ABSTRACT
Historically, rural economies have been most closely associated with farming, agriculture, and raw materials processing. While farming is still important, the rural dependence on it has dropped substantially in the past few decades. For example, between 1972 and 2000, agriculture went from being a leading source of income in 25 percent of U.S. rural counties to 10 percent (Drabenstott 2003; Quigley 2002). As of 1999, 90 percent of rural workers held nonfarm jobs, and only 6.3 percent of the rural population lived on farms (Drabenstott 2003). In part, the decline of agriculture has been the consequence of the long-term consolidation of the farming industry and tremendous gains in productivity that have allowed American commodities to remain competitive in global markets. The downside of these productivity gains is the need for fewer agricultural workers, precipitating out-migration and the long-term population loss that has turned many once-thriving rural communities into near ghost towns.
