Page 102 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

“If you get creative and have people work together there is a big opportunity to grow the
(economic) pie.”

Dorr says that the projected growth in the middle class globally is going to dramatically alter
how U.S. agriculture and rural America should view the opportunities in food and agriculture
and energy.

“But until we have a serious conversation about that potential, it will be very difficult to
reverse those trends on a broad scale.”

RD help available

There are several places where farmers, rural entrepreneurs and small-town business owners can
seek help to create jobs and stimulate the economy in rural areas through farm bill programs, but
the most prominent is USDA’s Rural Development (RD) mission area.

It’s an unsung and some would say underappreciated farm bill “hero” of sorts. With names like
“Individual Water & Wastewater Grants,” “Community Facilities Guaranteed Loan Program,”
and “Value-Added Producer Grants,” the offerings are not particularly sexy or flashy. But with
more than a $216 billion loan portfolio, there’s plenty of potential. And rural leaders say there is
plenty of need.

Shortly before President Donald Trump was inaugurated, leaders of over 200
organizations wrote that the “scope of the investment needed is staggering” across rural America.

The letter states that “transportation infrastructure improvement is the most obvious need in
rural communities,” but also highlights the “critical needs” that “exist in providing clean
water for rural families, expanding broadband to connect rural communities to the outside
world, and enhancing the ability to supply affordable, reliable and secure power for the
rural economy.”

Bob Fox, a Minnesota farmer
and Renville County
commissioner, says that
businesses looking to plant
roots in a rural community often
ask about the quality of roads
first and the speed of
broadband, second.

“It just makes a world of
difference in what you can do
as a business person with that
broadband speed,” he
told Agri-Pulse. “We have to
find a way to get broadband
Bob Fox, (on left) a county commissioner from Renville County, Minnesota, across all of the United
testified during a congressional hearing on the next farm bill.
States.”
100 www.Agri-Pulse.com