Roundup: March 1, 2021
Michele Statz (Anthropology, University of Minnesota Medical School - Duluth) has published her much-anticipated ethnographic and interdisciplinary study of rural state and tribal court judges in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In this piece, On Shared Suffering: Judicial Intimacy in the Rural Northland, in the Law & Society Review, Statz evocatively tells a story of rural judges pushing courtroom boundaries to provide actual access to justice, as they are able, to litigants when civil legal aid initiatives are often unable to provide sufficient services to rural residents. It is a powerful piece, built on years of careful fieldwork. Highly recommend.
The CDC has published a report by Dr. Jocelyn Herstein (Public Health, University of Nebraska College of Medicine) and several colleagues on COVID transmission among Nebraska meat-processing workers. This study confirmed an extremely high infection rate — 19 percent — among Nebraska meat processing employees between March and July 2020 and a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities. “In Nebraska, the 8 counties with the highest COVID-19 case rates per capita (as of September 2020) are also home to large meat processing facilities.” (Hat Tip: Leah Douglas)
Chad Lawley (Ag Econ, University of Manitoba) has published Hog Barns and Neighboring House Prices: Anticipation and Post‐Establishment Impacts in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Lawley finds that houses very close (within 2 km) of large-scale hog barns in Manitoba sell for 5.7% less than similar houses slightly farther away.
Civil Eats has an interesting piece on efforts by farmland owners to compel conservation and other soil-health measures as conditions of tenant farmers’ leases.
The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute has posted a webinar recording entitled, One Health Concepts and Healthy Water for a Changing World, featuring experts from Princeton, the University of Washington, and the University of Nebraska.
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension has published its 2021 Rural Profile of Arkansas.
Upcoming Events
The University of Georgia is hosting a Rural Student Success UnConference from March 19 to 20, 2021. This virtual conference, intended for a national audience, will explore “the past, present, and future of rural student and success in American higher education.”
Museum on Main Street (MoMS), a Smithsonian outreach program, is hosting a traveling Crossroads: Change in Rural America exhibition. The exhibit is currently available in Kansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi, and more schedule information at the link.