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Time to bring the kids home?More communities are preparing for a comeback By Sara Wyant When I was in my teens, my dad invited me to join him on one of his typical field checks, riding around our Iowa farm to see what, if any, damages might have occurred after a heavy rain subsided. My dad never limited these opportunities to crop discussions--it was usually a chance to chat about whatever was on his mind at that time. So in between looking at the soggy fields and creeks where the water was steadily rising, he provided a rather eerie description of what the neighborhood might look like over the next few years. One neighboring family had four boys who were helping raise crops and feed cattle. My dad noted that they would have to grow a lot larger in order to provide enough income to go around. At a couple of other locations, he talked about how a farmstead would probably be vacant before long, because the families were struggling to make any income off of their farms. These kinds of observations seemed rather matter of fact to him, a child of the depression who had witnessed his own family lose their farm and later move to California where his dad found factory work. But I felt both scared and sad at the prospect that he might be right. If so, my friends--the kids who were riding my bus and attending my school, might be disappearing from our farming community. This was during the mid-1970s and those neighborhood kids did graduate from high school with me. But none of those families survived the financial rollercoaster of the 1980s. Their farmsteads set empty, like tombstones marking the end of another chapter in agriculture.
A new chapter Now, an entirely different story is starting to unfold and this one seems likely to have a happier ending. In many parts of rural America, we are witnessing a Rural Renaissance of sorts, as farm kids as well as baby boomers head back to small towns and farming communities to work and raise their families. What's driving the change? Several different factors are at play, including access to roads and key infrastructure, opportunities to develop new businesses and local leadership. A key factor in many parts of the Midwest is the development of renewable energy--creating jobs that were mostly unheard of two decades ago. Stop by a community where ethanol and biodiesel plants have come to town or a new wind farm is going in nearby, and you'll find several new jobs and a community thinking about growing again. Chances are, you'll find farmers who are making perhaps more money off of their investments in these new facilities than they are from the farm. And they want their kids to come back home and join in the excitement. Local leadership is key Perhaps most importantly, leaders in many regions of the country are banding together to bring better resources and amenities into their local communities. Whether it's a new medical center, ambulance services, or fitness facilities, they are applying for loans and grants that can help make communities a more attractive place to live. The Faleide family is a good example of this emerging trend. After 17 years, Rodney "Lanny" Faleide finally gave up trying to squeak a profit out from his North Dakota farm in the mid-1990s. Faleide packed up the family and moved from near Maddock, population 500, to Fargo, to find work and eventually start his own satellite imaging company. Yet, like many people who grew up near small towns, the tug of his rural community kept pulling him back. Faleide's children, who were in the third and fifth grades at the time, desperately wanted to be back with their friends. So he became involved with a local effort to build the Maddock Business and Technology Center. As a result of this initiative, local leaders were able to convince their telephone cooperative to provide high-speed Internet service, securing grants from USDA Rural Development and others. The facility now nurtures small businesses with affordable internet-ready office space, administrative and marketing services and on-site day care. Faleide kept his office in Fargo, but now has an office in the Technology Center, and lives about 10 miles away. Since 2000, the population in Maddock and surrounding Benson County, which averaged only five persons per square mile in the 1990s, has finally started to grow again. "Development of this center allows me to live where I want to live, work in Maddock and conduct business anywhere in the world," he adds. "I wasn't able to pass our farm down to the kids, but I hope to be able to pass the business to them and the opportunity to raise their families here." Editor's note: Columnist Sara Wyant is president of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc. and publishes a bi-weekly newsletter, Agri-Pulse, on food and farm policy. For more information, you can e-mail her at Agripulse@aol.com. Date: 10/26/06
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