Economic “colonization” is the biggest threat to the survival of rural communities, according to John Ikerd, a retired University of Missouri agricultural economics professor.
The “economic fundamentalists” driven by faith in the power of free market forces seek to lift up what they see as backward rural areas with the promise of better social services by broadening the tax base. In reality, he said, their interest is to extract wealth for distribution to investors scattered around the globe.
“We see the colonization of rural areas now through corporate agriculture,” said the author of Sustainable Capitalism and A Return to Common Sense, as well as numerous papers on sustainable agriculture. Ikerd gave the keynote address at the third annual International Rural Churches Association (IRCA) conference at Brandon University in late June.
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Formed in 1993, it hopes to become a voice for rural communities worldwide. About 80 international delegates attended the conference from as far away as India and New Zealand.
Ikerd called the model for industrial development that he was taught – and taught himself for half of his academic career – a fraud.
“Folks, the economy doesn’t create anything by itself. All economic value is either extracted from nature or extracted from society. And when you use up nature and you use up society, there’s no place else to get any more economic development. That’s the system that’s driving us today and it’s simply not sustainable,” said Ikerd.”
Rural churches need to support people in their communities who are working to develop sustainable agricultural practices.
“Reject the culture of materialism. If you don’t have the courage to speak up, then who will?” he said. “The way you treat creation is a direct reflection of your respect or lack of respect for the creator. Love of God is the love of life and the love of the whole of things out there.”
Ikerd said many of the problems faced by rural churches, such as declining attendance, are a reflection of what is happening in their communities. He blamed these problems on the predatory business practices of multinational corporations and their apologists, who assert that rural decline is inevitable.
“In contract agriculture, it’s the corporations that are making all the decisions. Investment money comes in and the profits leave and go somewhere else. This kind of agriculture mines the fertility of the land and poisons the water,” he said.
“It turns people who were once independent family farmers into corporate hired hands, tractor drivers, hog house janitors.
The end result is depopulated, depleted rural areas that come to be seen as wastelands, fit only for the construction of garbage dumps, prisons and toxic waste storage sites.
Presbyterian minister Christine O’Reilly noted that in Watford, Ont., it has already happened.
The small town with a population of 1,000 three hours from Toronto has started receiving up to 200 truckloads of household waste per day from the city on 750 acres of former pasture and crop land.
“This dump is going to be 100 feet high. It will eclipse the steeple of our church,” said O’Reilly. “Who’s going to want to live in a town that has the largest dump in Canada?”
