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Rural America needs a farm bill

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Economic Research Service’s just-released “Rural America at a Glance 2013” report emphasizes the need for Congress to complete a farm bill.

The USDA report reflects declining populations, a lack of good jobs and increasing poverty in rural America. It notes that employment fell 5 percent in rural and urban America during the recession of 2007 through 2009. Since the start of 2011, net job growth in metro areas has grown by 1.4 percent while non-metro areas have been stagnant.

The lack of job growth has prompted people to leave and also prevented people from moving to rural areas. The study notes that from April, 2010 to July, 2012, the average non-metro county saw a 0.09 percent decline in population; while the decline is minimal it is a substantial shift from the 1.3 percent growth the counties had from 2004 to 2006. Despite energy-related job growth, farming areas of the Great Plains and Corn Belt have lost population in part due to an aging population which means lower birth-rates.

The report concludes in much of rural and small-town America, the natural population growth (births-minus-deaths) is no longer sufficient to counter the net migration losses.

Secretary Vilsack says “The Farm Bill would invest to grow agricultural exports, and strengthen new markets for agriculture that hold job creation potential. It would spur new opportunities to manufacture products and energy from homegrown materials.”

Read Rural America at a Glance 2013 here