The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recently released Farm Bill proposal is a step in the right direction on several fronts. It limits assistance to farmers who really need help. It levels the playing field some by including growers of fruits and vegetables, who have heretofore been left out in the cold. And it gives a nod to the environment by funding conservation measures and biofuels research. As I wrote in my last column, however, the administration’s proposals for rural development are limited to providing funds for hospitals, water and sewer and calling for better coordination of federal programs. All of which are good and necessary, but not exactly big and bold. Or sufficient, for that matter.
What would be big, bold and sufficient? The answer—boiled down from recent testimonies of expert witnesses before the Senate Agricultural Committee—has three parts: (1) promote regional collaboration, (2) foster innovation and entrepreneurship and, last but not least, (3) send money.
Promote regional collaboration. Collaboration, I once heard, can be defined as unnatural acts between non-consenting adults. Let’s face it: it’s hard to work together. But rural communities have little choice. In a world where anything can be made, sold and bought anywhere, competition is king. Sadly, most rural communities have trouble competing. Gone are the days when cheap land, labor and taxes were all it took to succeed. Now you need highly skilled labor, fast Internet and access to everything from child care to health care. How is a small town with scant resources supposed to get all that? By working with other small towns nearby. Call it critical mass. Call it economies of scale. Heck, call it economic development potluck. (You bring the community college; I’ll supply the hospital.) Whatever you call it, communities have to work together to muster all that is needed to compete in the global economy. And the federal government would be wise to help out. National economic performance, after all, is the sum of all regional economic performance.
According to Vernon Kelly, Director of Mississippi’s Three Rivers Planning and Development District, study after study has stressed the need for federal incentives to support regional approaches to community and economic development; yet only one program—the Economic Development Administration’s planning program--actually requires communities to work together regionally.
Foster innovation and entrepreneurship. Sticking with the definitional theme, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is, by definition, crazy. If rural communities want more poverty, job loss and outmigration, then we should continue doing the same things we’ve always done in agriculture, business, government, education, and so on. If, however, we want something different, something better, then we need to innovate—on every front. The federal government can foster that with programs to train, assist and fund rural entrepreneurs; enhance the capacity of public leaders; and support research and development of new technologies, products and markets.
Send money. According to Rural Policy Research Institute President Charles Fluharty, one of the biggest challenges facing rural America is the fact that it gets shortchanged in federal funding. Not only do rural areas get 8 percent fewer dollars per capita than urban areas, less of the money we do get is for building the capacity needed to create economic and community development. Each year from 1994 to 2001 (latest data available), the federal government spent two to five times more, per capita, on urban than rural community development. A look at where the nation’s philanthropies give yields a similar urban bias.
Why? Do urban areas have greater needs? I doubt it. Do they have more political power? Absolutely. Consequently, it will be difficult to increase rural development funding to promote regional collaboration and foster innovation and entrepreneurship. The Farm Bill, however, is our best shot. Indeed, the last Farm Bill contained some $100 million to do these very things. Though authorized, however, the money was never appropriated.
Will Congress give us what we need this time? Not if we don’t ask and ask again.
So go ask.
In future columns, I’ll focus more on these and other issues related to rural development in the upcoming Farm Bill and highlight examples of programs that work.
