Cyndi's Two Cents
Poverty in rural communities
Commentary.
I often use this space to write about the great divide between those who grow the food and those who consume the food. Many consumers are concerned, or at least interested, in the origin of that which they eat and what they feed their families.
They ask many questions: “Where was it grown? What does locally grown mean? Were pesticides used? Is it organic? Does it contain GMO’s? Were antibiotics used? What was it fed? Was it kept in a cage? Is it hormone free? How much does it cost?”
Ultimately, the answer to that final question determines whether or not the majority of the people will buy it. Preference and behavior are not the same.
For years, many farmers have assumed their rural brethren had a better understanding of how crops and livestock are raised and that it is people living in cities who are disconnected from agriculture. The truth is, farmers make up only about 10 percent of the rural population of 60 million people in this country. Someone living in a townhouse in Chicago might have a better understanding of stacked trait seeds than someone living in a farm house on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere.
There is one great and growing divide between the urban and rural population in this country, especially as it pertains to children. Poverty rates in rural America are on the rise, while urban poverty rates continue a slow decline. Recent USDA findings show that child poverty in rural areas is at its highest level in 30 years, and many predict it will worsen in coming years.
In 2012, 26.7 percent of children in rural America lived in poverty.
USDA’s Economic Research Services (ERS) tells us what most of us already know: An important indicator of the nation’s long-term well-being is poverty among children, since child poverty often has an impact that carries throughout a lifetime, particularly if the child lived in poverty at an early age. As with the early 1980s recession, rural children have been disproportionately affected by the recent economic downturn.
The middle class is disappearing. The economy is frail. There aren’t enough jobs. Many hard-working and capable men and women whose families have lived in your rural community for generations, are sliding deeper into the well of poverty. Some choose that life. Most, however, do not.
Children in your community will go to bed tonight without supper, not because they didn’t come home on time or failed to do their chores. There are babies and toddlers, first and third graders, pre-teens and teen-agers that live in your community, and go to your churches and schools that do not know if and when they will have their next meal.
There has been poverty since the beginning of time and there probably always will be some level of poverty. It is my hope that when you have the opportunity to give someone a leg up, instead of automatically writing a check to be sent overseas, you’ll think about investing in those children in your own rural community.
Tags: commentary, rural poor
This is good, Cyndi. We all need to step up and help these children, they have no choices.