Political Neglect...

What is the Matter With the Rural U.S.?

I lived in two small towns for a total of 13 years as a kid, so I have not forgotten these areas.  14% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas.  Thomas Frank, in his famous book “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” pointed out that rural areas in Kansas were getting hammered by neo-liberal capitalism and still thought guns, gay marriage or abortion were the key issues to be concerned with.  This while rural and small town hospitals, farms, schools and businesses were closing or going bankrupt, and while young people left for the city.

Ghost town in Texas

That was 2004.  15 years later and the situation in the rural and small town U.S. is even worse. Farms have continued to increase in size as smaller farmers and ranchers bail.  Farm bankruptcies have increased, especially during Trump’s present trade war, while loan delinquencies are increasing too. Both are the highest since 2011.  Farmer suicides are up. The meth and opiod drug epidemics are hitting these areas especially hard, while obesity is high and life expectancy is lower than urban areas.  Doctors and dentists do not want to practice in places with a shrinking population and no money. Rural schools are smaller and more limited, so the education they provide is of a lower standard.  Schools are consolidating, so children have to go longer distances.  These areas still do not have adequate fast internet.  Bus service has disappeared so everyone is overly-dependent on cars and gasoline.  Of course, the poorest rural regions are in the Mississippi Delta, the Rio Grande borderlands, reservations like Pine Ridge and the hills of Appalachia.  Nearly all of these are predominantly non-European Americans.

Corporations like Monsanto dominate the seed and pesticide industry and sue anyone they want while Wal-Mart destroys small local businesses.  Wages are low, poverty is increasing, unemployment is up and the population is aging.  Land prices are high, so young farmers have difficulty buying in.  Farm equipment is extremely expensive, driving debt. Year after year the U.S. Farm bill and subsequent federal aid is dominated by corporate agriculture, which is true even for Trump’s present trade war ‘aid’ program, giving 60% of the aid to the upper 10% of farms.  Towns with one manufacturing or food processing plant lose it to robotics, Mexico, the U.S. south or overseas.  Some small towns do not even have sewage treatment plants.

·        13,000 total farms disappeared in 2018.

·        95% of poverty in the U.S. is in rural counties.

·        Since 2005, 120 rural hospitals closed and 673 more hospitals were vulnerable to closure, especially in the U.S. South and areas with unhealthy populations.

·        Since 2005, 2,700 rural schools have closed.

·        Bankruptcies are up 24% this year. (Farm Bureau)

All this while the view of what is desirable food is shifting in the U.S., though not in rural areas.  The recent bankruptcy of milk producer Dean Foods and its court sale to Dairy Farmers of America (a milk oligopolist) is proof of this.  So is the protection of hog waste lagoons, the hiding of animal cruelty and the rabid fight against meat, milk and cheese substitutes.  Agriculture in the U.S. is still mainly based on plant monocultures and heavy pesticide use; antibiotics routinely given to animals; artificial fertilizer; destructive industrial cow, hog and poultry industrial ‘harvesting’; intensive technology; ground-water depletion; heavy carbon inputs; cheap migrant labor and corn grown for gasoline and animal feed, not humans.  Just eating at small town cafes tells you the story – the quality is low, the food is retro based on fat, salt, sugar and heavy meat.  It is like the 1950s never ended.  And yet they did.

Medicare for All won't work if there is no hospital

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp have had ‘Farm Aid’ concerts since 1985, yet charity efforts have not stemmed the tide. What rural areas need is a revival of left-wing farmer and land populism, not right-wing culture wars from the same people that are destroying the rural U.S. This revival will be more difficult than the days of the Farmer’s Holiday (Iowa), the Farmer-Labor Party (Minnesota and Wisconsin), the Non-Partisan League (Dakotas) or the southern Tenant Farmer’s Union in the 1930s.  This is because the number of small farmers is far less. As an example, the present Farm Bureau has been captured by large corporations, large farmers and large ranchers.

The only increase in small farming is in agro-ecology, organic, vegetable, bison, marijuana and hemp farming, along with indigenous ricing.  These farms use lower acreages than the large farms dominating the rural U.S.  The other positive increase is the development of wind and solar farms, which also might push farmers to the left.  There are still organizations and unions for farm and food workers, as well as Latino and ‘black’ farmers, along with indigenous reservations, which have their own plans for land, animals and food.

Interestingly, the 1850 Communist Manifesto had points about these issues.  It called for “improving the soil under a common plan;” reducing the division between town and country and spreading out populations concentrated in urban areas.  It also called for socializing land – taking it out of the hands of market profiteers.  Moving to a kind of agro-ecology agriculture, which is part of the basis of organic farming, is one way to re-populate and revive the rural U.S.  It is more labor-intensive, produces healthier food, has a much lower carbon footprint and is less destructive to the soil, workers, animals and ecology.  Large corporate farms could be broken up slowly, as studies show smaller farms are actually more productive, replaced by cooperatives and a restored 'commons.' Local plant closings can be stopped through tough labor action. If rural areas move to the left, that will direct government funds to public hospitals and school systems in these areas.  Corporate America has planted itself in large cities, demanding you move there.  Just as they concentrate profits in their pockets, they concentrate people near their offices.

These ideas are outside the typical template of Big Ag, which is the real source of misery in the rural U.S.  Farmers are typically contract slaves to Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Dole, Tyson – name your big Ag conglomerate.  Or in debt to expensive farm equipment manufacturers –Deere & Co., Case, Caterpillar - all based on mono-cropping. So why love your bosses?  Reports indicate that 40% of farm income this year is coming from federal or state government welfare payments, much of that going to the largest corporate farmers and ranchers.

At some point there will come a break in rural areas and small towns.  Underpaid local workers who have lived under the thumb of local businessmen, along with some small farmers and small businessmen may realize they have been conned by the Republican Party and Democratic Party centrists, the farm elite and the corporate monsters.  The soil and environment suffer from pesticides, artificial fertilizers and mono-cropping; the water quality and quantity decrease and they themselves fall further into economic and social trouble.  Whether any left populist organization or political candidate captures this sentiment is another matter, as most do not have a real program for the rural U.S.
P.S. - on 1/6/20, Borden Dairy announced its bankruptcy.

Other reviews on this topic below, use blog search box, upper left with these terms: “Foodopoly,” “A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism,” “Damnation,” “Salt, Sugar, Fat,” “Land Grabbing,” “Behind the Kitchen Door,” “Farmer-Labor Party.”

 
Red Frog

November 25, 2019