RURAL COMMUNITIES
RURAL COMMUNITIES: REBUILDING AND REVITALIZING By Craig Collins
M
uch about rural life has changed since President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued executive orders to improve the lives of rural Americans struggling through the Great Depression. The Resettlement Administration, established in April 1935, relocated destitute families, restored soil-eroded areas, and provided emergency loans to farmers for land and equipment. The Rural Electrification Administration, established a month later, provided electricity to rural areas; after World War II, it oversaw a rural telephone service program. These programs were a lifeline to help preserve and restore a way of life for farmers and families who relied heavily on farm income. The lives of today’s 50 million rural Americans are far more complex: According to the 2010 annual report of USDA Rural Development, more than 95 percent of rural income is earned off the farm, and jobs in most rural communities are in industries other than agriculture. Even the households of farm and ranch operators, on average, rely on cash receipts from the sale of agricultural commodities for less than 8 percent of total
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AMERICAN AGRICULTURE