Roundup: April 14, 2023
A regular feature of our growing online journal, The Rural Review, these roundup posts collect notable recent research, analysis, and related rural news and commentary. Feel free to send suggestions for future collections to us here. And, more details on other opportunities to contribute to The Rural Review can be found here.
Recent Publications
Sociologa Ruralis, the Journal of the European Society for Rural Sociology, recently published a special issue entitled, Landscapes of Support: Farmer Wellbeing and Rural Resilience Through and Beyond Crises. This issue collects a host of interesting new work including, for example, Rebecca Wheeler, Matt Wobly (both Rural Policy Research, University of Exeter), Jude McCann, and Alex Phillimore (both Farming Community Network, UK) discussing the depth and breadth of loneliness in farming as a profession. Additionally, Alexis O’Reilly, Ronan Foley (both Geography, Maynooth University), David Meredith, and Jack McCarthy (both Rural Economy Development Programme, Dublin) look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic the farming community.
Tobias Borger (Berlin School of Economics and Law), Anna Maccagnan, Mathew P. White, Lewis R. Elliott, and Tim Taylor (all Exeter Medical School) sought to assess whether driving to a national park is, in fact, “worth it.” The authors compare travel cost with the subjective well-being of those who made the trek to the great outdoors in Was the trip worth it? Consistency between decision and experienced utility assessments of recreational nature visits.
In another iteration of a cost-benefit analysis, Gregory Howard (Economics, East Carolina University), Wendong Zhang (Economics, Cornell), Adriana Valcu-Lisman (USDA), and Philip W. Gassman (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State) evaluate the overall effectiveness of different agricultural conservation programs, with particular attention to what strategies can best work to reduce nitrogen in specific watersheds. The relative effectiveness of different interventions is explored in this article in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Finally, there is a host of recent important work on climate change. Here are two examples focused on climate responses, and engagement, in specific geographies. First, Amit K. Pradhananga, Emily K. Green, Mae A. Davenport (all University of Minnesota) and Jennifer Shepard (Exploratorium) examine public participation in climate-related governance in a new article entitled, Normative Basis for Climate-Related Civic Engagement by Residents of Lake Superior’s North Shore Region. In the second new article, Holly L. Peterson (Public Administration, Louisiana State University), Chad Zanocco (Stanford), and Leanne Giordono (California Polytechnic) explore factors impacting household-level preparedness for climate-related disaster in Minors Can Have Major Effects: Household Hurricane Preparation Insights from Alabama.
News & Commentary
The Rural Blog, hosted by the University of Kentucky, has a new post on the depth and breadth of railroad-related health concerns. In addition to derailments and explosions, other health issues may develop based on proximity to a railroad. The commentary is found here. The article expands on an interview with a National Geographic reporter found here.
Healthcare in rural areas may have a new lifeline, thanks to the Rural Emergency Hospital Program passed in 2020. An article in The Texas Tribune describes how one rural hospital is able to reroute costs to have a 24-hour emergency department, providing access to a rural community that had previously been thirty miles away from the nearest facility. This new chance for Bowie Memorial Hospital is described here.
Water conflicts in the West continue to heat up, and this recent LA Times Editorial, An Unfair Plan to Cut California’s Use of Colorado River Water, provides one window into these intense debates. According to this editorial, “It is clear that each state must agree to take far less [water] than their agreements allow, simply because the full measure of water guaranteed does not exist. Nor has it, for decades.”
Events & Recordings
Our friends at the Center for Great Plains Studies here in Lincoln, Nebraska, are hosting the Center’s 48th annual interdisciplinary conference next week on the theme, “Plant to Table: Food Production, Culture, and Consequences on the Great Plains.” More details here. Jess Shoemaker and Anthony Schutz, co-creators of the Rural Reconciliation Project, will be presenting along side Neil Hamilton, professor emeritus at Drake Law School, on a panel entitled “Agriculture, Food, Land and Water in Iowa and Nebraska” on Thursday, April 20.
As part of the Project’s ongoing Land and Water series, we have now posted a summary of Dr. Lucas Bessire’s recent event with us in Lincoln on groundwater depletion in the Great Plains here. This page also includes a recording from when Dr. Bessire was a guest on the Great Plains Anywhere lecture series from the Center for Great Plains Studies. That full recording is here.