It’s important to understand where statistics about rural America come from, because those statistics influence the funding and governmental programs we see in our communities.
One of the sources of statistics on rural communities is The Economic Research Service, which is an arm of the US Department of Agriculture, measuring the economics of food, farming, Natural Resources and Rural America. Its mission is to achieve ‘An Enhanced Quality of Life for Rural Americans.’
The overview statement of the ERS is the following:
Rural America is home to about 17 percent (50 million) of the Nation’s people, comprises over 2,000 counties, and accounts for 75 percent of the Nation’s land. ERS research explores how investments in rural people, businesses, and communities affect the capacity of rural economies to prosper in the new and changing global marketplace.
The site is divided in various subjects and ‘briefing rooms’ like
Farm Economy
Farm Practices and Management
Food & Nutrition Assistance
Food Sector
Diet, Health and Safety
Natural Resources & Environment
Policy Topics
Research & Productivity
Rural Economy
Trade & International Markets
The 2008 Edition of Rural America at A Glance is available to read online as a web page, as a downloadable pdf, and as a podcast. It makes for an interesting read, providing much food for thought in comparing what’s happening in your rural community to other communities across the country.
You can read a one-page summary of President Obama’s’ agenda for Rural America now posted on the White House website. The agenda addresses three areas: economic opportunities for family farmers, rural economic development and rural quality of life.
“Rural communities face numerous challenges but also economic opportunities unlike anything we have witnessed in modern history. President Obama and Vice President Biden believe that together we can ensure a bright future for rural America. They will help family famers and rural small businesses find profitability in the marketplace and success in the global economy.”
Leading with the need to ensure economic opportunity for family farmers, the Rural Agenda addresses the need to support family farms, preserve private lands, and promote local and organic agriculture.
To foster rural economic development, the plan includes capital to create value-added products as well as cooperative marketing, small business, and micro-enterprise initiatives. Building rural connectivity for phone service that promotes affordable broadband has been in the news over the last week. Upgrades in rural infrastructure - roads, bridges, water systems and air access - are also stated goals.
Yesterday I awoke excited about Inauguration Day, knowing that President Obama will create much change in America, and hopefully many opportunities for Rural Business.
I think a lot of other people woke up feeling the same way, because our web orders were triple yesterday what they usually are on a daily basis. Today’s web sales are already more than double our daily average, as I write this post mid-afternoon.
It’s been our experience after ten years online that our web sales during the third week of the month are usually a little slower than average, too, because people who receive their salaries on a monthly or bi-monthly basis are between checks. When you consider that it’s January, a time when people are usually more budget conscious because of their holiday gift purchases, and add in all the recession talk, our sudden increase in sales the last couple days is especially noticeable.
We’ve even had more walk-in customers today in our shop than we’ve had in a week, and it’s 14 degrees outside in our part of rural America. Everyone is in such good spirits. It is certainly my hope that this optimism we’re seeing here is happening everywhere, and not just for our rural business!
Here’s to the next four years!
The stories of gloom and doom are everywhere. Surprisingly enough, I ran across an article in the Wall Street Journal that discussed what was happening in North Carolina. It even focused on the town of Hickory, located just one hour away from me.
“North Carolina’s widely lauded economic transformation of the last three decades — in which the state diversified away from its dependence on agriculture and textiles and into technology, banking and pharmaceuticals — is proving no match for what could be the longest and deepest U.S. recession since World War II.”
Apparently North Carolina is one of the states struggling the most in this economic downturn, losing a bigger percentage of jobs than any other state in the country (1.1% of the NC workforce from October to November 2008, or a loss of 46,000 positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). The North Carolina unemployment rate for November 2009 of 7.9% was the highest in 26 years. According to The Wall Street Journal, until recently the Southeastern US seemed to be weathering the slowdown better than other regions. And now - this part of the country is suffering equally.
So what to do? When the going gets tough….the tough create their own businesses. Microsbusinesses, actually. Although we’re all more familiar with the catch-all label of ‘small business’, a microbusiness is a business with fewer than five employees that is often started in one’s home. As I discussed earlier this month in ‘The Advantage of Rural Home Businesses in 2009‘, rural businesses are uniquely positioned to begin, grow and survive because of their ‘lean and mean’ approach and small size, allowing faster and often more creative responses than larger businesses.
Sometimes a person will take a risk and pursue starting their own business when they have little or nothing to lose. When someone loses their job or can’t get a second job to meet monthly expenses, starting a new business ‘on the side’ begins to look more and more attractive, and less and less risky. Trendwatchers predict we’ll see a record growth in the number of ‘microbusinesses’ created in 2009.
So how will your rural business be affected this year? What products or services can you add? How can you adapt?
As we look forward to the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama we don’t know much about how the needs of rural America will be addressed in his economic stimulus plan. We do know that the plan will contain some funds to increase internet broadband access in rural America.
