Economic Development

Recommended Reading:
Small Farms Are Real Farms Sustaining People Through Agriculture
Crisis and Opportunity Sustainability In American Agriculture
Sustainable Capitalism A Matter of Common Sense
Return To Common Sense
All these books are by Dr. John Ikerd, who served on the faculties of four major state universities. North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia and the University of Missouri as an Ag Economist. The first half of his career he 'drank the kool-aid' about industrial ag, but eventually he realized that the lack of sustainability of industrial ag parallels the lack of sustainability in our society. He discusses the neoclassical paradigm of economic development which he considers extractive and exploitive. He is now retired and devotes his time to lecturing about economic development. He would be a great speaker to hear. You can see him briefly in the movie "Fresh".
Some good food for thought to consider how to truly develop our rural areas.
As you say, we have a lot to offer.

Bigger is not always better.

In the early 90's, soon after the falling of the Berlin Wall, I was honored to be with some farm leaders from Russia as they observed the United States farming system.

They pointed out in significant detail on the failures of the USSR system. They called there farms wasteful and extremely inefficient. They claimed that the average farmer was paid by the government a per hour wage. When there hours were up they went home. This despite the weather.

Can you imagine this week our farmers quitting after 40 hours? They claimed that without the ownership there was no rush to get the crop in or out.

Whether it is a farm in Russia owned by the government or a large corporate farm, yhe headach is the same.

Conclusion? Family farms are still the most efficient.

How does that tie into economic development? It is well documented that as the number of family farms decrease, so goes our population, so goes our schools and so goes our business communities. We need to support the family farms.