Barn Raiser
@barnraiser.bsky.social
Your independent source for rural and small town news https://barnraisingmedia.com/
“ Part of the problem with our politics is too often corporations are buying and selling politicians in the first place. In the case of DTE, our local utility, they’ve given to 93% of state legislators,” Abdul El-Sayed told Barn Raiser in July. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Data Centers Divide Democrats in Michigan Primary
Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens offer conflicting visions over the role of A.I. and corporate power.
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Concentrating too much of the food supply in too few hands is both logistically and politically threatening, as increasingly powerful corporate giants exert influence over food safety regulations. barnraisingmedia.com/the-bigger-t...
The Bigger the Corporation, the Bigger the Diarrhea Outbreak
Taylor Farms and other large produce corporations have long exerted political power to weaken food safety regulations.
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Over the past year, the dim, windowless, gargantuan warehouses have taken center stage in rural Michigan. They draw ire for consuming vast energy resources to fuel an artificial intelligence boom viewed with increased skepticism. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Data Centers Divide Democrats in Michigan Primary
Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens offer conflicting visions over the role of A.I. and corporate power.
barnraisingmedia.com
How a Wisconsin pastor is leading the far-right crusade to criminalize LGBTQ people and destroy Western Christianity barnraisingmedia.com/county-befor...
County Before Country
A Wisconsin pastor has won over conservatives by promulgating resistance to state and federal “tyranny.” Now, he’s intent on bringing “judgment” to the Republican Party and Western Christianity.
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Anti-establishment candidates aim for a sweep across more than a dozen Michigan races in Tuesday's primary. @dropsitenews.com www.dropsitenews.com/p/michigan-d...
How a Squandered Democratic Trifecta Is Pushing Michigan Left
Anti-establishment candidates aim for a sweep across more than a dozen Michigan races in Tuesday's primary.
dropsitenews.com
Democratic frontrunners from a former Black-majority congressional district in Memphis compete in rural Kentucky barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Urban Candidates Pivot to Rural Voters After Tennessee Redistricting
A progressive and a traditional Democrat are vying to represent a newly redrawn district that stretches from Memphis into rural Tennessee
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In June, Barn Raiser ran an opinion piece by Jacob Burg, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) first Rural Engagement Manager. Our readers had a few thoughts of their own. barnraisingmedia.com/letters/read...
Readers Respond to the DCCC
Editors’ Note: In June, Barn Raiser ran an opinion piece “How the House Democrats’ Campaign Arm Is Getting Serious About Connecting With Rural Voters” by Jacob Burg, the Democratic Congressional…
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In Tennessee’s redrawn 9th Congressional District, once a Black-majority district in Memphis, candidates Justin Pearson and London Lamar must now compete in a district that is whiter, more Republican and more rural. @kathsburgess.bsky.social barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Urban Candidates Pivot to Rural Voters After Tennessee Redistricting
A progressive and a traditional Democrat are vying to represent a newly redrawn district that stretches from Memphis into rural Tennessee
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I have a simple message to help those of us who live in and around farm country: Grow America!" barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
America Can Grow Its Own Food Again
The U.S. trade deficit has reach record highs. That’s a supply chain hollowed out from the inside—here’s how we can rebuild it.
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Will Iowa’s cancer crisis finally tip the political scale? barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Chris Jones Leads Fearless Campaign Against Big Ag
Chris Jones, a retired water scientist, is rewriting politics in Iowa, taking on the state’s water and cancer crisis by challenging the power of Big Ag.
barnraisingmedia.com
Our system of industrial agriculture is no accident. It has deep historical roots going back to the advent of the railroads in the 19th century. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Why America Doesn’t Grow Its Own Food
As in other colonial relationships, our system of industrial agriculture does not benefit the rural people who raise our livestock or grow our crops.
barnraisingmedia.com
Taylor Farms and other large produce corporations have long exerted political power to weaken food safety regulations barnraisingmedia.com/the-bigger-t...
The Bigger the Corporation, the Bigger the Diarrhea Outbreak
Taylor Farms and other large produce corporations have long exerted political power to weaken food safety regulations.
barnraisingmedia.com
Taylor Farms and other large produce corporations have long exerted political power to weaken food safety regulations. The consequences are now hitting home in the largest foodborne illness outbreak in three decades. @clairek.bsky.social
The Bigger the Corporation, the Bigger the Diarrhea Outbreak
Taylor Farms and other large produce corporations have long exerted political power to weaken food safety regulations.
barnraisingmedia.com
ICYMI, catch the latest issue of Food & Power (with updated data) reprinted today in @barnraiser.bsky.social ! I explain how corporate consolidation increases the risk of large foodborne illness outbreaks like cyclospora barnraisingmedia.com/the-bigger-t...
The Bigger the Corporation, the Bigger the Diarrhea Outbreak
Taylor Farms and other large produce corporations have long exerted political power to weaken food safety regulations.
barnraisingmedia.com
Data centers, Big Ag and the New World screwworm take center stage for rural voters barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
A Young Populist Heats Up the Texas Agriculture Commissioner Race
Can Democrat Clayton Tucker make waves in the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race in November?
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Our system of agriculture is designed to punish farmers and rural communities barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Why America Doesn’t Grow Its Own Food
As in other colonial relationships, our system of industrial agriculture does not benefit the rural people who raise our livestock or grow our crops.
barnraisingmedia.com
As in other colonial relationships, our system of industrial agriculture does not benefit the rural people who raise our livestock or grow our crops. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Why America Doesn’t Grow Its Own Food
As in other colonial relationships, our system of industrial agriculture does not benefit the rural people who raise our livestock or grow our crops.
barnraisingmedia.com
In a new memoir Our Knives Will Save Us, Nephi Craig shows how personal catastrophe and the powerful Apache culture of his upbringing set him on a path to reinvent indigenous cuisine and heal his people. barnraisingmedia.com/apache-chef-...
Apache Chef Brings Truth to the Table
In Our Knives Will Save Us, Nephi Craig shows how cooking helped him transcend catastrophe and reveal a deeper understanding of his family and people.
barnraisingmedia.com
Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens have offered conflicting visions over the role of A.I. and corporate power. Voters are paying attention. @milesmacclure.bsky.social reports:
Data Centers Divide Democrats in Michigan Primary
Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens offer conflicting visions over the role of A.I. and corporate power.
barnraisingmedia.com
Many progressives hope Clayton Tucker, running for Texas agriculture commissioner, will do something that hasn’t been done in a generation: attract rural Texas voters to the Democratic ticket. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
A Young Populist Heats Up the Texas Agriculture Commissioner Race
Can Democrat Clayton Tucker make waves in the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race in November?
barnraisingmedia.com
Barn Raiser sat down with “America’s most popular populist” Jim Hightower to get his thoughts on the political landscape of rural America today and why populism is central to preserving our democracy. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Jim Hightower on Texas Politics and What’s Next for the Country
He’s also been an editor of The Texas Observer, president of the Texas Consumer Association, national radio commentator, columnist, and bestselling author. He currently publishes Jim Hightower’s…
barnraisingmedia.com
"Today, too many young and emerging farmers face extreme distrust of Congress," Michelle A.T. Hughes writes, "questioning whether our country’s lawmakers will choose to break free from the corporate monopolization and industrialized farming system." barnraisingmedia.com/the-senate-m...
The Senate Must Pass a Farm Bill That Serves Young and Beginning Farmers
Senate leaders must invest in what agriculture is becoming, not what it used to be.
barnraisingmedia.com
Chris Jones, a retired water scientist, is rewriting the political playbook in Iowa, taking on the state’s water and cancer crisis by challenging the power of Big Ag. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Chris Jones Leads Fearless Campaign Against Big Ag
Chris Jones, a retired water scientist, is rewriting politics in Iowa, taking on the state’s water and cancer crisis by challenging the power of Big Ag.
barnraisingmedia.com
The U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to its smallest size in 75 years, while the country’s trade deficit has reached record highs. That’s not a market working the way it’s supposed to. That’s a supply chain hollowed out from the inside. Here’s how we can rebuild it. barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
America Can Grow Its Own Food Again
The U.S. trade deficit has reach record highs. That’s a supply chain hollowed out from the inside—here’s how we can rebuild it.
barnraisingmedia.com
Date palm workers in California’s Coachella Valley face deadly work conditions to give their family a better life: “Every day I tell [my children], if they try hard they can become a doctor, a firefighter, or whatever they like, but not a palmero.”
The Most Dangerous Job in Coachella Valley
Date palm workers in California’s Coachella Valley face deadly work conditions, immigration raids and job uncertainty, all to make their family can have a better life.
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In rural Stella, Wisconsin, what was once routine—drinking water from one’s own well—has become a source of fear, as residents grapple with widespread PFAS contamination in their water. I barnraisingmedia.com/is-sludge-po...?
Is Sludge Poisoning Your Well?
The start of a nightmare William Casey Crump, long-time resident, landowner and chairperson of the Stella town board, thinks back on those first days when state testing revealed the contamination.…
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"The people themselves in the countryside, in small towns, in rural counties, and on farms and ranches want an honest system of democratic agriculture. And, first of all, that means taking on the monopolies." barnraisingmedia.com/2026-electio...
Jim Hightower on Texas Politics and What’s Next for the Country
He’s also been an editor of The Texas Observer, president of the Texas Consumer Association, national radio commentator, columnist, and bestselling author. He currently publishes Jim Hightower’s…
barnraisingmedia.com
The books—old and new—that our readers and staff enjoyed last year. barnraisingmedia.com/our-readers-...
Our Readers’ Favorite Books of 2025
I loved it for its beautiful language and the story of a dull life with no escape, a near dead experience and being conned by a crazy visitor which in the end opened doors to possibilities that were…
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Farmers are searching for immigration reform like a lost desert wanderer scanning the horizon for water. But the oasis always turns out to be a mirage. Will this finally be the year for meaningful reform? barnraisingmedia.com/farmers-faci...
Farmers, Facing Labor Shortages, Push for Immigration Reform
Farmers, feeling the pinch on labor, are venting their frustration with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
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Following the abandonment of Howard Dean’s “50 state strategy” and the resulting Democratic divestment from rural districts nationwide has entrenched an exclusivity in the party. barnraisingmedia.com/two-paths-fo...
Two Paths Forward for Democrats in 2026
Despite the Democratic Party’s success in 2025, the experiences of rural candidates in Virginia show the party’s challenges ahead.
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