Here are a few interesting blogs and online articles published this week that relate to Rural Small Business, ending March 21, 2009:
According to agricultural executives, the U.S. rural economy is coping with the global recession better than other sectors and this is due to “steady demand for agricultural products, stable land prices and healthy credit lines for farmers.”
“When you consider the impact to the rest of the economy, agriculture has (had) very little impact in comparison,” said Jim Borel, group vice president, agriculture, of DuPont Co. “Fundamentally, food demand is there. People need to eat, so that helps to stabilize things.” Prices for agricultural commodities have fallen sharply from highs reached during the summer of 2008 but are still well above historical trends.
This allows producers to maintain profits even as the global economy has soured.
“We have found that food demand, grain demand, oilseed demand tends to be pretty insensitive to what the global economy is doing,” said Mark Palmquist, chief operating officer at CHS Inc, an energy, grains and food company.
“It is really driven by demographics. We keep adding mouths to feed.”
The 41-member strong Congressional Rural Caucus has asked President Obama to create a White House Office of Rural Affairs, if Obama creates a White House Office of Urban Affairs, as expected. Because of the recession, lawmakers are worried that concerns specific to Rural America will be overlooked.
“There are so many issues that cut differently in rural American than urban America,” said Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs (located, appropriately, in Lyons, Neb., pop. 963).
A much higher percentage of the rural workforce is self-employed or works for a small business, Hassebrook noted. For one thing, that means a national healthcare plan which doesn’t reach down to this level won’t be effective in rural areas which have some of the biggest healthcare problems.
The traditional conception of the country is that of a healthier alternative to cities, but with fewer hospitals, doctors and recreational facilities, Hassebrook said, “the reality is we’re less fit.”
The New York Times has taken a good, hard look at issues related to rural broadband over the last couple weeks. Letters to the Editor and online comments in response to the stories make for an interesting read in The Broadband Gap: Your Take on the Issue.
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