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Authors, sign in!Almost 7.2 million rural Americans were in poverty in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nationwide, 36.5 million people, or 12.3 percent of the U.S. population, earned less than the poverty threshold of $20,794 a year for a family of four.
Grain and soybean prices, buoyed by the rush to create ethanol, have risen and have created a "boom" in some farming sectors. However, many believe that the primary benefactors of this "boom" are the large agri-businesses and not the American farm families or citizens living in small towns.
Despite the "robust" farm economy, the rate of poverty in rural areas is "statistically unchanged" and remains at 15.2 percent, or 3 points above the national average.
There are 2 million U.S. farms, so farm households are a small part of the population living outside cities. These figures showing the poverty rate unchanged describe all people living in any areas that have less than 50,000 residents.
Consequently, this dismal poverty rate describes family farms as well as the aggregate of people living in towns. Rather than produce a rural poverty rate that covers those living outside all city limits, the Census Bureau provides its rural poverty figures for people in regions with less than 50,000 residents.
Some economists say income rates are lower outside the big cities because rural residents tend to be an older, lower-earning age group, than the national average. However, those of us who live in rural areas know the truth - all rural families are struggling. We know that jobs in small towns don't pay much and the tax rates in small towns continue to skyrocket.
"Rural America has been struggling throughout the decade," says Jim Weill, president of the anti-poverty group Food Research and Action Center. While farm income is climbing, "the income for rural Americans are not connected."
Bottom line: Americans in small towns are suffering.
Published August 29, 2007 by Lola Wheeler |
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| Tags:
Agriculture
Economy
Farming
Poverty
