• Renewable natural resource industries like agriculture and forestry once dominated the economy of most of rural America. Today  manufacturing in rural areas accounts for two and half times as many jobs as agriculture and forestry. Still, farming and forestry industries are vital - both economically and culturally - for vast areas of rural America. Sustaining agriculture and other renewable resource industries will be critical to sustaining the vitality of many rural communities.
• There is general agreement that creating sustainable alternative methods for crop production is  desired or even critically necessary, but sustainable agriculture means many things to many people.
  
• It could be argued that sustainability in agriculture is essentially an energy issue. Since the early 20^th century, the energy of human and animal labor and wastes has been replaced with the use of fossil fuels and mechanization. Today nearly half the energy consumed in the United States goes into our agricultural system. This transformation of agriculture has been tremendously productive in terms of delivering large quantities of inexpensive food, yet it comes at a social and environmental cost to rural communities and landscapes.
• And while such changes have yielded social benefits, they have also carried with them a cost. Today, we see small and medium-sized farms struggling in an increasingly concentrated and global economy. Similarly, forest communities grapple with a change in natural resource management priorities and mounting environmental concerns. Urban-based internet economies  threaten to exclude some rural communities from the benefits of the new information boom. Some rural communities face a drain of population, while others, particularly those with high scenic or recreational value, struggle with exploding transient or permanent populations placing new demands on ecosystems and traditional ways of life.
• Despite these challenges, there is still plenty of cause for optimism. Resilience and self-determination are two enduring traits that typify rural communities. For rural America, the rapid pace of change brings with it not only challenges but opportunities as well. In some ways, sustainable development aims to manage change that is inevitable, and to do it in ways that are economically sound, environmentally responsible and socially equitable. The most successful rural communities will  build on local assets and abilities while adopting and adapting new ideas and technologies to the local context.

 FUNDING AND PROJECT PRIORITIES 2008

Areas of particular interest:

• Providing access to education, technology and resources for rural small farms and rural enterprises.
• Providing resources and support for woman-owned small farms
• Enhancing opportunities for rural woman entrepreneurship
• Research, education and promotion of sustainable and organic crop production
• Developing markets for sustainably-grown crops
• Developing year-around family-wage rural jobs
• Improving consumer awareness of the benefits of sustainably-produced crops
• Transfer of sustainable research results to real-time rural end-users

 Contact us: Staff at The Foundation for Rural Sustainability