On Farms and Rural Communities: An Agricultural Ethic for the Future

PRAISE FOR

On Farms and Rural Communities

"Apps has a knack for mixing facts based on data with lifelong rural experiences to spin a compelling story about life in rural America. I highly recommend On Farms and Rural Communities, as it continues this tradition to help us understand changes in the rural economy and the interesting impacts on rural communities."

—Andy Lewis, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Extension

Apps’s most forceful and impassioned book … calls our attention to the present state of rural communities in relation to the future health of our country.… With his passionate love of rural communities, Jerry Apps has penned a cautionary tale about what we will lose if we continue to let them diminish and the impact that will have on the rest of society. It is essential reading for both urbanites and rural residents to understand what is at stake.

—Philip Hasheider, farmer, writer, and local historian

Much has been said and written about the growing divide between those who populate our cities and suburbs and those who inhabit our rural areas. This book-length essay on what is happening in rural America and how it came to be is essential reading for those who wish to understand what is at stake.… The issues [Apps] raises are at the heart of what a system of rural economic health might look like in a culture that values sustainability for the people and the environment.

—Dennis Boyer, Fellow Emeritus, Interactivity Foundation and Director of Policy Projects on Agriculture and Rural Life

If you care about rural America, read this book. If you don’t care about rural America, read it anyway. This is a love note to rural farming but also a cautionary tale to all of us about what happens when we orient our economy around greed rather than well-being. It is also vintage Jerry Apps, so you’ll get a heavy dose of hope and possibilities as well.

—Katherine Cramer, Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science, Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of The Politics of Resentment

Jerry Apps has lived and written about farming and rural life for many years. There are few individuals who have been more steeped in the connections between—the rise and fall of—farms and rural communities of America. If Jerry thinks we’ve got a problem, a serious one, we should pay attention. In this concise book, he identifies what he sees as the problem and offers up ‘approaches and ideas to move agriculture and its rural cities and villages forward with excitement, hope, and success.’ I for one count this book as a gift.

—Richard L. Cates, Jr., farmer, and new farmer trainer, Spring Green, Wisconsin

The Speaker’s Corner Books Series

Speaker’s Corner Books is a series of book-length essays on important social, political, scientific, and cultural topics. Originally created in 2005, the series is inspired by Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park, a bastion of free speech and expression. The series is influenced by the legacy of Michel de Montaigne, who first raised the essay to an art form. The essence of the series is to promote lifelong learning, introducing the public to interesting and important topics through short essays, while highlighting the voices of contributors who have something significant and important to share with the world.

Copyright © 2024 Jerry Apps

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Apps, Jerold W., 1934- author.

Title: On farms and rural communities : an agricultural ethic for the future / Jerry Apps.

Other titles: Speaker’s corner books.

Description: Wheat Ridge, Colorado : Fulcrum Publishing, [2024] | Series: The speaker’s corner book series | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023043189 (print) | LCCN 2023043190 (ebook) | ISBN 9781682754641 (paperback) | ISBN 9781682754658 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Sociology, Rural. | Agriculture--Social aspects--United States. | United States--Rural conditions. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food (see also POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Agriculture & Food Policy) | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Agriculture & Food Policy (see also SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food)

Classification: LCC HT421 .A64 2024 (print) | LCC HT421 (ebook) | DDC 307.720973--dc23/eng/20231115

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023043189

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023043190

Printed in the United States

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Cover design by Kateri Kramer

Cover photo, Wheat Harvesting in the Great North-West, from the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Unless otherwise noted, all websites cited were current as of the initial edition of this book.

Fulcrum Publishing

3970 Youngfield Street

Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033

(800) 992-2908 • (303) 277-1623

www.fulcrumbooks.com

I

Introduction

I am concerned about rural America and its future as the country stumbles its way into the twenty-first century, injured by the COVID-19 epidemic and unsure of itself and where it wants to head. Historically, rural communities have been the heart of this country. They continue to be essential. For the country to move forward into this century, it must have vibrant rural communities.

Agriculture has been and remains for many rural communities its core activity, and one of the most critical problems facing rural America these days is what has happened and is happening to agriculture. To put it bluntly, agriculture has lost its way. It has fallen into the trap of following the tenets of industrialization—bigger is better. Inputs and outputs. Money is more important than caring for the environment.

As I discuss the future of agriculture, I also discuss the future of rural villages and small cities. For many decades they have had a close relationship with each other. Indeed, they have depended on each other. Today, however, much of that interdependent relationship has been lost. Many rural villages and cities are struggling mightily merely to survive, to say nothing of thriving.

In the pages that follow, I will consider ways in which a new agriculture can again become the vital force it once was. Even more fundamentally, I will examine the need for all of us—rural and urban alike—to develop an appreciation for the land. How true it is that land is much more than dirt. In some depth, I will examine why we must and how we can return to a reverence for the land—no matter where we live. I will draw on the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, and several Native American writers who help us understand the need to look at land as a resource necessary to protect and care for—for the sake of the planet’s future and for those creatures, including humans, who call it home.

Rural communities face many issues today: The direction agriculture has taken, economic development issues, political concerns, adequate rural education, rural health challenges, and more. See Challenges Facing Rural Communities for more information about these issues.¹

In 2020, the vast majority of the country’s population, about 83 percent (272.91 million) lived in urban areas. Some urban areas were flourishing, others less so. The remaining 17 percent (57.23 million) lived in rural areas, representing a great diversity of interests, economic opportunities, and population. Of the total land area in the United States, only about 3 percent is considered urban, while 97 percent