Rural America Becoming 'Less and Less Relevant,' Says Ag. Secretary

USDA Chief bears words of warning for America's farming communities

A high-ranking paper pusher just proved his chops as a man of action by firing a loud and ringing shot directly into the culture war.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the rural denizens of America that their concerns are becoming "less and less relevant," reports the AP. Citing the failure of the nation's typically popular (though not with economists) farm bill to sail through Congress in an election year, Vilsack told a gathering of agricultural lobbyists in DC that it represents a weakening of their national influence.

"Rural America is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country," said Vilsack, who pointed out the rapid population declines in American's hinterlands. Vilsack also implored those in attendance to not only strive harder to convince the country's youth to take up careers in agriculture, but to embrace diversity, because it's an important concept to young people leaving rural counties.

"We need a proactive message, not a reactive message," urged the Secretary. "Spend our energy doing that, and I think we're going to have a lot of young people who want to be part of that future."

Via the AP.

Is rural America becoming less politically relevant?

[sabbatical]

And Not Just Rural ...

[PoliticalSpice]

How true this is. Once we shared superpower status with westen europe and ussr, today westen europe and ussr ar on the verge of bankruptcy. The u.s. is living on a credit card issued by chinese communist party to W to pay for his war.

Despite the nalpaming of Vietnamese children by the u.s. people still aspired to come to America, because they loved its ideals, freedom, democracy. But after W took over they began associating america with stolen elections, launching a war based on a lie, setting up torture prisons, the murder of innocent civilians...

[PNWest]

Read the book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" for a good analysis of whats going on here. The GOP has successfully exploited explosive cultural issues like gay marriage, abortion and cultural intolerance to turn the rural anger towards us elitist liberals. They end up voting for republicans (and an occasional conservative democrat) who sell them out to the big agricultural corporations. It was the liberal democrats that created policies from the great depression into the 1960s that got electricity and phone service to them allowing them to have a middle class lifestyle. Now that they vote republican the dems are not to inclined to do them any favors and the GOP only wants them for their vote. Until they wise up and realize that the GOP has done them no favors theirs lives aren't going to get any better.

[Cheenoguy]

@PNWest
Great doc of the same name based on book. Streams on Netflix.

[jessejaymes]

@PoliticalSpice Germany and France are holding tight. Italy has always been a disaster. England is in shambles because of their liberal immigration policy that says anyone who comes from a country that England once conquered can come and go as they please. London is becoming a large huge black ghetto like I had never seen before along with Islamic ghettos. The problem in Spain and Greece is that they promised these great retirements and stole the retirement money much as they have raided SS funds here. Switzerland is rated as the most desirable country in the world to live in, in every list I've seen in the past 10 years. We like to think that everyone has crumbled before us but that simply isn't true. The USA is going to go before a lot of other countries.

[PoliticalSpice]

@jessejaymes Agreed. Do you think we will become a former power, like u.k., france or will just go into a death spiral and become a nation at cold war between each state, dysfunctional govt., or opt for a more fascistic type of sysstem. Where do you see this country in 10, 20 years?

[MRMacrum]

Why is the question about relevancy? His comment was not meant to piss rural folks off. It was actually a wake up call from him. I pulled from his comments that if rural America wants to stay relevant, they need to do something about it.

My feeling is all of America's population is relevant to our health as a nation.

[woodtick57]

That's what I got out of the article also, that US demographics are still continuing to change...

[WilliamWallace]

What I gathered from the article was, that the media continues to spin stuff for controversy.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

All of America's population is not relevant. Those who live in the sewers of our inner cities and continue to vote for the very conditions that put them in poverty are not relevant. Funny, the liberal press doesn't have an article saying that though.

[FFX_VA]

He was addressing the failed farm bill, at some point it won't be economically viable to make a living as a family farm and they will turn into corporate farms paying min wage. The business influence will replace rural influence. Times change whether we like it or not.

The real down side of this influence (and subsidy) shift of funding from farms to healthcare & green energy is food prices will rise significantly. This affects people with lower incomes the most, but we're so spoiled as a nation right now few seem to care about that impact, and won't until it becomes a political issue.

[Jeff_Woehrle]

@Neo_NtheMatrix You nailed it. Decades of the liberal 'war on poverty' has produced legions of folks still in poverty and cities driven to bankruptcy in the effort to change it.

[CATTLEPROD]

I know. were all hicks and hayseeds, our opinion doent matter in america, the land of women, minorities, children. You sure like that food though, dont you? What if the southern states put an embargo on any food product destined for new york or new england? I dont like the idea of feeding people who look down on the providers of that food.

[woodtick57]

You don't think there are farms in New York or New England?

[PoliticalSpice]

Well I hope you include in that the idea that we should treat immigrant farm workers better and not torment them with stupidity like the arizona law, respect their contribution by offering those who work and live here doing work most americans don't want to harvesting crops, butchering meat, allow them to remain unmolested and become citizens instead of need to fear deportation...

[FollowTheMoney]

@PoliticalSpice immigrant,sure...Illegal immigrant, hell no.

[PoliticalSpice]

@FollowTheMoney
Well those are the ones harvesting our crops, so if your not prepared to treat em better that means farms go broke, food prices double or triple. Did you know farms in Georgia literally had crops rotting in the feilds this year after immigrants fearful of arrest/deportaion self deported to other states after Georgia passed a law modeled on the arizon statute?

[woodtick57]

@PoliticalSpice

It is sad that in this coutry, in this day and age we have a shadow society of people without the protections that legal workers in the US are guaranteed. Of course, if the people of AZ followed the laws they had on their books (making it illegal to hire undocumented workers) long before their "new" immigration law, that wouldnt be such a problem...

[S-N-A-F-U]

Here we have another career politician lamenting about rural America -- alluding more to politics than agriculture. Vilsack has repeatedly demonstrated a preference for large industrial farms and genetically modified crops -- not a very popular stand amonst most Americans. When people stop eating, his point may garner more support and validity.

[woodtick57]

Almost all the soybeans and corn grown in the US are GMOs. seems the farmers other americans think they are popular...

[stepped_in_it]

Please name ONE crop that has NOT been "genetically modified". Corn/wheat/soybean....etc did NOT exist naturally. They were "genetically modified crops" long before we knew they were "genetically modified". Heck, they were "genetically modified crops" before our great, great, great grandparents lives!

[Dan_Tien]

@stepped_in_it Crossbreeding to improve desirable qualities of planets or animals is not the same as altering them with genetic engineering. Crossbreeding is a process that happens in nature even without human intervention, genetic engineering does not.

[woodtick57]

@Dan_Tien

Genetic engineering is just more precise, and quicker.(And can introduce traits not naturally foud in that species...).

Natural crossbreading creates plants that are more viable for their environment, man-made crossbreading creates plants that are more beneficial for human use.

[Dan_Tien]

@woodtick57 Genetic engineering is not just more precise, it can ultimately create species that did not exist before.

[Kellso]

Sorry to say but the rest of the 'non food producing' people of the world should wake up and smell the roses and realize that if it were not for the few that produce all YOU FOOD you would be in one heck of a mess.

[Sonny]

No, kellso----See that is the myth that they and you would like us to believe...Hey look, if some in "rural America" stopped producing crops...Guess what...someone, somewhere else, would just pick up the task...Isn't that the "free market" that you guys always talk about anyway....Nothing special about crops coming out of "the heartland"---when they could just as easily come from somewhere else in America.

[Kellso]

@Sonny You are barking the same song as I am. Without rual america (farms) city slickers woudl starve since they have no place to grow enough food to sustain their lives thru the year.

[Sonny]

@Kellso That's not the "song I'm barking" at all. I am saying that people will always find a way to survive...and grow what ever crops they need. If, say Nebraska, stops growing crops...then they can, for example, grow more in upstate New York (I know, I used to live there). If Idaho stops growing potatoes, then they can pick up the slack in Virginia & Maryland, and even No. Carolina..Nobody is even remotely moved by any "threat" from "rural America"...Soil is soil...and crops can grow just as well in one state as they can in another.

[Kellso]

@Sonny I agree that RURAL America will take up the slack BUT the millions and millions that live in NYC ro Chicago or Detroit or Dallas and so on will starve to death or be killed tryihg to stay alive. This country better start paying attention to the farmers and all rural people far more than they do now since they feed the rest of the multitude.

[Sonny]

@Kellso Well, I just simply disagree with you. You know, I went into a super market they other day...And I bought a bunch of vegetables (all kinds)...and you know where they came from? Mexico!...And last month...I drove a few miles east of where I live, to an open air "farmers market" (in Maryland) and purchased a lot of stuff for Thanks Giving...And in all of these cases, nothing I bought came from "rural America" or the so-called "heartland"...So I will have to simply disagree with you.

[Belin]

The people in the cities need to realize that those of us in the agriculture industry are who feed them and grow cotton to put clothes on their backs. Do they really want to be a nation that has to rely on importing food? Being self suffecient to feed ourselves puts us above other over populated first world countries.
Personally, the farm land my family owns and leases out to a farmer is the only retirement we will have because the recession ate through all our savings. We are just getting to the point of starting to save again. Believe me, we cut back on everything financially. We have my husbands 401K, which is not worth as much as before, the farm land income and whatever we can save from this point. Definitely not the plan that was in place before.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

I think it is the inner city cesspools that are becoming less and less relevant. These people continually generation after generation vote for the very same things that have put them in the positions they are in. They don't learn, nor do they have the capacity to try something different that works. Let the media is constantly beating up on the side of America that is working, that is producing, that is carrying the rest of the slackers and 47%. Where is the article talking about how the inner cities with their high poverty and high crime rates are dragging down America? Liberals won't testify.

[Dan_Tien]

I disagree with his statement that rural Americans are becoming irrelevant. What does seem to be true is that the ability to live in rural America is becoming untenable. If what he means to say is that the majority of Americans are concentrated in the cities and that there are too few rural Americans to swing the outcome of elections in their favor, that could be said without emotionally loaded and demeaning rhetoric.

[Thunderchicken]

Is rural America becoming less politically relevant? Lets rephrase the question. Are the productive in America becoming less politically relevant? I say yes. That is until the productive are no longer willing to fuel the engine of entitlements.

[Malitia_Man]

Couldn't have said it better!

[Republican5001]

Here here.

[Look_for_truth]

Hopefully the productive in America will wake up and join forces sooner rather than later.

[CaryNickel]

Rural America is becoming less politically relevant because our "leaders" want it that way. Politicians have developed an electoral system heavily weighted towards cities, and urban values, which do not match those of rural folks. Urban dwellers are more easily led, because their daily lives are far more connected to, and dependent upon, "the man", so they naturally accept direction. Rural people, being of a more independent mind, are more likely to resist increased government intrusion, because they are used to doing for themselves anyway, and can continue to do so in the absence of government. If you grow your own food, chop your own firewood for heat, fix your own cars, weld, can swing a hammer, etc. etc., what do you need a bunch of people who wear suits and sit in offices for?

City people don't understand how important rural America is, primarily because they think all their food comes from the grocery store. If they ever arrive at the local supermarket to nothing but empty shelves, they will find out how important rural America actually is, and in a hurry.

[woodtick57]

How many people in rural areas,or anywhere for that matter are self sufficient?

Do the farmers in rural US not need "the man" for their roads to get their crops to the market that was created by "the man" (subsidized crops, that is...)

[CaryNickel]

@woodtick57 I would say the farmers themselves do not. I own some land in a rural ranching area here in New Mexico, and the roads, some of which date back to wagon trails, do not see government maintenance. Other roads, bladed back in the 1970's by the folks who split the land into smaller parcels, haven't seen other than private maintenance since. The roads are rough, and in wet weather require 4x4. But somehow, the ranchers are always able to get their cattle to market. Horses and quads are used during roundup. As for the paved roads that come within 8 or 10 miles of the area? Well, that is what we all pay fuel taxes for, but before the roads? It was driving the cattle to the railhead on horseback, 30 miles. As for farm subsidies, they were really pushed starting during the F.D.R. administration to keep food on the table all across the nation. Farmers were already eating well, even if they were "cash poor". My grandmother lived to age 93, and was on the farm during the great depression. She used to tell me how a store bought pair of shoes once a year was a treat, but as for food on the table, pork, beef, chicken, and all the butter, grains, fruit, and flour one could want were there in abundance. Though the actual number of people nowadays who are really self-sufficient is small, I would stick with the rural farmers as for ABILITY to be self-sufficient.

[seedtick]

Consider the administration he is a part of...they are not friends to rural Americans. The following paragraph is copied from the USDA website. It tells what the priorities are. Farmers who win government contracts for food stamps are rolling in the dough. And, those growing corn for ethynol are doing great. But, when working Americans go to the butcher shop or the produce department in their grocery store, the truth about who pays is evident.
"In three years at the Department, Vilsack has worked to implement President Obama's agenda to put Americans back to work and create an economy built to last. USDA has supported farmers, ranchers and growers who are enjoying record earnings, provided food assistance to 1 in 4 Americans, conserved our natural resources and helped provide a safe, sufficient and nutritious food supply for the American people."
Free food to the needy is one thing, but WHEN DO WE THE PEOPLE GET A BREAK AND SEE LOWER FOOD PRICES?

[CCR]

Hmmm...Obama compared to Lincoln, his Ag Secretary says Rural America is become "less and less relevant." I remember reading in history about this right here. Of course, that was right before Lincoln led an unjust war on a sovereign nation who had done nothing to provoke him.

[Grubby]

Yes, the liberal elite idiots, led by our Idiot in Chief, will relegate rural America to irrelevancy, until they wake up one day with no food on their table and sing "where have all the farmers gone?"

[tomincali]

thats one wake up call that would straighten them up real fast and in a hurry.

[seedtick]

The problem is that the city folks are running things. It makes me think of something I heard on a news program in Fresno, CA several years ago. There was a controversy about local farmers and zoning. A reporter was interviewing people on the street. He stopped a well dressed woman and asked if she did not agree with the farmers. She did not hesitate when she said that she did not need the farmers and whatever she needed was easily found at the grocery store. That is exactly what is happening now with the city folks.

[Grubby]

@seedtick HaHa. That's funny. Having grown up in rural America, actually as rural as it comes, I have been amused by city folk comments, including a woman who once said (not in jest) that she did not agree with killing animals for food, because we can get our steak and hamburger at the grocery store. Total ignorant morons being raised in city isolation. And to think, we let these people vote (democrats).

[seedtick]

@Grubby Typical...we used to get the city boys out to go snipe hunting at night when I was a teenager. The country is still fun...I retired to a country cottage on 14 acres and no close neighbors....just the wildlife and some old woman that's been chasing me for 45 years.

[UScentral]

You're going to have to tell those folks what the meaning of the word relevant is if you're going to start using such words.

[DARSB]

Not only can't you keep them down on the farm, the ones left tend to be Republicans outvoted by their Democratic neighbors. Not good for rural interests or the GOP.

[NormalFlora]

It's not farming, or the rural lifestyle that is becoming irrelevant. It's the unthinking obeisance to the evangelical mythology that is making middle America the land of the irrelevant zealots.

[RedFloppyShoes]

But because of Agenda 21, the idea of this administration is to move people into the large cities and pack them in like rats. This would effectively begin the erosion of personal property rights. How this administration is doing this is through less and less funding for roads, brigdes, etc. and services for rural cities. it will also include higher utility prices, gas prices and aggressive taxation.

[Concerned_Cit]

Bingo! Agenda 21 started two decades ago, and almost all politicians on both sides have bought into it, but they keep America's attention diverted from it with silly talking points and distractions.

[RedFloppyShoes]

@Concerned_Cit I have been fighting Agenda 21 since the NWO speech from George Bush 41. It scared the hell out of me then, Ross Perot called that we would be in this very place 20 years ago. I have been called a Kook about this since then. Now it is all coming true and my kids have to live with it. I am embarrassed of what my parent's generation have done to us all.

[SavageMazx]

Cool, forget about us out here in the sticks, keep your politics in the big city, along with your crime, homeless, stupid meaningless spending on free phones to the homeless and free condoms to school kids, we fine our here "clinging to our guns and god".(returns to building a higher wall at his compound)