grate to sift through the sand and pick up trash as it rolls along beachfronts at about two miles per hour. "

Bernie Sanders of Vermont isn't the only one investigating 4-day work weeks. Educators in Pennsylvania now have the option of a 4-day school week. "Legislation signed into law in December amended the Pennsylvania School Code to eliminate the requirement for a minimum 180 school days, providing 900 or more instruction hours each academic year," reports Valerie Myers of The Erie Times. "Districts now can choose between 180 school days and hourly instruction requirements: 900 for elementary students and 990 for secondary students." Despite the option, a lot of school administrators don't feel ready to sign up.

The Legacy Sites photo

How can Americans confront slavery's part in our national history? A park in Alabama is memorializing this past with art. "Montgomery, Alabama -- once a major trafficking port for enslaved people – opened its new Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which features bronze sculptures and historical artifacts that highlight what life was like for enslaved people," reports Mackenzie McCarty of The Christian Science Monitor. "The park culminates in the four-story National Monument to Freedom, inscribed with 122,000 last names that formerly enslaved people chose for themselves after being emancipated."

Guess who's hitting their Earth-loving metrics? U.S. farmers. Daniel Munch of the American Farm Bureau Federation reported on a new study from the Environmental Protection Agency that showed "'U.S. agriculture represents just under 10% of total U.S. emissions when compared to other economic sectors. Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased from 2021 to 2022 by 1.3%, though agricultural emissions dropped 1.8% – the largest decrease of any economic sector.' . . . 2022 marks the lowest U.S. agricultural greenhouse gas emissions since 2012."

With googly eyes, most veggies look more approachable.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Some vegetables get a bad rap: Okra is slimy. Eggplants look more like purple slugs than food. Rutabagas don't even sound like a food. But what if there was a way to make those strange foods approachable? Even edible. "It's hard to be intimidated by celeriac — or rutabaga, radicchio, eggplant or okra — when it's wiggling googly eyes at you," reports Rebekah Denn of The Washington Post. Chef and food educator Becky Selengut "began pasting eyes on produce while teaching a 'Misunderstood Vegetables' cooking class and writing a related new cookbook."

Don't let raccoons, bugs, lumpy ground or lackluster meals ruin your summer camping trip. A great camping trip starts with solid planning, "so you'll return home with great memories," writes Alex Temblador for National Geographic. "We’ve created a list of all the items you’ll need. . . . From clothes to kitchen supplies and gear to help you sleep." Find the checklist here.

Hackers who claim to be the 'Cyber Army of Russia Reborn' disrupt a water tower system in rural Texas

The FBI has been investigating the hack in Muleshoe, Tex.
(City of Muleshoe, Texas photo via CNN)

While the number of computer hacks on American businesses by foreign actors has steadily increased, a hack in Muleshoe, Texas, in January might be the "first disruption of U.S. water system by Russia," reports Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post. A Muleshoe citizen drove past the town's water tower, saw it was overflowing and alerted the police. "Authorities soon determined the system that controlled the city's water supply had been hacked. . . . Thousands of gallons of water had flowed into the street and drain pipes."

The hackers, who identified themselves as the Cyber Army of Russia Reborn, "Posted a video online of the town's water-control systems showing how they reset the controls," Nakashima writes. Using the messaging platform Telegram, the hackers posted a caption that read, "We're starting another raid on the USA." The hackers proceeded to explain how they were going to target U.S. infrastructure.

Location of Muleshoe, Tex., pop
5,200 (Wikipedia map)

Experts from the cyber security firm Mandiant believe "that the water tank overflow in a Texas panhandle town may well be linked to one of the most infamous Russian government hacking groups," Nakashima reports. "If confirmed, analysts say it would mark a worrisome escalation by Moscow in its attempts to disrupt critical U.S. infrastructure by targeting one of its weakest sectors: water utilities."

The notorious Russian hacking group, nicknamed "Sandworm, has achieved notoriety for briefly turning out the lights in parts of Ukraine at least three different times; hacking the Olympics Opening Games in South Korea in 2018; and launching NotPetya, one of the most damaging cyberattacks ever that cost businesses worldwide tens of billions of dollars," Nakashima explains.

Muleshoe's city manager, Ramon Sanchez, told Nakashima, "You don't think that's going to happen to you. It's always going to happen to the other guy." Nakashima reports, "Sanchez said the hackers brute-forced the password for the system's control system interface, which was run by a vendor. That password hadn't been changed in more than a decade."

Could sleeping in a public park be a crime? A decision about the nation's homelessness crisis goes to the Supreme Court

The Grants Pass decision could change how homelessness
is handled by communities. (Adobe Stock photo)

As the number of homeless people in the U.S. continues to climb, many communities face conflicts over homeless campers and encampments. The rural town of Grants Pass, Oregon, "has become the unlikely face of the nation's homelessness crisis," reports Claire Rush of The Associated Press. The fate of the town's anti-camping laws is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case on April 22. 

Grants Pass, like many communities, has "struggled for years with a burgeoning homeless population. A decade ago, City Council members discussed how to make it 'uncomfortable enough. . . in our city so they will want to move on down the road,'" Rush explains. "From 2013 to 2018, the city issued 500 citations for camping or sleeping in public, including in vehicles, with fines that could reach hundreds of dollars."

The Supreme Court's decision hinges on their review of a 2018 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which blocked anti-camping laws for individuals as violations of the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." Rush reports, "Officials across the political spectrum — from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in California, which has nearly 30% of the nation's homeless population, to a group of 22 conservative-led states — have filed briefs in the case, saying lower court rulings have hamstrung their ability to deal with encampments."

Homeless people and advocates insist that more housing is the answer to homelessness, not citations and punitive actions. "Civil rights groups and attorneys for the homeless residents who challenged the restrictions in 2018 insist people shouldn't be punished for lacking housing," Rush explains. "Grants Pass has just one overnight shelter for adults, the Gospel Rescue Mission. It has 138 beds, but rules including attendance at daily Christian services, no alcohol, drugs or smoking and no pets mean many won't stay there."

At the heart of the problem in Grants Pass is the encampments found along the town's scenic public parks that frame the Rogue River. "They host everything from annual boat-racing festivals to Easter egg hunts and summer concerts," Rush reports. "They're also the sites of encampments blighted by illegal drug use and crime, including a shooting at a park last year that left one person dead."

For details on the case's oral arguments, click here and here. The Supreme Court's decision is expected by the end of June.

A new EPA rule means polluters, not taxpayers, will have to pay for some 'forever chemicals' cleanup

PFAS have been used in the U.S. since 1938.
(Adobe Stock photo)

The presence of PFAS, or "forever chemicals," in U.S. drinking water led the Environmental Protection Agency to issue its first drinking water standards earlier this month. Tagging onto that action, "The Biden administration is designating two 'forever chemicals,' as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, shifting responsibility for their cleanup to polluters from taxpayers," reports Coral Davenport of The New York Times. "The new rule empowers the government to force the many companies that manufacture or use perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) to monitor any releases into the environment and be responsible for cleaning them up."

Davenport explains, "PFOA and PFOS are no longer manufactured in the United States but can be imported in the form of consumer goods such as carpet, leather and apparel, textiles, paper and packaging as well as in coatings, rubber and plastics; the agency said. . . . Industries that use the chemicals have said that the designation is too expensive and would lead to litigation that could impose new costs on businesses and communities and slow the cleanup of chemicals."

The fact remains that all PFAS are harmful to humans. The compounds "degrade very slowly and can accumulate in the body and the environment. Exposure to PFAS has been associated with metabolic disorders, decreased fertility in women, developmental delays in children and increased risk of some prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, according to the EPA," Davenport writes. "Under the new rule, companies are required to immediately report releases of PFOA and PFOS that meet or exceed one pound within a 24-hour period to the National Response Center, and also to state, tribal, and local emergency responders."

As far as cleaning up PFAS -- it isn't simple or cheap. Even after PFAS are removed from water, there is no easy way to dispose of the products produced by the removal process. "Studies have shown that PFAS can be broken down with energy-intensive technologies," reports Fast Company. "But this comes with steep costs. Incinerators must reach over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 Celsius) to destroy PFAS, and the possibility of creating potentially harmful byproducts is not yet well understood."

Click here to review a study and map of PFAS in U.S. tap water.

Problem of shrinking places, mostly rural, is a tougher issue in the U.S. than in other nations, The Economist reports

Chart by The Economist magazine, adapted by The Rural Blog

The 2020 U.S. census was the first in which fewer people were counted in rural counties than in the previous census. "Over half of the country’s counties, home to a quarter of Americans, lost population," The Economist notes. "Over the coming decades still more will, because America’s population is     growing more slowly. The change will be wrenching, because of America’s demographic and administrative peculiarities." And that has special significance for rural areas.

Many other wealthy countries "are growing even more slowly or shrinking," The Economist notes. "America’s demographic problems are much smaller than those of its peers. Yet there are reasons to worry that America will adapt to slow growth even less readily than other countries. America’s population is growing at about the same rate as those of Britain and France. But America is different from Britain or France in that its population is much more prone to move around the country."

When many people leave a place, the magazine says, "It can set in motion reinforcing cycles that accelerate the decline. For example, when there is far more housing available than people to fill it, the result tends to be a collapse in the value of homes. If it is severe enough, landlords and even homeowners stop maintaining their properties, because the cost of repairs is higher than the return they will generate. As the resulting blight spreads and neighbourhoods begin to feel hollowed out, the incentive to stay is reduced even further. This is what is called a death spiral.

"Death spirals tend to be worse in America because of the remarkable level to which the government is decentralised. Just 8% of spending on primary and secondary education comes from the federal government, for example, and less than a quarter of the spending on law enforcement. Local and regional authorities levy 48% of all tax collected in America, compared with just 20% in France and 6% in Britain. And even America’s federal spending typically comes in the form of grants linked to population levels. So when local tax revenues shrink, services must be cut or taxes must rise."

The Economist asks and answers: "Does it matter if places die? Some would argue no. People are better off if they can move to opportunity, instead of becoming trapped in dying cities or jobless rural areas. Indeed, competition between cities helps explain America’s economic dynamism . . . Shrinking is hugely politically unpopular because, inevitably, many people are left behind, and the lives of those unwilling or unable to move worsen as their neighbors depart. Federal, state and local officials know this. And so they will do almost anything to avoid shrinking. All manner of big government facilities, from air-force bases to prisons, can be located in rural areas, ensuring there are jobs that in turn sustain the rest of the economy."

Looking ahead, The Economist says: "If America’s population does not grow faster, far more places will begin to die. The politics of that will be ugly. Of the counties that lost population in the decade to 2020, 90% voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Presumably, his fulminations about American decline resonate. Yet much of the recent slowdown in America’s population growth dates to Mr. Trump’s presidency when, even before the pandemic, net migration fell by a quarter as his administration deliberately gummed up the immigration services."

The Economist's report was centered on Cairo and Alexander County, Illinois, which had the greatest population decline (33 percent) of any county in the last decade. Here's the story's final paragraph: "Driving your correspondent around Cairo, Phillip Matthews, the chairman of the Democratic Party in Alexander County, lists services that have been cut over the years: public housing closed, government offices moved, schools shut down. He points out the public hospital in which he was born—now a derelict concrete hulk. 'A lot of this is done by design,' he declares, of his town’s decline. What he means is that politicians took many of the decisions that have contributed to the decay. Mr. Matthews is pinning his hopes on a stalled plan to spend $40 million on a new river port in Cairo, which has been backed by J.B. Pritzker, the state’s Democratic governor. If the port is ever built, perhaps Cairo will recover somewhat. But in the meantime, Mr. Matthews, a black pastor, says he understands why more and more people in his region support Mr. Trump. 'The Democratic Party is failing its constituents,' he says. 'People are scared to say it, but truth is truth.' The worse things get, the more votes Mr. Trump will win."

Learn how to investigate the who, what, when, where, why and how of the 2024 elections on Wednesday, April 24

Learn how to prepare for the 2024 elections when news coverage is scarce. You can register for the News Literacy Project's free online educational session on Wednesday, April 24, at 6 p.m., E.T., 

Register here.

As mainstream and local news outlets have shrunk nationwide, more rural Americans find themselves in news deserts, where trustworthy local news is scarce. Particularly for rural residents seeking 2024 election information, navigating away from partisan politics and social media rumors and getting to actual facts might seem like finding a black cat in a coal mine.

As an antidote to no news or fake news, the News Literacy Project is holding an educational session to help residents learn ways to prepare for November's ballot. The session will include advice from three experts – Benjy Hamm, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky; Alana Rocha, editor of the Rural News Network; and Brianna Lennon, county clerk for Boone County, Missouri and co-host of the podcast "High Turnout Wide Margins."

Speakers will walk listeners through how people living in news deserts or other areas with limited access to elections coverage can prepare to vote in 2024. Participants will learn about obstacles to finding credible information and what tools are available to citizens to investigate the who, what, when, where, why and how of the elections.

Some opioid settlement money is used to raise salaries and replace other funding; victims' families say that's wrong

Addiction recovery advocates say redirecting funds isn't
in the 'spirit of the settlement.' (Adobe stock photo)

As opioid settlement funds hit state, county and city coffers, some have been diverted for staff salary increases and already-established budgets. Victims' families and addiction treatment advocates argue the practice, formally known as known as supplantation, is not what the money was intended to do, reports Aneri Pattani of KFF Health News. "Local officials say they're trying to stretch tight budgets, especially in rural areas. But critics say it's a lost opportunity to bolster responses to an ongoing addiction crisis and save lives."

Commenting on what many see as misguided spending, Robert Kent, former general counsel for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told Pattani, "To think that replacing what you're already spending with settlement funds is going to make things better — it's not. Certainly, the spirit of the settlements wasn't to keep doing what you're doing. It was to do more."

Opioid disbursements in Scott County, Indiana, are an example of how the money and disagreements on how to spend it are playing out. "In 2022, the county received more than $570,000 in opioid settlement funds," Pattani writes. "According to reports it filed with the state, it spent about 45 percent of that on salaries for its health director and emergency medical services staff. The money usually budgeted for those salaries was freed to buy an ambulance and create a rainy-day fund for the health department."

On balance, throughout the national waves of intense addiction trials -- from prescription to heroin to fentanyl -- many cities and counties redirected thousands of dollars to respond to the crisis. Now that settlement funds are coming in, "They want to recoup some of those expenses," Pattani reports. Some states have "restricted substituting opioid settlement funds for existing government spending, according to state guides created by OpioidSettlementTracker.com and the public health organization Vital Strategies."

While community spending can be complex, there are tools to help citizens identify the amount of opioid dollars their community has received to date. Pattani adds, "Use our searchable database to find out. Then, ask elected officials how they're spending those dollars. In many places, dedicated citizens are the only watchdogs for this money."

More than half of American teachers are worried about a school shooting on their campus; parents are worried, too

1 in 4 U.S. teachers experienced a gun-related lockdown
at their school. (Adobe stock photo)

U.S. teachers must deftly manage tasks, lessons and discipline. To get the job done, educators make an average of 1,500 decisions a day. While that description sounds challenging, most teachers have the added worry of facing school gun violence, reports Jennifer Gerson of The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom for social issues.

"The majority of American K-12 public school teachers say they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting at their school, according to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center," Gerson writes. "Fifty-nine percent told Pew researchers that they were concerned about shootings on their campuses, with 18% saying they were 'very' or 'extremely' worried. Only 7% of teachers polled said they were not worried at all."

More than two decades have passed since the Columbine High School massacre, but those years have not produced an answer to gun threats in schools. Gerson reports, "Last year, roughly 1 in 4 American teachers reported experiencing a gun-related lockdown at their school. Fifteen percent of respondents said they went through one emergency lockdown, with another 8 percent saying that it happened where they teach more than once."

Regardless of party affiliation, most surveyed teachers advocated for student mental health screening as part of the solutions. "A large majority — 69% — said they believed improving mental health screening and treatment for children and adults would be extremely or very effective in preventing school shootings," Gerson explains. "This emphasis was held across party lines, with 73% of Democratic teachers and 66% of Republican teachers saying that investment in mental health resources would be an extremely or very effective prevention tool."

Teachers aren't alone in their safety concerns -- many parents also profess a significant degree of worry. "A Pew Research Center study released last fall found that a third of American parents said they were extremely or very worried about a shooting at their child's school, with an additional 37 percent saying they were somewhat worried," Gerson reports.

Produce is getting a makeover: Branded veggies and fruit hit grocery store shelves and e-commerce sites

Even apples were sent to the 'stylist's chair.'
(Yes! Apples photo via The Wall Street Journal)

What's better than the most perfectly shaped, webbed, orange-spotted fresh watermelon? The same watermelon in splashy packaging. "More farmers and produce companies are now moving to a business model they've seen work in other product categories: differentiate even the plainest products with fun packaging and an interesting back story, gain customers' loyalty and sell more units at higher margins," reports Katie Deighton of The Wall Street Journal. "Branding the previously unbranded helps companies use marketing tools that had been unavailable."

Is it possible to pick out bananas and look trendy? Maybe. Across the United States, branded fruits and veggies are popping up on e-commerce sites and grocery store shelves wrapped in fresh marketing designs that "promote their provenance and sustainable credentials," Deighton writes. Previously, most fruits and veggies were marketed based on price and quality.

This shift has occurred partly because Americans started taking a closer look at where their groceries came from, particularly in the produce aisles. Online grocery sales also increased, as "buyers can't examine the products in person, making brand names a more useful signal of consistency," Deighton reports.

"[Shoppers] also showed a growing tendency to shell out for cool food brands that say something about their lifestyles and tastes, even during a time of food price sensitivity."

So far, produce marketing is growing more slowly than other sectors because its product changes from year to year. Michael Perdigao, president of advertising and corporate communications for the Wonderful Company, told Deighton, "We don't know from year to year how big the crop is going to be. We may have committed to a media buy or bought in the upfront market or something and then don't need it."

Opinion: Don't rush to pass a new farm bill. 'This Congress already has failed. Let the next Congress take it up.'

Art Cullen

By Art Cullen, Editor
Storm Lake Times Pilot

A five-year farm bill was supposed to have been approved last year, but was held up in the House over disagreements on food stamps, conservation, crop insurance and funding. House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., announced that he will find a way to push a farm bill out before Memorial Day in order to get President Biden to sign a new farm bill by the end of the year.

Don’t bet the farm on it.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said he is pessimistic, and so is Sen. Joni Ernst, both Republican Ag Committee members.

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, is optimistic. “So there’s going to be a lot of talk, especially when it comes to SNAP and stuff like that. But I fully believe that we will get it out of the House, and then it’s just a matter of what (Sen. Chuck) Schumer and (Sen. Debbie) Stabenow is going to do in the Senate when it comes their way,” Feenstra told Brownfield News.

If a new farm bill can’t pass this year, it is expected that another one-year extension will be passed. Grassley said farmers would receive protection but not adequate protection. Getting beyond an extension of the same-old would be up to a new Congress, and as of now it is anybody’s guess who will be in charge.

It’s not as if the existing hang-ups are going anywhere. Fights over food stamps in the House stalled the last farm bill by two years. House Speaker Mike Johnson walks on egg shells in his caucus room as he is accused of caving in to Democrats on spending. The same sticking points will be as sticky in 2025.

It’s a huge piece of legislation with terribly complicated politics. You have regional interests from the South and Midwest battling over commodity payments. You have disagreements between commodity and livestock interests. Then you throw in cultural wedge issues like food stamps (SNAP benefits), and it all becomes a mishmash.

What used to be a fairly bipartisan process in the past decade has devolved into a food fight like everything else in Washington. Because so few know or care about the work of the agriculture committees, their work is controlled by the interest groups that fund our politics.

If food is important, the farm bill should be.

Our food security and agricultural resiliency are imperiled by a warming climate. A farm bill with conservation at its core could serve farmers and the environment better.

The farm bill as it is and has been over the past 40 years has resulted in more consolidation, accelerated rural depopulation, more surface water pollution in Iowa, and fewer farmers.

It also has stunted funding for research into livestock disease as pandemics build and bird flu jumps to humans.

Putting a new label on a defective product does not make it better.

But it might make some politicians look better if they can say they actually got some lipstick applied to the pig.

The Farm Bill is entwined with 'terribly complicated politics.'
(Adobe stock photo)

Crop insurance remains intact, as does a safety net for commodity markets. Food stamps too. As Grassley said, the protections are in place. So instead of jamming through an even worse farm bill than we already have, which is likely in this election year, we may all be better off if we take our time and do it right.

Ernst should be the No. 3 Republican in the Senate following the election, and the top woman in the caucus. She could establish herself as a national leader by stating unequivocally that nutrition programs are the most efficient way to fight poverty, which makes all of America stronger. Democrats and Republicans used to join hands over it — Hubert Humphrey and Bob Dole, Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley.

Someone needs to be a voice of reason. The ethanol industry, for example, is openly acknowledging that the future for corn growers depends on capturing tax credits for carbon dioxide pipeline. That’s not a great position for Iowa farmers to be in. But that is where the current farm bill puts us.

We could write a new piece of legislation that enhances soil and water health while directly paying farmers for stewardship. We can make conservation programs a lot more flexible. We can help farmers diversify their revenue streams while cleaning up the Raccoon River, which did not have a nitrate problem before farm programs encouraged planting fencerow to fencerow. And it could cost less if we cut corporations off the teat, which would have a lot of appeal in Iowa. That is not likely to happen by Memorial Day. More of the same is.

New rule increases royalties for oil and gas companies that drill on public lands; bond will be at least 15 times more

The Interior Department worked to bring oil and gas management
into the 21st century. Drillers are angry. (Photo by J. Evans, Unsplash)

 

For decades, companies that  drilled on public lands for oil paid the federal government small royalties and spent little on cleanup funding, but that era is about to change. "A suite of regulatory changes from the Bureau of Land Management will increase royalties on oil and stiffen cleanup requirements," reports Heather Richards of E & E News. "The rule caps a multiyear effort by the Interior Department to 'modernize' how the U.S. manages vast resources of oil and natural gas under public lands in states like Wyoming and New Mexico."

Initially, President Joe Biden planned to end drilling on public lands "to shrink the future footprint of the nation’s oil program. . . but he retreated due to legal setbacks early in office," Richards writes. "The rule requires a minimum bond for drilling a federal lease that's 15 times higher than the previous minimum of $10,000. Environmental groups and government watchdogs like the Government Accountability Office have asked BLM for years for stronger bonding requirements to cover decommissioning costs of wells and pipelines when they are abandoned."

The new rule angered drillers who "are already panning the rule as an attack on their industry and threatening to sue," Richards reports. "The final rule suggests the Bureau of Land Management will have a higher responsibility to limit oil and gas in areas that are considered valuable for wildlife or recreation by prioritizing leasing in areas with greater oil potential. Oil companies nominate lands for lease, but BLM decides what acres are ultimately offered for sale."

Environmental advocates praised the action as a good stewardship plan. Emily Olsen, vice president of the Rocky Mountain Region for Trout Unlimited, told Richards, "Energy development and conservation need not be mutually exclusive. The BLM is prioritizing energy development where it will have the fewest resource impacts."

Working-age rural residents are dying at 'wildly higher rates' than their urban counterparts; cause is undetermined

Photo by M. Vistocco

U.S. mortality rates can fall into two very different camps -- rural working-age death rates and everyone else's death rate. "Rural Americans age 25 to 54 — considered the prime working-age population — are dying of natural causes such as chronic diseases and cancer at wildly higher rates than their age-group peers in urban areas, according to a new report from the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service," reports Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez of KFF Health News.

To compare the two groups, "USDA researchers analyzed mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from two three-year periods — 1999 through 2001, and 2017 through 2019," Rodriguez explains. "In 1999, the natural-cause mortality rate for rural working-age adults was only 6 percent higher than that of their city-dwelling peers. By 2019, the gap had widened to 43 percent." 

In reviewing demographic differences, Native American women fared the worst, but overall, a link between younger rural deaths and a lack of Medicaid expansion could be part of the cause. "USDA researchers and other experts noted that states in the South that have declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act had some of the highest natural-cause mortality rates for rural areas," Rodriguez reports. "But the researchers didn’t pinpoint the causes of the overall disparity."

Another possible connection could be the lack of rural health care options and rural hospital closures. "Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, and other health experts have maintained for years that rural America needs more attention and investment in its health care systems by national leaders and lawmakers," Rodriguez adds. "It’s unlikely that things have improved for rural Americans since 2019, the last year in the periods the USDA researchers examined. The coronavirus pandemic was particularly devastating in rural parts of the country."

Some states refuse bipartisan aid for school summer lunches; program gives eligible students $40 per month

Some states won't accept aid for summer lunches.
(Photo by Matthew Moloney, Unsplash)

Some states have refused federal support that would be used to provide summer lunch money to families with children who receive free or reduced lunches during the school year.  

"The new $2.5 billion program, known as Summer EBT, passed Congress with bipartisan support. The program will provide families with about $40 a month for every child who receives free or reduced-price meals at school — $120 for the summer," reports Madeline Cass of The New York Times. "The red-state refusals will keep aid from about 10 million children, about a third of those potentially eligible nationwide."

Why would a state governor turn down federal summer lunch money but accept funding while school is in session? Their reasons varied from summer lunches contributing to childhood obesity to insisting that free summer lunches were only part of pandemic aid. Cass writes, "Poor states are especially resistant, though the federal government bears most of the cost. Of the 10 states with the highest levels of children's food insecurity, five rejected Summer EBT: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas."

In deep-red Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders welcomed the federal provision. "'Making sure no Arkansan goes hungry, especially children, is a top concern for my administration,' she said in a news release," Cass reports. "Arkansas officials estimate the program will cost the state about $3 million and deliver $45 million in benefits."

Early this year, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told The Associated Press: "No child in this country should go hungry. They certainly shouldn't go hungry because they lose access to nutritious school meals during the summer months."

But a look at Summer EBT division doesn't bear that sentiment out. Cass explains, "The outcome illuminates the arbitrary nature of the American safety net, which prioritizes local control. North Dakota and North Carolina are in; South Dakota and South Carolina are out. . . .  In the impoverished Mississippi Delta, eligibility depends on which side of the Mississippi River a child lives."

These centers offer specialized care for aging adults that allows them to live at home instead of in nursing homes

PACE centers offer multiple types of care under one
roof. (National PACE Association photo)

As people age, most don't want to live in nursing homes. But when faced with extensive medical needs, many older adults end up in institutionalized care. While some older adults may need that degree of attention, a lesser-known option known as PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) is gaining popularity as a cheaper, healthier alternative to nursing homes. "PACE has long flown under the national radar as an elder care option," reports Anna Claire Vollers of Stateline. "PACE centers provide government-funded medical care and social services to people older than 55 whose complex medical needs qualify them for nursing home care, but who can live at home with the right sort of help."

Given the preference of most individuals and their families to avoid nursing homes, considering a PACE center is a logical step. Vollers writes, "By 2030, one in five Americans will be over age 65, and most older adults say they would prefer to remain living in their homes for as long as possible. . . . . [The program has] recently attracted significant interest from lawmakers because it can keep people at home and may cost less than nursing home care."

The PACE model offers companies and health care systems a way to meet clients' health needs without lengthy inpatient stays. Each center provides a range of medical treatments, including physical therapy, vision and dental care, counseling and lab work. Centers also offer opportunities to get out of the house and socialize by providing a dining hall for meals and gathering areas for puzzles and games. Vollers reports, "Center social workers can help clients obtain needed items such as walkers and at-home wheelchair ramps."

Robert Greenwood, senior vice president for communications and member engagement at the National PACE Association, told Vollers, "It's definitely gaining momentum. In the last couple of years, we've had maybe six or seven new PACE programs open a year. In the last couple of months, we've had about four PACE programs open each month. There are 50 organizations in the pipeline for the next two years."

So far, PACE centers have had bipartisan support. Vollers reports, "Tennessee state Rep. Caleb Hemmer, a Democrat representing Nashville, and state Sen. Bo Watson, a Republican representing Hamilton County (which includes Chattanooga), are cosponsoring legislation that would expand PACE across the state." Hemmer told Stateline, "Even I was amazed when I visited. You walk in, and it’s nice and clean, it smells good, and there are activities for people. It’s a place I would want to send a loved one.”

For examples of PACE care in rural communities, click here and here.  To discover more about PACE, click here.

Eye-popping college costs vs. what students actually pay; research report looks at higher education comparisons

Brookings graph, from Department of Education data

Younger generations may be bypassing college due to its eye-popping costs, but research shows that few students pay the "listed" price. "Public discussions regarding rising college costs typically focus on the listed cost of attendance (COA), or 'sticker price.' High and rising college sticker prices are the subject of considerable attention, reports Phillip Levine for Brookings. But the sticker price isn't what families pay. "The average amount students actually pay (the 'net price') has recently stabilized and even fallen in the last few years."

Levine's research concluded that "sticker price is an increasingly poor indicator of college prices for all students, regardless of family income. . . . The growing use of merit-based aid at both public and private institutions accounts for this. At public institutions, the vast majority (79%) of those higher-income students paid the full sticker price in 1995-1996. That share dropped to 47% in 2019-2020."

While the net price for a student attending a public institution has risen, "This upward drift in net prices at public 4-year institutions indicates that they are becoming increasingly more expensive over time for students at all levels of the income distribution. The increase for higher-income families was larger in dollar terms but roughly similar in percentage terms," Levine writes. "That maximum net price is often lower than the sticker price because of the extensive use of merit awards." Net price at private institutions is "consistently higher than at public institutions."

While net prices have increased for all students across all income levels, those increases are smaller than the stated hikes in sticker prices. Levine reports, "Adjusted for inflation, net prices paid by students today at public institutions across the income distribution are similar to those they would have paid at private institutions in the mid-1990s."

Levine adds, "This analysis yields several implications for policy discussions regarding college pricing. First, the nearly universal focus on the sticker price in public discourse is detrimental to our understanding of college costs. It is the easiest measure to track, but it is a misleading statistic that a small and declining number of students pay. Even many higher-income families do not pay the full sticker price."

New rule closes the 'gun show loophole' and will require more sellers to register as licensed firearms dealers

The new rule will dramatically increase firearm purchase
background checks. (PBS News Hour photo)

To deliver on gun control policy promises, the Biden administration has expanded the number of sellers who must register as federally licensed firearms dealers, reports Glenn Thrush and Erica L. Green of The New York Times. "That means those sellers must run background criminal and mental health checks on potential buyers. . . . [The change] is the broadest expansion of federal background checks and an attempt to regulate the shadow market of weapons sold online, at gun shows and through private sellers that have contributed to gun violence."

Although President Biden was blocked from implementing universal background checks for gun buyers, the administration used the bipartisan gun control law passed in 2022 to "achieve an elusive policy goal that enjoys widespread public support: closing the so-called gun show loophole," Thrush and Green write. "The new regulation, which is likely to face legal challenges, could add as many as 23,000 federal dealers to the 80,000 already regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives."

In many states, the gun show loophole allowed "unlicensed private sellers to legally sell at gun shows, out of their houses and through online platforms without having to submit to the background check system created to prevent sales to children, criminals, domestic abusers, and people with mental illnesses or drug addictions," the Times reports. "Four in 10 illegal gun cases tracked by the bureau from 2017 to 2021 involved such unregulated sales."

The new rule aims to accomplish two goals. It will "pull legitimate sellers into the regulatory sunlight and, second, to deprive brokers who knowingly traffic in criminal gun sales of a legal shield provided by the vagaries of federal firearms laws," Thrush and Green explain. Previous rules required gun sellers who made their chief income selling guns to join the federal system, but that wording has changed and now includes sellers who "predominantly derive a profit" to register. "Failing to register carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines."

Comparing U.S. broadband coverage using two different maps shows 'stark contrasts' in representation

Photo by Possessed Photography, Unsplash

Two separate broadband maps give different pictures of how the service is offered throughout the U.S. "Using the results of 'broadband audits' across the United States, Ready.net has collected geographic data, information about available internet speeds, and demographic data to determine areas that are 'likely or arguably' underserved or unserved," reports Brad Randall of Broadband Communities. The results offer a "stark contrast" with the Federal Communication Commission's reported data.

Ready.net "establishes the ground truth of America's broadband reality," Randall writes. "Compared to the FCC's National Broadband Map, the Ready.net interactive map displays the U.S. as a patchwork of served, underserved, and unserved locations."

Location comparisons show how the maps differ. In Hyde County, North Carolina, pop. 4,600, the FCC's map "reports 100% coverage of fixed broadband services, the Ready.net map reports a county that is 81.7% unserved and 18.1% underserved," Randall reports. "Similarly, in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, pop. 8, 600, 90.7% of the county is listed as unserved despite the county's 100% coverage representation on the FCC's National Broadband Map for fixed broadband."

According to Ready.net data, the most underserved and unserved states are as follows:

1. Alaska (36.6%)
2. Montana (29.1%)
3. West Virginia (26.3%)
4. Wyoming (22.8%)
5. Vermont (21.3%)
6. Idaho (20.7%)
7. Mississippi (19.9%)
8. New Mexico (18.6%)
9. Wisconsin (18.4%)
10. Louisiana (17.3%)

EPA issues drinking water standards for toxic 'forever chemicals;' for cities and towns, an unknown price awaits

Removing PFAS from drinking water is
costly. (Photo by Samara Doole, Unsplash)

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued its first drinking water standards for "forever chemicals," which are long-lasting and human-made chemicals found in many commercial and industrial products, including nonstick pans, food packaging and common pesticides.  The slowly degrading chemicals have ended up in U.S. drinking water supplies, reports Elizabeth Daigneau of Route Fifty. "The EPA says the new rule will reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses."

The harmfulness of forever chemicals was well documented even as companies continued to use them. Amanda Hoover of Wired reports, "High levels of exposure can cause fertility issues, developmental delays in children, and reduced immune responses, according to the EPA. They can also elevate the risk of several cancers, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer."

A striking example of how deadly exposure to these chemicals can be was 20-year-old Amara Strande, who died of cancer about a year ago. Strande "became an activist in her short life after being diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer five years earlier," Daigneau reports. "The cancer, which eventually spread to her throat and lungs, was attributed to her exposure to a group of toxic chemicals known as PFAS."

While many communities know their water is tainted by forever chemicals, addressing the problem was strangulated by cost. "City and county water districts agree that something must be done, [but] they are worried the new rule will cost them billions of dollars," Daigneau writes. "To allay these concerns, the Biden administration announced nearly $1 billion in newly available funding through the infrastructure law to help states implement PFAS testing and treatment at public water systems." Some industry estimates indicate that $1 billion in funding won't be near enough.

Read Daigneau's full article to learn more about water clean-up and cost concerns. Click here for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies fact sheet on PFAS myths and clean-up price estimates.