USDA Rural Development held a national Rural Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. August 25-28.  RUPRI Vice President for Policy Programs Chuck Fluharty presented the keynote address on the 27th, focusing on the new policy opportunities that exist for rural America, and the important role that USDA Rural Development must play to achieve these outcomes.  Over 500 national and state RD leaders were in attendance, including the new USDA RD leadership and state RD Directors.

Chuck framed the current challenges in rural policy, including appropriate responses to the collapse of global capital markets and the current global recession, discussed the opportunities and challenges presented to rural policymakers via ARRA, and highlighted the major forces which, despite these issues, leave him very hopeful for rural futures.  Among these were the global vision of President Obama, Secretary Vilsack's and Undersecretary Tonsager's commitment to regional rural innovation, the leadership potential in the new cadre of state RD Directors, and the very committed and competent state and national RD staff.

However, he challenged the audience to address the very dynamic urban policy agenda being articulated via the HUD, EPA, Commerce and Transportation Departments' "Livable Communities" agenda, by creating an equally robust "Livable Countryside" initiative to complement it, and create a platform for the urban-rural interdependence so essential in building regional and local food, bioenergy, climate change mitigation, broadband, and carbon reduction policies.  

He stressed that addressing these challenges will mean confronting traditional orthodoxies and paradigms, and undertaking the very difficult work of collaborative integration - in the RD offices, across the federal departments, in the states and regions, and in our rural communities.