Library

Looking for new and notable information to help you dig deeper into an issue? Start with these featured reports and web sites, and then browse through our full selection by topic.

Reports: Featured

Climate Change in the American Mind: Public Perceptions of the Health Harms of Global Warming, Fall 2024
Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, February 2025, 34 pp.
This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey assessing Americans’ awareness and understanding of the health harms of global warming; their beliefs about who should take action to protect people from these harms; and their trust in various sources of information. Results are compared with those of previous surveys. more info >

A Roadmap to Success for Rural Grocers: The North Dakota RAD Cooperative’s Journey to Sustainable Food Access
NDSU Center for Social Research, February 2025, 33 pp.
Examines the implementation of the Rural Access Distribution (RAD) Cooperative, a shared-services cooperative providing residents of Walsh and Pembina counties, North Dakota, with improved access to healthy food through a food distribution network that aims to improve food access, affordability, variety, and convenience for residents. more info >

Map the Meal Gap 2024
Feeding America, May 2024, 39 pp.
Focuses on the extent and variation in local food insecurity levels in the United States in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes local food data for several racial and ethnic identities. more info >

The Power of Parks to Strengthen Community: A Special Report
Trust for Public Land, May 2024, 18 pp.
This report focuses on the importance of parks as a neutral public gathering place where community members can meet, collaborate, and become empowered. It explores different approaches, programs, and partnerships which can foster connections in a community. more info >

Benefits to Rural America from the Inflation Reduction Act: Driving Jobs, Investment, and Economic Resilience
E2, January 2024, 24 pp.
Examines the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act's investment in America’s rural economic growth and resilience, finding that in its first year, IRA incentives spurred 52 major rural manufacturing projects that are projected to create 67,000 rural jobs and nearly $2 billion in worker income. more info >

National Climate Assessment
U.S. Global Change Research Program, June 2023
This climate assessment report provides an in-depth look at climate change impacts, risks, and responses in the United States. It provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making related to climate change and its effect the lives of Americans. more info >

Hunger on the Plains 2023
Great Plains Food Bank, March 2023, 146 pp.
This study synthesizes insights from a neighbor experience survey and a survey of food pantry and meal site partners to shed light on the experience of hunger in the Great Plains area. more info >

The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report
USDA Economic Research Service, June 2022, 36 pp.
This report uses preliminary data from USDA, Food and Nutrition Service and USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service to examine program trends and policy changes in USDA’s largest U.S. food and nutrition assistance programs through FY 2021. more info >

Building Climate Resiliency: Fact Sheets
Center for Rural Affairs, January 2020
A series of four fact sheets that focus on building rural resiliency in the face of climate change and elevating the stories of rural climate leaders. more info >

Web sites

Food Environment Atlas
This website focuses on the accessibility and affordability of food retailers, examining the barriers people and places face to accessing healthy and affordable food and presenting research on the consequences of food access limitations on food spending, diet, and health. more info >

Food Insecurity among the Overall Population in North Dakota
Food insecurity refers to USDA’s measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. This interactive map provides data on food insecurity at the county level to improve our understanding of food insecurity and food costs in local communities. more info >

Climate and Energy Resource for State, Local, and Tribal Governments
Provides free tools, data, and technical expertise about energy strategies, including energy efficiency, renewable energy and other emerging technologies, to help state, local and tribal governments achieve their environmental, energy and economic objectives. more info >