Posts Tagged ‘The Grange’

Will Rural America be left behind?

December 3rd, 2009

It’s common for bloggers to capture provocative quotes from newspapers and use them to start a little controversy.  At ReImagine Rural, we’re not about controversy, but I couldn’t let the following quote from Dr. Frank Fear go by without comment:

“Will rural America be left behind?” he asked. “Will small towns, farms and places that have spawned so many things that have made this country great be left behind?” (source:  “Michigan State University prepares to dismantle extension,” Capital Press.)

Dr. Fear, senior associate dean of agriculture and natural resources at Michigan State, made this statement at the National Grange Annual Convention in response to budgetary cuts that could cause the termination of Michigan’s Extension program. 

The article, from which the above quote appears, goes on to note that agriculture in Michigan is currently doing pretty well while the rest of the state’s economy is in shambles.  In doing so, it raises the question, “Does Michigan need to divert the resources from supporting agriculture to other economic development activities?”

I obviously don’t know the intimate details about Michigan, so I can’t offer definitive answers on what they should be doing. 

I hope that we never see the end of Michigan’s extension program, or any states’ for that matter.  From what I know about the goings on in Van Buren County, MI, Extension is a key player in their entrepreneurship initiative.  Removing the funding from Extension to recreate it someplace else would seem a senseless waste of resources.   

As for Fear’s question?  In my opinion, Rural America has been left behind for a long time - at least in our part of the country. 

 

 Other resources
“Dismantling Extension in Michigan” Timothy J. Shaffer (blog) -
Press Release: “Sustain the Legacy. Keep Agriculture and Rural America Vital,” The National Grange 

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Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (1)