We were lucky to have Chuck Fluharty, director of the Rural Policy Research Institute, deliver the keynote address at our Tenth Annual Meeting. He began by noting that while the rural has strengthened, it remains fragile and uneven.
Rural incomes remain lower.
In 1998-99 rural population growth was less than half the urban rate. Rural America has major challenges in areas like inadequate rural housing, higher rural poverty rates especially among children, higher rates of substance abuse by youth, and difficulties in maintaining rural health care. The bigger problem is that America lacks a clear rural policy. Ag policy is often confused for rural policy, but rural America is much more than agriculture, and high commodity prices won t fix rural America. Chuck noted that there is a historic family rivalry between farm and rural interests, but that it doesn t serve either sibling well.