A Changing Rural Landscape--And Persistent Poverty
[from Bread for the World]

The picture of poverty is grim in rural America. The poverty rate in rural areas is 14 percent - 2 percent higher than in urban areas. The number is even higher for child poverty: 20 percent, compared to 17 percent in urban areas.

Nearly 400 counties across the United States have experienced poverty rates of more than 20 percent for the past 30 years. Nine out of 10 of these “persistent poverty” counties are rural. Unemployment and underemployment rates are higher too, and rural America has higher concentrations of substandard housing.

Nationwide, more than 35 million Americans, including more than 12 million children, live in households that struggle to put food on the table. As with poverty, the food insecurity rate in rural areas is slightly higher, 12 percent compared to 11 percent nationally.

The landscape of rural America is quite different now than during the 1930s, when direct government support for farmers began, yet the farm bill has not kept pace with changing times. Less than 2 percent of the U.S. population is currently engaged in farming, compared to 21 percent in the 1930s. A full quarter of the population lived on farms then. Today the vast majority of rural residents work in non-farm jobs, such as retail service or factory work. Many farmers, in fact, take second jobs off the farm. Roughly the same amount of farmland is being used, but the farms themselves have grown larger, more specialized and more corporate. Federal farm policy has not kept pace with changes in the farm sector or with changes in rural America.

What the Farm Bill Does Now, and What It Does Not Do
[from Bread for the World]

The farm bill principally tries to help U.S. farmers. But over time it has become less and less successful at doing so. The farm bill includes commodity payments, which are cash payments made to farmers growing mostly five crops - corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans. Commodity payments are supposed to protect farmers from low prices by making up the difference between a target price and the actual market price.

In reality, commodity payments are not very effective risk management tools for farmers. Commodity payments have shifted dramatically to the very largest farms, which often are also the wealthiest farmers. Farmers who need payments the least are receiving the most, and two-thirds of U.S. farmers receive no payments.

The portion of the current farm bill devoted specifically to rural development is very small. This is out of balance with the needs of rural America. Some 50 million Americans live in rural communities; only 3 million are farmers. As the main source of federal support for rural America, the farm bill needs to reflect the fact that increasingly the non-farm economy sustains these communities.

In recent years, U.S. farm policy has also become unintentionally devastating for small-holder farmers in the developing world. Because the commodity payment system encourages U.S. farmers to concentrate on the five crops, world markets are being flooded with these crops, which are sold at prices lower than what it costs to produce them.

For example, in spite of their much lower production costs, cotton farmers in countries like Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali cannot survive when world prices are so low. U.S. cotton commodity payments are partly to blame. For these African nations, where 10 million people who earn roughly $1 to $2 a day depend directly on cotton, U.S. farm programs shatter hopes of reducing hunger and poverty.

The farm bill is also a primary tool for reducing hunger in the United States. The Food Stamp Program, a major component in the farm bill, is our nation's first line of defense against hunger. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the Food Stamp Program was a shining example of a federal program that responded in a timely and efficient manner. The Food Stamp Program served an average of 26 million people per month in 2005. It should be strengthened to provide a nutritious and sufficient diet for hungry people.

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