The land flight or brain drain in rural America:
Let me state upfront, I make a living from the trends of modern farming. Glistening green giants costing in excess of $250,000, GPS systems which plant, fertilize and harvest with guidance from satellites (the same satellites which may also guide drones and smart bombs), and genetically modified seeds so expensive that the bags state how many seed kernels you're buying. One farming operation is now capable of precision farming 20,000 acres with just five workers.
I have been involved in this industry for over 30 years and I am amazed how yields have gone up, not just what you may expect under perfect growing conditions, but I have seen 160 bushel corn yields in years when we had no rain during a critical growing period. 30 years ago this lack of rain would have been the end of the crop, now seeds are genetically bred to tolerate drought stress. It is an amazing system and of course in good years we can raise 200 bushel corn. We used to be happy with 35 bushel bean yield, this year I saw for the first time 80 bushel beans.
Instead of every farm having a few fields of crops, a few cows or pigs and an integrated natural fertilizer program, we now raise 300,000 hogs in one community and the other farms are strictly grain producers. So what is wrong with this system? It is the most efficient food production system we ever had. If you are the 10,000 acre farmer, working very hard you will fiercely defend this system, since this type of agriculture is the envy of most of the world.
However, I think there is another complication with this system completely unrelated to the issue of organic food, GM crops, subsidies, the patenting of seeds and a range of such issues. It is just what I would call cultural depletion of rural areas, a land flight and a brain drain.
There is no doubt that the bulk of the educational system has been moved to urban areas, the same is true about research, high tech, manufacturing, transportation, any form of entertainment and all corporate offices. The number of people who have moved to cities or suburbs from rural areas is staggering. The entire growth of suburbia is based on this trend.
Whenever there are winners, there have to be losers. We have always acted as if these trends never had losers, but there are real losers: Rural America.
I have been involved in the management of a large farm in rural Illinois and I have consulted in many rural areas around the country. I have witnessed the decline of small town (rural) USA: Schools have been closed, all kids who excel at High School or College move to urban areas, the average age of the surviving residents in these small towns goes up year by year. Many parents in small towns are anxious to see their kids off to college and the success of the kids is judged by the fact as to what jobs they have been able to procure "in the city". With this trend, the quality of rural life declines, the churches become more prominent for the older generations and politically rural America thus becomes a prime feeding ground for the fear mongering of Fox News and others. One interesting site to see in small town USA are the war memorials, which somehow have much more names on it given the size of the town as compared to urban or suburban areas. This seems to indicate a lack of opportunities for the remaining young people in these towns, and military service becomes not a choice, but an inevitable way of life due to lack of alternative employment and training opportunities.
So has the success of agriculture really benefited rural America? As so often the answer is yes and no. Politically this is a wonderful situation: The left can attack the horrors of modern agriculture, while the right praises the export opportunities and the wonderful benefits of corporate successes, from Tyson Foods, to Monsanto and Cargill grain. The tax payer subsidizes a lot of this system, just look at http://farm.ewg.org/summary.
The founding fathers are turning in their graves as to what we have done to our rural areas, and I am not talking about Yellowstone or any of our national parks. I am talking about our real rural areas, where there are no job opportunities, no educational opportunities. There is nothing for residents to do but to live in trailer parks, live of welfare and food stamps, and produce children to continue the cycle. The counties have low property taxes, high crime rates. We are allowing all of this to continue while we dish out millions of dollars through dozens of agencies in Afghanistan and Iraq trying to teach illiterate populations how to have a US style legal system, school system and police force.
My mother told me a long time ago, charity begins at home.
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