Hello! Welcome! I’m Barb Leach, the founder of My Rural America. I’m excited about the opportunity this new website presents. But first, to properly introduce myself…
I’m a rural American, too. I grew up in a small southwestern Iowa town. My Dad was an RR worker, and my Mom was a homemaker. For 17 years, I co-owned/co-managed a family farm near my hometown. Our farm changed during those years. At first, the people who farmed our 560 acres were Grandma and Grandpa, my brother-in-law, my husband, and me. By the time I left, it was just my husband and me. We farmed 1000 acres with the help of a hired man. Sometimes, we worked 24/7 – corn, beans, hogs, cattle, and, for some years, 1300 laying hens.
Agriculture has changed since my early days managing a farm. Farms are bigger. Farming is often mono-crop, and success often depends on chemicals. Rural land has paid the price for bigger fields, continuous cultivation, and the widespread use of chemicals. Sadly, rural Americans have paid the price, too.
Things have changed for me, as well. I moved from my hometown, first to Des Moines and later to Washington, D.C. In Washington, President Clinton appointed me to the Department of Transportation, where we worked to coordinate the planning for roads, bridges, and ports. Later, I was appointed chief of staff for the USDA’s Risk Management Agency. There, we developed more than 100 new crop insurance products. I also led a big agricultural risk management planning project that took me to Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
When Clinton left office, I carried memories of the challenges we rural Americans face all over the country. In college, I studied journalism and communications – I’ve always been a devoted newspaper reader. Because of this, I was among the first to notice the ongoing attack on statewide newspapers. The Atlanta News Journal was honest, saying they could no longer afford to serve statewide because delivering a single newspaper could cost up to $5. Other papers, like the Des Moines Register, were sold. Their news coverage was shrinking day by day. At that point, I wondered, would small-town newspapers fill this burgeoning news gap? As far as we can tell today, they have not. The news gap grows bigger. And that’s why My Rural Ameria is here.
My constant worries about the struggles rural Americans face led me to found My Rural America. Our first effort lasted four years; we identified local leaders and helped them fight for policies rural families need, like funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, protecting veterans’ health care benefits, and rejuvenating the rural American economy.
But funding was short, and I decided to return to government – this time as a senior-level appointee at the USDA for the Obama Administration. In that role, I led the creation of the. first 20+ organic insurance products and worked cross-agency to connect research and information technology systems. Meanwhile, the news gaps I first identified grew into larger information gaps, now called news deserts.
News deserts deny people the opportunity to hear all sides of a debate, information that is crucial for people to make decisions for their families. When news services are missing – no papers, little access to the internet – a vacuum is created. The vacuum often gets filled by rumors, inaccurate information, or plain nonsense.
This vacuum is really a tear in the fabric that holds our communities together. Communities lose out on the crucial information they need to survive and keep our republic – and our democratic values – strong.
My Rural America’s goal is to make it easier for people who live in news deserts to have the information they need to make decisions in their day-to-day lives. We do this by providing:
- Credible, authentic news
- A broad cross-section of carefully chosen news feeds from organizations and other groups specializing in vetted information
- Op-Eds from people with history and experience in rural America
- Introductions to legislation affecting rural living
- Members of Congress’s voting records on legislation affecting rural life
Thank you for supporting us and supporting the fight to help rural America be strong again!