Commentary by Susan Crowell / editor@farmanddairy.com
The Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity released its report Jan. 8, but it got lost during the hoopla of President Donald Trump’s speech last week to the American Farm Bureau Federation members.
It’s my hope that the report will be read in the cities as well as the countryside. That’s because rural America, the report said, possesses “inherent strengths which can be used for enhancing the prosperity of its people and its contribution to the economic well-being of the nation.”
Yes it does.
Traditional rural sectors like agriculture “continue to anchor the economies of more than half of our counties across the nation.” (Can we make that sentence required reading for elected officials at all levels, especially county commissioners?)
The report highlighted five areas: e-connectivity; quality of life; rural workforce; technology; and economic development.
Here’s a deeper dive:
- E-connectivity. As of 2014, 39 percent of the rural population lacked access to broadband at high speed, and 16 percent of schools in small towns and 21 percent of schools in rural areas still lack a fiber connection. All this means we’re missing this “economic equalizer” and opportunities for online job training; to connect real-time to our farms in the fields or in the barns; to manage finances and markets; to buy and sell; to access telemedicine; to learn.
- Quality of life. Like our urban counterparts, we rural residents need modern utilities, housing, transportation and employment. We need access to food and to medical services, quality education, public safety. We need arts, entertainment and recreation. In my opinion, quality education and employment opportunities are the keys to keeping people from leaving rural areas, as well as attracting new residents.
- Rural workforce. If there are no jobs, people leave an area; if there are no workers, jobs leave an area — it’s a vicious circle. We need both jobs and qualified workers. We need both farm and off-farm jobs. We need laborers (farms, in particular). Faced with a limited labor pool, businesses and farms opt to either downsize, move elsewhere, or switch to machines to do the work instead.
- Technology. Innovation — finding a better way to do things — is a key U.S. economic driver. Always has been, always will be. We’ve got technology down on the farm, but it needs to be easier to use and cheaper to implement. Precision agriculture — targeted fertilizing, planting, spraying, etc. — is just part of it, but could boost crop yield between 3 and 18 percent. Biotechnology and advancements in genome editing/selection are also huge. I think we’re just starting to see the way science can transform agriculture and food technologies.
- Economic development. The first sentence in this section of the report says it all: “Infusing rural areas with stronger businesses and agricultural economies empowers America.” We need access to capital, infrastructure improvements and improved distribution and supply chains, fewer unnecessary regulations, and attention to all of the report’s five factors. We need to develop new uses and new markets for existing products, and explore new products.
One of the to-do points in this section is “increase agricultural, forestry and food production,” and it talks about the importance of keeping future generations on the farm, and encouraging farm succession. And it also talks about creating Agricultural Community Economic Development tool kits.
We’ve all seen reports that do nothing more than catch dust on a shelf, so to keep the task force momentum going, one of the recommendations is to establish a federal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity. The commission would be tasked to keep interagency coordination strong and everyone moving forward on execution of the report’s recommendations.
The commission would create a stakeholder advisory council to help identify and develop actions.
I’m inspired by the renewed focus on rural America. Now is when the real work starts.
