Thomas Jefferson once envisioned the United States as a 'nation of yeomen farmers'. Looking around today, however, illustrates that nothing could be further from the truth. In a globalised world and techno-centred society, urban sprawl is overtaking rural America. For over a century, farming was the backbone of the American economy, and though it is still critical to American productivity, many rural areas are plagued by poverty and job reduction. Agricultural issues have a hold over national politics (as in the debates over farm subsidies), but they cannot change several significant trends in America today: the movement toward fewer and larger farms, environmental pressures from urban and suburban interests, and changing food consumption patterns. In order to assist the remaining 'yeomen farmers', a comprehensive and integrated agricultural policy must be initiated to sustain the nation's farming communities. This book analyses the status of the farm industry in rural America, providing a historical context for agriculture and assessing its future for the nation. and the information provided in this book is necessary to understanding the nature of what has historically been a key component of American industry and life.

In the last decade, rural development emerged as one of the prominent challenges facing the United States. Strong support for rural development is now found in both major political parties and at federal, state, and local levels. There is little doubt that the development of rural America will become even more important in the future. Despite unprecedented growth, both urban and rural areas in the United States are greatly deficient in many aspects of quality living conditions. The nation’s cities are slowly strangling themselves, jamming together people and industry while spawning pollution, transportation paralysis, housing blight, lack of privacy, and a crime-infested society. Rural areas simultaneously suffer from the other extreme: lack of sufficient employment opportunities, outmigration and depopulation, and too few people to support services and institutions. The migration from rural areas contributes to the problems of both the city and countryside depopulating rural places at the expense of overcrowded cities. This book focuses on rural development processes, problems, and solutions. Seven prominent specialists in the field, including agricultural and regional economists, demographers, and administrators, discuss the development of the open country, small towns, and smaller cities (up t fifty thousand population). They present an integrated approach to rural development problems, not a mere collection of readings. Valuable guidelines for policies to benefit both rural and urban areas are provided. Since rural development involves interdisciplinary scholarship, this book will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists working in rural areas both here and abroad. Economists, sociologists, and political scientists, as well as community leaders and planners, legislators, government officials and interested laymen, will find this volume useful in understanding the rural development effort. Chapters on the following topics are included: the Philosophy and Process of Community Development; The Emergence of Area Development; Demographic Trends of the U.S. Rural Population; The Conditions and Problems of Nonmetropolitan America; Systems Planning for rural Development; Use of Natural Resources in Community Development; and Rural Poverty and Urban Growth, An Economic Critique of Alternative Spatial Growth Patterns