Agriculture's Role in a New Rural Coalition

Abstract

Many rural areas in the United States are in serious trouble as they experience decline over an extended period of time. Rural communities are increasingly being affected by changes in the national and world economies with little capacity to react. Selective out-migration has seriously reduced the size of the leadership pool. The remaining community and business leaders find themselves in a policy environment that is hostile or, at best, not helpful as they attempt to adjust to or take advantage of changing conditions. A key reason for this policy environment is the lack of any voice, other than production agriculture, speaking for rural communities. Although it is waning, the strength of the agricultural voice has repressed formation of any broad-based coalition that could speak to the wide variety of issues facing rural areas. To develop a supportive policy, however, a broad-based coalition must be formed. The very groups that have unwittingly preempted the voice of rural communities—agribusiness firms and farm organizations—may be in the strongest position to develop this coalition. This endeavor could be in the best interest of the agricultural establishment. Not all rural communities will survive, but they all should have a policy environment that will help them try.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1. William J. Nagle , “Federal Organization for Rural Policy,” in Towards Rural Development Policy for the 1990s: Enhancing Income and Employment Opportunities, Congressional Research Service and the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress, 101st Cong., 1st less., Joint Committee Print 101-50, Sept. 1989, p. 236.

2. James T. Bonnen , “The Political Economy of U.S. Rural Policy: An Exploration of the Past with Strategies for the Future” (Staff Paper no. 90-54, Department of Agriculture Economics, Michigan State University, July 1990), pp. 4-5, 7.

3. U.S., Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Agriculture and Rural Economy Division , Rural Economic Development in the 1980s: Preparing for the Future, ERS Staff Report no. AGES870724, July 1987.

4. David Freshwater , “A Synopsis of the Proceedings of the Rural Development Symposium,” in Towards Rural Development Policy for the 1990s, p. 15.

5. Rural Conditions and Trends, 3(1) (Spring 1992).

6. Dennis U. Fisher , Ronald D. Knutson , and Howard Ladewig , “Policy and Multicommunity Development,” in Multicommunity Collaboration: An Evolving Rural Revitalization Strategy, RRD 161, ed. Peter F. Korsching , Timothy O. Borich , and Julie Stewart (Ames: Iowa State University, 1992).

7. Robert Greenstein , “Welfare Reform in Rural Areas,” in Towards Rural Development Policy for the 1990s, pp. 35-40.

8. Kenneth Fern, Jr. , “Coalition/Consensus Building for Rural Development Policy,” in Understanding of Public Problems and Policies—1989, ed. Walter J. Armbruster and Teddee E. Grace (Oak Brook, IL: Farm Foundation, 1989), p. 77.

9. U.S., Congress, Office of Technology Assessment , Health Care in Rural America, OTAH-434 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1990), p. 12.

10.

10. Marsha Kilgore , “Response to Health Paper: Western Region,” in Focus on the Future: Opinions in Developing a National Rural Policy, ed. Sue H. Jones (College Station: Texas A&M University System, Texas Agricultural Extension Service, 1989), p. 173.

11.

11. Fisher , Knutson , and Ladewig , “Policy and Multicommunity Development,” in Multicommunity Collaboration, ed. Korsching , Borich , and Stewart , pp. 323-332.

12.

12. Mindy Petrulis , Thomas A. Carlin , and Wyn Francis , “Agriculture-Related Employment,” Agriculture Information Bulletin (United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service), no. 613, p. 2 (Sept. 1990).

13.

13. Ibid., p. 1.

14.

14. Dennis U. Fisher and Ronald D. Knutson , “Politics of Rural Development,” in Understanding of Public Problems and Policies—1989, ed. Armbruster and Grace , p. 71.

15.

15. Louis E. Swanson , “Rethinking Assumptions about Farm and Community,” in American Rural Communities, ed. A. E. Luloff and Louis E. Swanson (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), p. 33.

16.

16. U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census , Residents of Farms and Rural Areas: 1990, Current Population Reports, ser. P-20, no. 457 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1992).

17.

17. Harold D. Guither and Michelle Van Buer , “The Evolution, Ethics, and Politics of Animal Protection” (Experiment station bulletin AE 4675, University of Illinois, Aug. 1991), pp. 8-9.

18.

18. Bonnen , “Political Economy of U.S. Rural Policy,” p. 6.

19.

19. Fisher and Knutson , “Politics of Rural Development,” pp. 62-72.

20.

20. William P. Browne , “Access and Influence in Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Congressional Staff and Lobbyist Perception of Organized Interests,” Rural Sociology, 54(3):375 (Fall 1989).