News from rural America.

A Montana court will decide the fate of a climate lawsuit brought by youth, housing for working families could boost jobs in the Northeast, and a Cambodian poultry farmer who lost his livelihood could be a hero for others.

TRANSCRIPT

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

In rural Montana, residents are watching a climate lawsuit brought by young people now before the state Supreme Court.

Hundreds have voiced support for the 16 youth plaintiffs suing the state for issuing lenient fossil fuel permits they say violate their constitutional right to a clean, healthful environment.

Remy Sexton, a high school graduate from Livingston, says in Big Sky country, many people feel that way.

Growing up in a place that's so interconnected with nature, it has always felt like my priority.

A lower court ruled with the plaintiffs, striking down a GOP-led rollback of Montana's Environmental Policy Act.

Republican State Representative Steve Gunderson says those kinds of decisions should be left to lawmakers.

I think the judiciary got over their skis a bit on that ruling.

Other lawmakers stress they need the issue settled before the next legislative session starts in January.

A nonprofit in the Northeast is developing housing for working families, which they see as the missing piece in economic development.

Alana Newman has more.

Rural communities in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York are having a hard time recruiting teachers, healthcare staff, and other community workers.

The Northern Forest Center sees housing as a big part of the answer.

President Rob Riley says they're aiming for 100 more homes in 10 communities over a decade.

We need to kind of go back upstream into thinking about a holistic approach to community development that included what our role in housing was.

Chris Estes with the Aspen Institute says other places could replicate their approach.

These are people who work, and we want to come to our community, particularly in rural areas, families with children, which are the missing component.

I'm Alana Newman.

A Cambodian, North Carolina poultry farmer could be a model for other contract farmers stuck in a cycle of debt.

Tom Lim struggled because the processing company only paid him about five cents per pound, but required him to consistently make expensive equipment upgrades.

I cannot afford it, and they say if I cannot do any upgrade or any improvement, they will cut me off and let me go.

And that's what happened.

To pay off the debts, Lim and his wife worked multiple jobs seven days a week.

But then he connected with TransFarmation, a Mercy for Animals initiative.

Director Tyler Whitley says they were able to convert Lim's poultry farm to sustainable agriculture, growing a variety of crops.

And he says others could learn from the farm.

It's terrible that this happens, but we've identified ways that we could do this at a cheaper cost, faster.

Farmers also don't need to do as large of a conversion.

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

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