Center for Rural Affairs' Newsletter
| The Center for Rural Affairs' newsletter surveys national events affecting Rural America. Special sections include an in-depth feature article, a section of Corporate Farming Notes, and many short, newsy pieces of general interest.
Current articles appear below | Newsletter Archive | Subscribe to Newsletter
|
Entrepreneurial Curriculum Offers Opportunity for Rural Development
We’re doing a lot of things right in rural development. We recognize leadership development as a key component, and we recognize the importance of entrepreneurship. The push for an entrepreneurship curriculum in the classroom, training and networking events focused on growing businesses from within, and ongoing training and technical assistance services for budding entrepreneurs are all good rural development steps. But we’re still losing population and, in particular, our young folks.
Inadequate Mental Health Care Plagues Rural America
Living and working in rural America presents a variety of distinct stresses and strains as varied as rural America itself. Regardless of differences, state leaders from across the nation indicate that mental and behavioral health problems are a major, widespread rural concern.
Mental health is one of the top 10 leading health indicators targeted by Healthy People 2010, the nation’s blueprint for improving health. And mental health care is the most expensive care for people, accounting for nine percent of their personal health spending. Unfortunately, the need for mental health care has not been met with widely available and accessible mental health services in rural areas.
Building a Future for Your Community in a Recession
Communities that offer their support can sprout new business in hard times. Hard times are hard on people. They drive some of us out of jobs and homes. Rural communities that reach out and offer options to those whose lives have been disrupted can help secure their own future. We see several potential strategies for small communities amidst the recession. They include helping micro businesses, offering affordable housing, expanding recreation, tapping stimulus funds, and being inviting.
Survey for Iowa Farmers, Crop Insurance Agents, Ag. Lenders
With funding from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, Iowa Farmers Union and the Center for Rural Affairs are starting a two-year project to gather data and analyze the relationship between Iowa farmers and two major financial components of American agriculture – crop insurance and credit. This project will gather data on the experiences and perceptions of farmers, agricultural lenders and crop insurance agents.
Genetically Modified Seeds Yield only Marginal Gains
Most corn and soybean acres in the U.S. are planted in genetically modified (GM) seeds, and farmers pay a high price in technology fees to use them. Now a scientific study looks at just how well these high-priced seeds deliver on higher yields. The Union of Concerned Scientists has published Failure to Yield, a report reviewing two dozen academic studies of corn and soybeans. Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist for the UCS, found that while insect-resistant corn has improved yields marginally, herbicide-tolerant corn and soybeans have not increased yields at all.
Through Health Care, Center Expands Reach
Access to affordable, quality health care is an issue that impacts all of us. Farmers and ranchers, small business owners, the elderly and young folks alike struggle with the high costs of health insurance, preventative care and treatment for disease. The far-reaching effect of our broken health care system is pushing the Center for Rural Affairs to reach out to new allies.
In recent months Center staff traveled across the Midwest and Great Plains meeting with individuals and organizations about rural health care reform. In our travels and at home in Nebraska, we have found overwhelming support of our work on health care. Often this support comes from folks who were previously unaware of the Center but are now strong supporters, engaged not only in the Center’s work on rural health but also in our renewable energy, small business development and sustainable agriculture work.
Beginning Farmer Report Findings Published
The Economic Research Service recently published Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, a report to answer the following questions: How does USDA define a beginning farmer and rancher, How do they differ from established farms and ranches, How likely are they to participate in government programs, and What do we know about recent farming entry rates, as well as the growth and survival of entrants?
Family Brings Tradition of Entrepreneurship to Nebraska
The Avalos family had been in the restaurant business for over a decade in Mexico, so entrepreneurship was nothing new to them. When they decided to pursue better opportunities thousands of miles away, Norma knew what she was good at. She wanted to continue what she’d been doing for more than 12 years, but this time in her new home of Lexington, Nebraska. When the Center’s REAP Hispanic Business Center expanded into Western Nebraska and offered business plan training in Spanish, Norma signed up.
Center Staff Receive Awards
Center staff Jerry Terwilliger and Eugene Rahn both received awards recently recognizing their outstanding work with the Center for Rural Affairs Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP). Jerry received the 2009 Small Business Administration Nebraska Financial Services Champion of the Year Award and Eugene received the Nebraska Enterprise Fund Outstanding Service Award.
2009 Nebraska Grazing Conference August 11-12
The ninth annual Nebraska Grazing Conference will be held at the Kearney Holiday Inn on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 11 and 12, 2009. Allan Nation, editor of the Stockman Grassfarmer magazine and author of many books on grass-based livestock production is the featured speaker this year. Several conference sessions with Nation and others will address grass-finishing and marketing.
Across the Nation
Alaska: The new website, www.nunat.net was created by Brad Garness, acting executive director of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. He told The Cordova Times it was an effort to provide a place for rural Alaskans to share information and document changes in the environment around them. AITC has contracted with biologists and other experts to develop the reporting forms on the website. One instance reported so far were salmon with unusual spots and deformed spines caught on the Yukon River.
Corporate Farming Notes: USDA Discusses “Unreasonable Preference”
One important victory in the farm bill was a provision requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to define the term “unreasonable preference” in the Packers and Stockyards Act. The act prohibits packers from giving any “undue or unreasonable preference… in any respect whatsoever” to any producer or class of producers.
For decades USDA has failed to enforce that provision of law, in part because an “unreasonable preference” was never defined, allowing packers to develop livestock procurement practices that clearly discriminate against smaller, family farm livestock producers. Our discussions with Secretary Tom Vilsack and USDA personnel charged with writing the rule defining an “undue or unreasonable preference” have focused on 3 points.
All the things you wanted to know about the Center...
During the Center’s 35th anniversary, we spent a little time reflecting on our history, the lessons we learned and some of the humorous happenings over the years that add to the camaraderie of the Center for Rural Affairs and the enjoyment of working here. A surprise culmination of all that reflection occurred when we were approached by WNAX, a radio station in Yankton, South Dakota, about partnering with them to produce a series of interviews about the history and work of the Center for Rural Affairs.
The end result was a four-week series of radio stories produced by Judy Strattman and aired daily on her regularly scheduled program called “Judy’s Journal.” Judy interviewed a number of Center staff, retired staff – including Marty Strange and Don Ralston – board members and others with a close relationship with the Center. The series is available on our website at:
www.cfra.org/wnax.
Value-Added Agriculture Important to Sustainable Rural Development
The value-added grant program has been a great incentive for rural, farm/ranch-based entrepreneurs to take the first steps in creating new economic opportunities for their family and their community. The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program originated in the 2002 farm bill and was continued in the 2008 farm bill. Nebraska, at least until recently, has been one of the largest recipients of VAPG dollars.
Since 2002, program grants have totaled about $150,800,000 distributed to farmers and ranchers across the country.
Development Matters: Center a Key Resource
If you look at the range of topics that this newsletter is covering, you get the sense of the variety of work the Center for Rural Affairs takes on for rural America. The Center is an organization with a track record and a history that allows us to do work that very few others can get done.
We are a resource to small businesses, farmers, policy makers and you in these tough times. I am glad we are doing it. If we were not here to research, serve and advocate, too often the work would not get done.
Renewable Generation of Electricity Legislation a Key Part of Rural Development Legislation
