A Different Path for Rural America

• Published date: 01 May 2016
• Author: John Crabtree
• Date: 01 May 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12150

A Different Path for Rural America

By JOHN CRABTREE*

ABSTRACT. A dominant narrative in the United States posits that rural

out-migration and social decline of rural areas and small towns is

inevitable. Although there is evidence of that view, there are also

positive signs that point to the vitality of rural America. Although rural

areas are losing population, that is partly a statistical artifact, since any

rural area that succeeds in growing may be reclassified as an urban

area, thus incorrectly seeming to indicate rural decline. This article

explores three policy changes that could help to restore the vibrancy of

rural and small-town America: increased support for programs targeted

toward rural economic development, setting limits on the ability of

large farms to accrue a large share of the insurance subsidies available

to farmers, and limiting the ability of vertically integrated hog farms to

dissuade new farmers from investing in this traditional method of

becoming a farmer.

Introduction

Since the farm foreclosure crisis of the 1980s, rural and small-town

America has been popularly represented in movies, magazines, and

even the pages of academic journals as areas that are losing population

because they are perpetually in decline. The dominant narrative about

social and economic conditions in rural and small-town America is thus

decidedly negative. Both in popular stories and in research findings,

there is a constant focus on out-migration, population decline, and

other trends that indicate a decline in the economic well-being and

social vibrancy of thesecommunities.

In this article, I will show that the typical treatment of rural and small-

town issues is biased, based on misunderstood statistical patterns, and

*Media Director at the Center for Rural Affairs since 2006. He grew up on his fam-

ily’s farm near Sheffield, Iowa. B.S. (biochemistry), University of Iowa. Advocate for

20 years for public policies that create a better future for family farmers, ranchers,

and small-town America.

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 75, No. 3 (May, 2016).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12150

V

C2016 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

neglects the important signs of rural resurgence in many parts of the

country. I will then describe policies that can promote that resurgence.

This is not meant to deny that many counties across rural America have

indeed lost population, some for three or even four consecutive decades.

This demographic trend should not be lightly set aside. Indeed, glossing

over other stern economic and social challenges faced by many rural

American communities would be a disservice to those communities.

However, doggedly following fatalistic media narratives rooted in the

farm crisis of the 1980s is also a disservice to rural and small-town

America. The 1980s farm crisis narrative outlived its usefulness long

ago. A current examination of the rural and small-town circumstance,

and the impact of public policy on that circumstance, is much needed

and long overdue.

Brain Drain vs. Brain Gain

The loss of rural and small town residents in the 18- to 29-year-old age

range within rural America’s total population loss has been thoroughly,

even exhaustively, discussed for years. Carr and Kefalas (2009), for

example, use an apocalyptic tone in referring to the phenomenon as a

“hollowing out” of small towns through the loss of talented young peo-

ple who leave home upon completing high school, in search of oppor-

tunities in urban areas:

Many small towns are mere years away from extinction, while others

limp along in a weakened and disabled state .... [T]he flight of so many

young people is transforming rural communities throughout the nation

into impoverished ghost towns. A new birth simply cannot replace the

loss that results every time a college-educated twenty-something on the

verge of becoming a worker, taxpayer, homeowner, or parent leaves.

And as more manufacturing jobs disappear every day, the rural crisis that

was a slow-acting wasting disease over the past two decades has evolved

into a metastasized cancer.

Applying this sort of apocalyptic rhetoric may help to sell articles to

the mainstream media, but the story of young people fleeing their

small-town roots gives a distorted picture. Indeed, since many young

people leave their suburban homes to attend college in a distant city,

one might as well write a story about the “hollowing out” of the

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology606