rural development

The Wall Street Journal has a report about the state of broadband to the sticks and its progress in an economy aching under the pressure of 8W years.

Ms. Tumbridge pays $60 a month for a sattalite service so she can have a better ISP than the dial-up her neighbors are forced to use. She makes an interesting comment that its difficult to be a small business owner in today's tech world without having high speed access.

The piece continues

"Even cities that already have successful networks up and running plan to apply for stimulus funding to expand into rural areas. Wes Rosenbalm, who runs a fiber-optic broadband network in Bristol, Va., says reaching spread-out and sparsely populated regions of southwestern Virginia will cost much more than the initial $26 million he raised. "We are committed to getting to every area we can get to," Mr. Rosenbalm said in a recent interview.

Telecom and cable providers say they’ll eventually reach the rural areas where 10 million Americans are stranded with dial-up access. But for communities wanting to ring in the 21st century sooner rather than later, municipal projects might be their best hope."

As someone who lives in a rural state higher access to broadband builds jobs not just in developing the infrastructure but in skilled workforce like technicians. It also helps young people feel connected enough to want to stay in rural areas, telecommute, save family farms that continue to falter, and build small businesses to save our small towns.

Are the Telco's dragging their feet because of the cost/benefit analysis is too small, or are they dragging their feet because they're waiting for the government to come in and build it and then hand it over?

I've been on vacation for the past week in Florida where I was surfing and for the first time in my quarter-century life I was able to go to Disney World and be a kid again with my family.

Between the high speed loops, twists, and drops that are typical with super awesome amusement park rides, there also were rides that tried to teach us a thing or two. Like most on vacation, I snubbed my nose in the air and went looking for another pub at Epcot....

My mom forced us to go on this ride called Living with the Land (official site here) which takes you through a short history of farming and the last half is a future of farming project that Disney partner's with the Department of Agriculture on. Who knew!? I believe the ride itself is within a section called The Land which is sponsored by Nestle ... I might not be remembering that correctly so forgive me.

The first quarter of this final section on the future of ag was the kinds of sustainable agricultural practices that can help green our farming techniques, sequester carbon emissions, certain plants we can plant to better maintain the soils etc... all things I've spoken of before.

But further it goes into ways that we can genetically modify our plants so that we can grow them in things like sand or in places that traditionally can't support plant life. (Disclaimer: in the past the European Union has opposed genetically modified foods, indeed many have, because we are not fully aware of effects of long-term exposure of such things. I actually haven't fully formed an opinion on this, but encourage others who know more about it to enlighten me via the comments section.)

If you aren't sure what genetically modified agriculture is think of it like seedless watermelons or the grapple - which is an apple looking fruit but tastes like a grape.. these are created by changing the fundamental genetic makeup of a plant. This is useful in many ways like the examples above but can go even further by like amping up vitamin content or reducing sodium in foods, etc...

The second part of the GM foods was more about ways to grow crops without implanting them in soils but growing them above ground and having a root system that is watered by spraying it. A third was turning traditionally more spread out crops like peppers or squash that are often planted in acres of rows of pants into trees so that these then grow up instead of out using less space but more are able to produce en mass. They call it verti-gro.. no, seriously...

Having been back for less than 5 hours, I was lucky to catch my favorite farmer for a nice sushi dinner to discuss this amazing ride. According to him less than 1/3 of the land mass of the world is usable for crop production, simply because the conditions just aren't there. Sand, rain forest, even cities all take up land that is there to produce our food for the now nearly 7 billion people in the world, many of which are going hungry and die in staggering numbers of starvation. Because the United States began as an agricultural society, our cities naturally formed around the hotbeds of activity ... which were around the best areas of farmland in the country. Thus, much of our land is covered by buildings and suburbs. Growing up, not out, helps us combat the increasing need for food and for having our McTrackHomes.

The reason I bring all of this up, is two fold. One, the future of farming is a future that is quickly dying as youth flee our rural areas. Secondly, it factors into the grassroots movement I heard about on NPR encouraging President Obama to have an organic plot of farmland on the White House lawn.

Eat the View was one of the projects voted to be presented to the new President by On Day One, a project of the Better World Fund, that is pushing people to lobby for the causes they want to see Obama tackle on day one. Eat The View is all about going to organic farming, which I love and eat when possible but isn't the most possible or practical cause for agriculture in America. That said, pushing the President to have a veggie garden on the White House lawn is actually something that is possible. Eat the View is also on Change.org

During the Great Depression and World War 2 people began planting Victory Gardens in efforts to provide more available American food. In 1943 a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country were from those gardens. One such Victory Garden was from the Governor of Oklahoma, who was a little bit of a freak Governor, but one great thing Gov. William Murray (known as Alfalfa Bill) did was plow up the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol and plant food and allow cattle to graze so that the poor could harvest potatoes or slaughter the beef so people could feed their families.

While I don't expect the new President to grab his team of donkey's and hitch up a plow with Pelosi doing it at the Capitol, it does present a similar idea to the Oklahoma's crazy former governor, particularly in a city like Washington that suffers from such a large homeless and impoverished population.

Soon to be First Lady Michelle Obama has said that she plans to be involved in the community, as the Obamas have been involved in every community particularly with feeding the homeless.

Further, it sets an example for rural youth who are rushing to cities for more of the cosmopolitan lifestyle that even the President believes that farming is such an important element to our world that no farm should go unused and growing food is an honorable task that even the President considers essential to developing.

Finally, if you've ever been to Washington DC, its a beautiful town with millions spent on up-keep for the flowers, shrubs, etc all to make it look pretty for foreign dignitaries, heads of state, and tourism which is a mega industry in the city. Can you imagine how much money could be saved on constantly planting and/or replanting flowers and bushes (not just Bushes) if we went to food as landscaping? The Cherry Blossom festival could also be a spring planting season, and what could be better than a fall harvest as a November Election photo-op?

Hope you have a Happy New Year!

Wednesday, President Elect Barack Obama announced the new Secretary of Agriculture was to be Governor of Iowa Tom Vilsack. In his press conference Vilsack specifically addressed his hopes for utilizing alternative fuels tapping rural America for ways to combat the climate crisis.

Back in rural Oklahoma I was spending the day with friends and farmers Clay Pope and his new wife Sarah Love-Pope who have taken family farming to a whole new level. As an environmentalists Sarah said she had never considered moving to a farm and putting her money where her mouth was.

"Some of the greatest environmentalists are farmers, because they own the land and they decide how it will be cared for," she said while driving a truck through their fields.

Clay agrees. His work as the director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts has fueled a new incentive for farmers to use techniques that reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere. A company could buy carbon credits that could then be passed off to farmers who use these environmentally friendly techniques like no-till which can both protect and repair the land. Pope has said before that carbon can be a cash crop to farmers new and established.

A major problem with rural America continues to be retention of its youth, but the Department of Agriculture has a great opportunity to utilize the existing enthusiasm for Obama to educate youth on ways they can impact their world by investing in the communities they grew up in. Turning environmentalists into farmers is one way youth can help combat global warming but other than the goodness of their heart, there is little in the way for incentives.

The Department of Ag could increase grants and scholarships to youth who seek Ag degrees or the new Associates Degree the Oklahoma State University now provides for Wind Turbine Engineers and Technicians. Additional subsidies could be provided to children who return to take over their family farms is another way. And developing our country's broadband infrastructure to enable youth to have a connectivity to their friends or to entertainment available online.

See my adventure with the Pope's in Loyal, Oklahoma here

I'm encouraged to see Gov. Vilsack take the reigns, but I hope the new Department of Ag makes an effort to reach out to youth to understand more about what is needed to revitalize rural America.

Frequently ignored, rural voters are sometimes the most insistent. Rural youth, are just as dedicated to policies that can make their lives better. In Oklahoma youth have a solid idea of how issues impact their world. Unique to their area, the environment has a larger impact on their lives than that of urban America.

"In my town, if the river's high, everybody knows it. If the river's dirty, everyone knows about it," young voter Dale Denwalt says.

Kyle Meade is a second generation American whose grandparents came from Mexico. He attacks Republican Tyler Trammell on his assumption that immigration will force Americans into a Mexican culture. Meade says he's living proof that those stereotypes aren't true.

See what they think at the Rural Roundtable...

There has been some talk around here about the value of Howard’s 50 State Strategy that gets candidates to run in all offices

“Not only is this the best way of distributing the party’s message, but it ensures the engagement of the youth that is so vital to the party’s long-term health and vitality.” Says Craig a poster on FM. “People that want to write off the South or any other part of this country bother me. By doing this, we’re telling young people to stay at home, sit on their rear ends, and allow the government to do whatever it wants. By doing this, we validate apathy.”

I couldn’t agree more. I am on vacation this week back to the homeland to visit family and friends for my birthday week – yes it’s a whole week – and it prompted me to really think about how things have changed in terms of the way we do outreach with Dean’s 50 State Strategy, how effective it is, and how it impacts the up and coming voters.