Rural Development, Energy, and Conservation in the Farm Bill

Abstract

Rural America makes up only 16 percent of the U.S. population, but 90 percent of the land. Most of the resources we depend upon—food, water, energy, fiber, and minerals—are either derived from or heavily impacted by rural land use and stewarded by rural community members. These resources are imperative to the success and basic survival of our country, yet there is no comprehensive rural policy in the United States to plan, develop, or sustainably manage these resources or educate and train rural citizens. Moreover, the current piecemeal approach to rural policy that we have today, found within the U.S. farm bill, is both chronically underfunded and, in the most recent negotiations, threatened with almost complete elimination.