What's New
2008
Essay Contest
The Kerr Center invites all Junior and Senior High School students
in the State of Oklahoma to participate in an essay contest.
The subject of the contest is “The Value of Locally Grown
Foods.”
The Rural Landscape
in the 21st Century
Imagine you are taking a Sunday drive through a corner of rural America.
The sun is shining, wildflowers are blooming along the road and in strips
and meadows here and there to the horizon. The air is sweet with the smell
of new-mown hay. The air is pierced from time to time with the song of
the meadowlark and rush of a rain-swollen creek. It is tempting to get
out and dangle your toes in the clear water or bait a hook.
Along the road are well-kept homes and barns. Children are riding horses.
Soon you reach a country town and stop for a bite to eat at a home-grown
restaurant with a sign in the window: "Fresh Made Blackberry Cobbler."
People nod as you walk down the thriving Main Street. You pick up some
tomatoes and peaches from the Farmers' Market at the corner. When you
get in your car and drive away it is with a twinge of regret, but also
with a pleasant memory.
This scene might sound idealized to some. Perhaps because a Sunday drive
through today's rural America is often a far cry from the above description.
If you venture far from an urban area you may pass fields that stretch
to the horizon, but only a few nice houses and barns. Worn-looking mobile
homes that look only vaguely attached to the land dot the landscape near
the bigger towns.
Opening the window for a deep breath of that fresh country air is out
of the question. The air is rotten with the odor from the mega factory
farms that have moved into the areas, where tens of thousands of hogs
are confined. And who would want to linger by streams colored a fluorescent
shade of green, choked with algae from those industrial farms?
The highway still may wind through country towns, but these have been
struck with "rural blight': shuttered Main Street businesses and
crumbling buildings. Homemade cobbler or fresh peaches are nowhere to
be found, though you might be able to pick up a bag of Oreos at a tiny
gas pump/convenience store. The towns seem on the verge of disappearance.
Few would regret leaving this landscape.
These landscapes represent opposite ends of the spectrum of life today
in rural America. Much of rural America is somewhere in between. Unfortunately,
the trend for the last fifty years, accelerated in the last ten, is toward
the latter scenario. Both the people living in the trailers and the people
in the solid brick homes are struggling to make a life for themselves
in country where their families have lived for generations. The numbers
tell the tale: since 1950, the number of farms has been cut in half. The
number of farmers has declined by 80%. The result: some of the poorest
counties in the nation are in rural areas. Rural areas have a drug problem
as severe as those of big city neighborhoods.
The decline of the family farm is at the root of the decline of rural
America. Declining economies in rural communities affect farm and ranch
families who rely on local businesses, schools, and hospitals. The reverse
is also true . . . fewer farmers and ranchers means fewer businesses on
Main Street. What results is a downward spiral that ends in a ghost town
or a town that has adopted "desperation economics," as Kerr
Center Jim Horne puts it. Such a town welcomes polluting, low-paying industries
whose profits do not stay in the community, but go into the coffers at
some corporate headquarters in another state. All for the sake of jobs,
any jobs.
The fate of America's rural communities therefore goes hand-in-hand with
the fate of America's family farms and vice-versa. They are undeniably
linked.
Program Activities
The Kerr Center's Sustainable Rural Development and Public Policy program
(SRDPP) was established in 1996. The program was established in response
to ever-worsening conditions for family farmers and rural communities
and is a natural outgrowth of the center's long-time direct work with
farmers and ranchers. It was a recognition that for too long farm policy
and rural development efforts have worked against a sustainable economy
in rural America, not for it.
The program assists rural citizens and decision makers in two primary
ways: first, by sharing information about building strong and sustainable
communities; and second, by analyzing the effects of proposed public policies
on rural communities and agriculture. Topics addressed range from those
of concern locally or in Oklahoma (CAFOS, water use) to those with global
impact (biotechnology).
The SRDPP program staff also
- Prepares and distributes reports and
fact sheets that address important issues. These publications
are available online and in printed form.
- Sponsors conferences, workshops, and
informational tours
- Provides testimony on important issues
SRDPP also works closely with other organizations in Oklahoma such as
the Oklahoma Council of Churches Rural
Community Care Task Force (RCCTF) to develop leadership capacity in
rural areas. We have also partnered with the Oklahoma Bar Association,
Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service, and farmers'
organizations such as the Oklahoma Farmers Union.
Former SRDPP director Michelle Stephens served on the Governor's Task
Force on Water Quality in 1998. The task force examined challenges to
Oklahoma's water quality from the growing number of CAFOs in the state.
Program staff continues to monitor legal and legislative developments
related to water quality, CAFOs and other issues crucial to maintaining
a good quality of life for rural Oklahomans.
Public Policy Monitoring
and Analysis
The SRDPP
- Monitors key current issues and events
in agriculture and rural development
- Analyzes the economic and environmental
impact of these issues and events, in particular, their impact on rural
communities
- Presents policy options in response to
specific rural development and agricultural issues
Findings are published in our on-line reports.
Contact Information
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Putting
Together a Grant Proposal 
Jim
Horne,