The debate over the future of farming needs to be broadened to include the future of rural communities, said the head of an American rural think-tank.
Farm policy does not necessarily make for good rural policy, said Mark Drabenstott, director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Centre for the Study of Rural America.
But farmers need strong rural communities, and vice versa, Drabenstott told a conference of North American agricultural bankers held here recently.
“For most of you, if we don’t also talk about Main Street, we probably haven’t talked about all of your future,” he said.
Read Also
August rain welcome, but offered limited relief
Increased precipitation in August aids farmers prior to harvest in southern prairies of Canada.
Drabenstott said rural entrepreneurs will be the homesteaders of the 21st century, yet they lack the government support system that helped farmers get information and help when they first settled rural areas.
Global forces have forever fundamentally changed the economies of rural Canada and the United States, said Drabenstott.
As incomes in developing countries grow, food trade will expand, creating new opportunities for North American food producers.
However, competition will be fierce, he said.
Fewer farmers will grow commodities on the largest scale at the lowest possible costs, said Drabenstott.
Other farmers will build alliances with processors to grow products with bigger profit margins to reach specific consumer needs.
These two types of agriculture will translate into two types of rural communities: a scattered few with services to support large-scale farmers, and service hubs with specialized services for farmers growing specialized products.
“It’s going to be kind of a crazy quilt out there,” he said.
But small towns need to face the fact that agriculture is less important to the economy than it has been in the past, he said.
“The reality is that most farmers get most of their income off the farm,” said Drabenstott.
“Most farmers are dependent on Main Street.”
Scenic small towns may be able to capitalize on their beauty to attract older, wealthier residents.
Others may try to get a piece of the digital economy, said Drabenstott, who called telecommunications the “big wild card” in the future of rural economies.
New technology can bring markets closer. “It squeezes out all those nasty middlemen that farmers have come to love and hate,” he said.
But small towns need access to high-speed internet infrastructure, such as cable modems, common to large cities.
Drabenstott asked if this access should become a utility, like highways, electricity or phone service.
“This is a big policy debate that is only just beginning.”
