For the past thirteen years, symposia have been held either in South America or in Mexico on subjects of special interest to Latin American scientists. When the opportunity of holding the 14th International Biological Symposium in Guate mala was offered, it was most welcome, especially as the occasion was the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP). With the encouragement of members of the Ford Foundation staff and the National Academy of Sciences, the idea for a symposium on the broad approach to the problem of nutrition was developed by Dr. Moises Behar, the second director of INCAP, 1961-1974, Dr. Nevin Scrimshaw, fIrst director of INCAP, 1949-1961, and members of the INCAP staff. Because the availability of food has become a serious international problem, a discussion of the underlying problems was most timely. INCAP, one of the pioneer and leading institutions in the area of nutrition, has a profound influence on nutrition in Latin America. The meeting was attended by about 300 scientists from more than 20 countries. Because this was the fIrst symposium in this series to be held in Central America, it provided an opportunity to get acquainted with scientists from many of the Central American republics. It was especially rewarding that so many students from the Central American universities attended this meeting.

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