Rural America needs to speak louder

For five years, now ending, it has been my privilege to write this column for the Rural Policy Research Institute. But if rural America is to overcome its plight and live up to its potential, rural voices must continue to speak.

Loudly. And in unison.

Fortunately, they are. Last June, 300 rural leaders gathered at the first annual National Rural Assembly to create an agenda for rural progress. Sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation and 100-plus supporting organizations, the Assembly was only the first of several such efforts aimed at strengthening and organizing rural interests to develop better national rural policies.

On the money front, pressure is mounting for the philanthropic community to open its eyes and its wallet to rural America. Last year, Senator Max Baucus of Montana challenged philanthropies to double the amount they give to rural needs in five years. We're still waiting on the check; but at least foundations are starting to realize that neither the need for funds nor the opportunities for effective investments stop at the city limits.

Further, rural America is making itself heard in deliberations over the pending Farm Bill. Sure, the House-passed bill is little better than the 2002 version; but there's still hope that Senator Harkin of Iowa will be able to deliver some real help to rural communities and not just to the big-in-size-yet-small-in-number farmers that have always gotten the lion's share of federal rural support. Harkin's draft is being hashed out as I write, but according to RUPRI President Emeritus Charles Fluharty, the senator's rural development title is "by far, the single most significant piece of rural development legislation ever offered by a seated Chairman of any U.S. Committee." Urging Harkin on in his quest to make a difference for the nearly 90 million people of rural and small town America is one of the largest rural coalitions ever assembled. The Campaign for a Renewed Rural Development has signed up some 600 national, regional and local organizations from all 50 states to call for at least $2 billion in new mandatory funding for rural America in this year's bill.

That money, of course, won't go far enough in paying for all the planning, water, sewer, high-speed Internet, health care, workforce training and business development needed to shore up the rural economy, but it will go a lot farther than any past legislation. And the number of people calling for its passage will go a long way in determining whether the call is heard...and answered. If it isn't, we'll likely be waiting five more years until the next Farm Bill...and praying the whole time that it won't come too late.

So get out your pen, get on your phone or crank up the computer. Add your voice to those calling for renewed rural development. This might be my last chance to be heard; don't make it yours. Speak up.

And thanks for listening when I did.

Thomas D. Rowley is a Rural Policy Research Institute Fellow. The Rural Policy Research Institute provides objective analysis and facilitates public dialogue concerning the impacts of public policy on rural people and places.