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May 19, 2003
Commitment to region reaches beyond retirement
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
He and his bride were in transit from the east to the west coast one hot summer day in 1966 when he steered their Volkswagen off the main throughway onto more romantic back roads.
Somewhere in rural Minnesota, he turned to his partner and said, "God, wouldn't it be awful if you had to live here?"
In Joseph A. Amato's mind, the only place he could have said this to his wife, Kathy, was on the east end of Marshall. Yet today, it is hard to imagine the scholar more at home than in southwest Minnesota.

May 5, 2003
Environmental study sets baseline for state
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
Negative impacts on Minnesota's environment come foremost from particles in air, according to a recent report from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
Other significant impacts come from phosphorus, transported sediment, temperature increases/climate change and habitat modification, according to agency experts, who say these substances and conditions are widespread in the environment, their effects are severe and only slowly reversible and they affect large populations.

April 21, 2003
Agro-terrorism: Better safe than sorry
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
The spread of animal diseases through agro-terrorism could curb production of wool, leather, meat, dairy products and medicines dependent on animal byproducts.
The spread of insect pests and plant diseases could further threaten food supplies, spurring serious economic consequences.
These particular warnings were published 52 years ago in the April 23, 1951, edition of the Pipestone County Star. The identified enemy then was Russia.

April 14, 2003
Adaptability of insects spells job security
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
When Lee French and his wife, Joann, started their research business, neighbors worried the operation would bring doom to agriculture in southwest Minnesota.
The couple worried it might wipe out their savings.
Twenty-five years later, demand for their product is as strong as ever, and neighbors no longer bother about what goes on inside the walls of the laboratory, even if they do not fully understand the French Agriculture Research operation.

April 7, 2003
Money for conservation programs still in flux
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
Conservation programs in the 2002 Farm Act look good on paper.
Congress still must appropriate funds to pay for them, though, and even then, their effectiveness depends on the willingness of farmers to participate.
"What's authorized and what's appropriated are two different things," Mike Appel, assistant state conservationist for field operations with the USDA Natural Resources and Conservation Service said. "With the war, you don't know if a lot of this stuff will get nixed or not."

March 31, 2003
Soybean predators: Nature behaving naturally
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
Soybeans just are not adding up for Mike Hewitt.
"We're having a terrible time growing soybeans -- disease, insects -- so we're trying something different," Hewitt, who farms 1,200 acres near Walnut Grove, said in a recent interview.
This year, Hewitt is planting some wheat instead.
"Hopefully, by planting wheat, we're going to pick up yield on our corn and our soybeans later on by staying out of those crops long enough," Hewitt said. "That's what we're planning on, anyway."

2002 Farm Act: Another learning process
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
Farmers in southwest Minnesota expect to fare about the same under the 2002 Farm Act as they did under the previous farm bill, but they say only time will tell for sure.
Two things they know already, though, are that the bill is complex, and survival means better marketing and business practices.
"It must have taken at least a dozen lawyers to figure out how complicated you can get," Dayle Swift, who farms about 500 acres near Russell, said. His son farms another 400 acres.

Researchers find region welcomes immigrants
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
Researchers collecting data on the experiences of immigrants and refugees in rural communities and their affects on those communities find southwest Minnesota the most interesting and welcoming area in their study.
"No other community has the richness of southwest Minnesota," David Griffith, a professor of anthropology and senior scientist at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., said.

Land use and cover is changing rapidly
By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
We are changing our landscape faster today than ever before, and results from an ongoing federal government project can prove it.
By analyzing satellite images of Earth taken over the last three decades, scientists are calculating how the landscape has changed and the rate of change.

Job slots and vacancies take a dive

By Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University
First of a two-part story on employment
Twice as many Minnesotans are unemployed than job vacancies exist for them to fill.
Just one year ago, seven job vacancies existed for every 10 unemployed workers.
These are some of the findings in the most recent Minnesota Department of Economic Security Job Vacancy Survey. The study estimates statewide and regional demand for workers during the fourth quarter of 2002 based on surveying 8,807 employers selected at random.

State unemployment payments hit record high
Nancy L. Torner
Center for Rural and Regional Studies
Southwest State University

(Part two of a series on employment)

Click here to link to the first story of the series
Unemployment benefits cost the state $1.06 billion in 2002, the highest amount ever paid by the Minnesota Department of Economic Security.
"The tremendous growth of Minnesota's workforce and the increase in average wages have made some of the impacts of unemployment much greater," Jack Weidenback, the department's director of unemployment insurance programs said. "Unfortunately, the $1 billion paid out in (unemployment insurance) benefits not only indicates that a lot of people have lost their jobs in this recession, it also shows that people are staying unemployed longer and are having a tough time finding new employment."