{
  "id": "RL31172",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL31172",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 100516,
      "date": "2001-10-30",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:19:41.094941",
      "title": "The Changing Structure of Agriculture and Rural America: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges",
      "summary": "When agricultural production and related businesses dominated rural economies, policies that\nstrengthened and improved agriculture tended to strengthen and improve the well-being of most of\nAmerica's small communities and rural residents. As the strength of this linkage declined over the\npast century, many have felt that rural policy has been left largely fragmented and unfocused,\ncomprising a patchwork of programs and initiatives rather than a coherent policy. Yet agriculture\nremains the primary policy framework for Congress's consideration of rural issues. Significant\nchanges are occurring in the structure of the U.S. agro-food system. These changes are likely to pose\nimportant questions about the direction and coherence of current rural policy. Several significant\ntrends in this evolving structure of agriculture are discussed in this report: (1) a continuation in the\ntrend toward fewer and larger farms; (2) a potential acceleration of that trend as production shifts to\nmore tightly integrated and vertically coordinated production through supply chains; (3) greater\nenvironmental pressures on conventional agricultural production practices stemming from urban and\nsuburban interests; and (4) changing food consumption patterns. \n  Conditions in rural America today are quite mixed. Some rural areas, such as those within\ncommuting distances of metropolitan areas or blessed with environmental amenities and/or affluent\nretirees, are thriving. Other rural areas with little employment, few public services, persistent\npoverty, and fewer possibilities, are spiraling downward. Declines in farming and in many rural\nareas and opposition to industrializing trends in agriculture are compelling policymakers and rural\nareas to seek new sources of job growth, innovative ways of providing public services to sparse\npopulations, as well as new ways of integrating agriculture into changing rural economies. \nManufacturing, a major focus of rural economic development over the past 40 years, is also\nthreatened by increasing low-wage international competition. \n  Congress has expressed its concern with rural communities most directly through periodic\nomnibus farm bill legislation, most recently in the 1996 Federal Agricultural Improvement and\nReform Act ( P.L. 104-127 ) and in its current deliberations over a new farm bill, the Farm Security\nAct of 2001 ( H.R. 2646 ). The Farm Security Act, as recently passed by the House, has\na rural development title. Questions have been raised about whether agriculture policy and rural\npolicy are compatible given the large proportion of rural non-farm communities. There are questions\nabout whether current rural policies tend to reinforce rural communities' past competitive advantage\nor whether they assist the creation of entrepreneurial capacity within rural areas to generate new\ncompetitive advantage. While significant debate exists over what elements might comprise a\ncomprehensive, integrated rural policy, continuing along past policy paths seems increasingly less\nlikely to produce the socioeconomic conditions that will assist rural America in developing vibrant,\ncompetitive, and sustainable communities for the future.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL31172",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Economic Policy"
  ]
}