News from rural America.

Ugly, imperfect produce destined for the landfill is being upcycled by a California candy company, a Texas volunteer uses his Navy training to map the gaps in broadband, and Pennsylvania has a new commission tasked with reversing its shrinking rural population.

TRANSCRIPT

[♪♪♪] For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

A volunteer at one Texas non-profit has made smart use of data to bring broadband to a rural community without breaking the bank.

Bernie South, a retired Navy electronics tech and geoscientist, uses his GIS mapping expertise to help Bastrop County CARES identify gaps in local broadband coverage.

The project was basically to try and understand where the needs were.

Using FCC census and other data, South found the town of McDade had the greatest need for broadband.

And by examining the hotspots students used during the pandemic, he pinpointed the worst coverage gaps.

We're arrogant to think that we can intuit the causes of everything in the world, and we can't.

We have to look at the data to see that.

With South's help, the non-profit built an antenna to bring access to the 700-person community at a reasonable cost.

Vermont and the Navajo Nation also have enlisted local volunteers with community broadband projects.

Pennsylvania's rural population is shrinking, but a new commission aims to mitigate that.

Molly Egan has more.

In 25 years, rural Pennsylvanians over 65 could outnumber those under 20, a problem for employers, tax revenues, and healthcare.

Will Wright with the Daily Yonder says in several counties, the decline will be severe.

In some counties, losing 10 percent or more of your population by 2050, that could be a really big drop in things like property taxes.

He says Pennsylvania's new Rural Population Revitalization Commission will bring together bipartisan stakeholders.

The lawmakers who are involved believe that this is something that people from both parties want to figure out.

The commission aims to attract new residents while also planning for the aging ones who remain.

I'm Molly Egan.

Worldwide, 40 percent of food is wasted each year, but a California candy company founded in 1906 hopes to sweeten future numbers while fighting climate change. 20 billion pounds of ugly but edible produce ends up in landfills each year.

Amy Keller, CEO of Climate Candy, says 10 percent of greenhouse gases come from landfills where food waste rots and produces methane.

And meanwhile, climate change is escalating, people are going hungry.

We found this to be unacceptable, wasting so much food all while running out of land, water, and healthy soil.

Keller's old family firm, Spangler Foods, makes treats like sweethearts and dum-dum lollipops.

She says as part of the new Climate Candy, they'll make fruit chews from imperfect-looking produce, aiming to lower the company's carbon footprint.

If we can just help people realize their power to heal ourselves and the planet is just what we choose to eat, that's really been our secret to success.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.