1. Build a Solid Foundation of Prosperity for America’s Family Farmers, Ranchers, and Foresters – America’s family farmers, ranchers, and foresters are a diverse, constantly evolving group of more than 2.2 million entrepreneurs. They greatly differ in the size of their operations, the products they produce, their enterprise structure, their needs for capital, their use of farm labor, their environmental challenges, their geographic locations, their marketing decisions, and revenues derived from their agricultural operations. Roughly 125,000 U.S. farms are commercial operations and account for 75% of all domestic agricultural production. The remaining 94% of U.S. farms incorporate non-farm income in their business plan.
Federal farm programs should foster increased participation in the agricultural sector and promote the broadest practical distribution of agricultural production by encouraging more Americans to include farming, ranching, or forestry as part of their entrepreneurial goals. According to the Census of Agriculture, a majority of our nation’s farmers are over 57 years old and 30% of our farmers are over the age of 65. We must assure that today’s family farmers can retire with dignity, and that their productive resources will be transferred to a new generation of ag-entrepreneurs. Farm programs should reward innovative and sustainable practices, encourage sound conservation techniques, preserve prime farmland, comply with trade agreements, respond quickly to natural disasters, drive scientific animal husbandry and veterinary practices, and promote cost saving and environmentally beneficial new technologies for the entire agriculture sector. Farm policy must also protect farmers from risks that are beyond their control, as well as from undue concentration of market power that restricts competition or entry into the agriculture sector and unwarranted bureaucratic intrusion into the business of producing food to meet local demand, without any demonstration of commensurate food safety benefits to consumers.
2. Respond to the National Financial Crisis Sweeping Across Rural America– Today our nation faces the worst financial crisis in generations. The farmers and entrepreneurs of rural America did not create this crisis, but its impact is felt disproportionately in farming and rural communities. Today, rural counties lose jobs faster than urban or suburban counties. Rural counties dependent on manufacturing and low wage services, like call centers, are especially hard hit. Even many farming dependant counties are experiencing a sharp economic downturn.
Yet, rural America’s farmers and entrepreneurs remain its primary engine of prosperity. A larger portion of the workforce in rural areas are self-employed, or work for someone who is self employed, than in urban or suburban communities. Immediate action to revive the national economy by cushioning the impacts of widespread unemployment, creating new jobs through extensive investments in rural public works infrastructure programs, restoring confidence in the financial system, and protecting American taxpayers should be the first priority of the President and of Congress.
Further investigation and possible prosecution or civil action against individuals involved in the collapse of the financial industry should be vigorously pursued. Companies that engaged in corrupt, incompetent, or fraudulent business practices should not receive taxpayer bailouts. Strict limits must be placed on the compensation for executives of companies that receive bailouts. Indefinite government ownership or control of private business must be avoided. All major corporations, especially financial institutions, that are “too big to fail” and that have fallen into receivership or direct government ownership should be quickly restructured, broken up into competitive businesses, or processed through bankruptcy, in order to return their productive assets to the private sector.
As the financial crisis has expanded to the personal credit, small business, home mortgage, and farming sectors, rural entrepreneurs are forced to close businesses and sell assets. Personal and small business bankruptcies and foreclosures are rising. Small business credit lines, home mortgages/equity loans, and personal credit card debts should be immediately restructured so that interest rates are no more than five percent above the prime-lending rate.
Systematic reforms of the Federal Government’s fiscal policy are also needed to ensure a return to general prosperity, price stability, and an equitable distribution of our nation’s productive resources among all members of society. We cannot shift the unsustainable excess of borrowing, speculation, and financial leverage that occurred in the private sector onto the public debt (and thereby on to future generations) in order to artificially “stimulate” our economy. Before the Federal Government can credibly provide meaningful oversight over the profligate business practices of private financial institutions and other corporations to prevent a similar crisis in the future, our national political leaders must first lead by example, by adopting concrete commitments to balance the federal budget within five years, further reduce the outstanding federal deficit, and address the burgeoning unfunded liabilities in our national social insurance safety net.
3. Expand Telecommunications Services in Rural Areas – Universal access to affordable, reliable, and competitive telecommunications technologies such as telephone, cellular, wireless, digital broadcast television, radio, internet, satellite, and competitive video services must be available to rural communities at affordable costs. As these technologies converge, national, state, and local laws that regulate these technologies should remove the uncertainty that has deterred additional investment in rural telecommunications.
The internet delivers information, services, and products efficiently, irrespective of geographic location. Rural telecommuters enjoy rewarding careers and lifestyles, while conserving energy and reducing traffic congestion. Cell phones increase personal security in remote areas and offer cost effective service to low-income individuals. Telemedicine and tele-education both bring vital new services to rural communities. Global positioning satellites improve productivity on America’s farms.
Even with these benefits, we must protect children from inappropriate materials, restrict online access to prescription pharmaceuticals, as well as reduce incidents of spam, fraud, and loss of privacy from these technologies. Access to telecommunications technologies in rural areas will create new services, new innovations and new applications that will become more affordable as time goes on.
4. Achieve Energy Security for Rural America – Dependence on imported energy and high prices threaten our national security. High energy costs force farmers to abandon crops in their fields or sell livestock at a loss. Renewable energy from our nation’s farms, better utilization of traditional domestic energy sources, and enhanced energy conservation are the keys to reducing our dependence on imported energy and combating climate change.
However, existing energy policies often contradict this effective three-pronged strategy. Renewable energy from our nation’s farms and rural communities is grossly underutilized and faces government regulatory hurdles to further utilization that are not based on sound science or practical observation. Volatile energy prices, driven in part, by Wall Street speculators, have crippled our nation’s fertilizer and agricultural chemical production capacity. Domestic energy reserves cannot be developed because of unscientific, ecological prejudices. Environmentally marginal policies, such as arbitrary “Cap and Trade” carbon taxes will increase energy costs without any increase in the number of new clean energy jobs, increase in domestic energy production, increase in energy efficiency, or a reduction of dependence on imported energy. Specific efforts to promote infrastructure improvements that increase efficiency and reduce energy costs in rural areas, such as: streamlined approval for road, rail, and water transportation projects; opening the Yucca Mountain site for storage of nuclear waste; hydroelectric, bio-methane; wind and solar energy projects; and electricity transmission upgrades, all languish before Federal bureaucrats. Voluntary and cost effective rural energy conservation programs, such as passenger rail service, regional air transportation service, telecommuting, telecommerce, home and farm weatherization, car/van pooling, and affordable inter-community bus service, are under utilized and lack financial support.
5. Improve the Quality and Availability of Rural Health Care – Rural Americans face daunting challenges to acquire adequate health care. Today, family farmers, ranchers, and rural residents need access to affordable, portable health care, health insurance, and prescription drug coverage regardless of their age, race, income, health condition, or location with freedom of choice of medical provider and facility. Efforts to reform our national health care system must assure that programs to reduce overall health care costs or expand coverage must guarantee access to the right care by the right provider at the right time in the right place and for the right cost for all. Medical decisions about individual courses of treatment must be made only by patients and their licensed medical professionals and never by insurance company or government bureaucrats.
Yet, health care reform will have no value if there are no health care resources in rural communities. Health care reform must ensure that there are adequate medical facilities and an ample health care workforce that is qualified to deliver all levels of care in every rural community. Existing Medicaid, S-chip, Medicare, Medicare Part D drug benefits, and Medicare Advantage options must be maintained for rural seniors and low-income families. The full range of current private health insurance coverage, including medical savings accounts, medical flexible spending accounts, and long term care coverage, must be available to rural Americans, with 100% income tax deductibility, at prices they can afford, regardless of prior medical conditions, with no restrictions in coverage. Any proposals to reduce reimbursements to rural health care providers must be opposed and additional compensation to primary care physicians from public and private health care plans for non-procedural services, such as patient consultations, must be supported. Rural health care providers also face financial burdens from rampant medical malpractice litigation. Rural health care providers and patients need aggressive deployment of advanced telemedicine and digital record keeping in order to provide adequate care to their communities.
6. Promote Practical and Effective Immigration Reform – The flood of undocumented immigration creates a nationwide financial and social burden to provide these individuals with basic public and governmental services. Undocumented immigration increases the risk of criminal/terrorist activity, presents a danger to public health, promotes the creation of a permanent underclass, and diminishes our national sovereignty. At the same time, the need for legal guest workers to fill labor shortages in agriculture and other parts of our economy is critical. Stop gap measures, such as erecting physical barriers along the borders, shifting the enforcement burden to private employers, and ignoring the problem through de facto amnesty that requires taxpayers and consumers to pay for this crisis, have clearly failed.
The primary responsibility to secure our borders, protect our sovereignty, and assure an orderly supply of guest workers rests with the government at all levels. Increased efforts to secure our borders; increased cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to respond to public safety threats by undocumented aliens; authorization to detain undocumented aliens pending investigation of their status; uniform verification of eligibility for individuals to receive government services; repealing the automatic rights of citizenship to the children of illegal aliens; and reform of outdated guest worker programs, are all practical measures that can be implemented immediately.
Requiring private employers to enforce federal immigration law is vigilantism that places at risk the civil rights of both foreign workers and U.S. citizens. Requiring taxpayers to finance government services for undocumented immigrants who flaunt our laws is contrary to the principals of democratic accountability and popular sovereignty.
7. Support Transportation Improvements that Protect the Freedom of Mobility – Freedom of mobility is vital to rural life. Transportation is the lifeblood of our nation’s economy. Federal transportation investments promote healthy economic growth. However, our highways, railroads, airports, and waterways are deteriorating from failure to support and maintain transportation infrastructures. Since 1970, Americans have increased the miles they drive by more than 148%, while new roads have increased by just 6%. Gridlock costs $67.5 billion a year and wastes 3.6 billion hours. Grain literally rots on the ground waiting to be transported. Private owners of short-line railroads have increasingly abandoned corridors that are vital to farmers. Our nation’s commercial waterways are threatened by environmental regulations and deterioration. Rural airports host 40% of the nation's general aviation fleet and are the primary source of passenger air transportation for 19% of the U.S. population. They are indispensable for fighting forest fires, emergency medical response, aerial pesticide applications, traffic enforcement, wilderness search and rescue, just-in-time package delivery, and other services critical to maintaining a healthy rural economy.
8. Strengthen Civic Participation in Our Society – The challenges related to national security and the national economic crisis continue to test the durability of our liberties and our duties of civic participation. Common frames of reference, such as language, expressions of faith, free enterprise, and patriotism are fundamental prerequisites for individual liberties and vibrant civic participation. These shared references reinforce our national traditions of religious and social tolerance, and foster continued dialogue among the various segments of our society. Technology facilitates civic participation through more open elections and direct communication with policy makers. Strengthening civic participation in our society by acknowledging the roles of language, faith, free enterprise, patriotism, and technology is the most effective way to guarantee our liberty, promote peaceful dialogue, and maintain our way of life.
9. Enhance Public Safety and Homeland Security in Rural Areas – Grange members cherish living in rural communities free of crime and fear. Bio-terrorism threatens the livelihood of family farmers via the domestic transportation or importation of invasive pests and diseases. Consumers are at risk from imported food and other products that fail to meet the same standards as domestically produced products. Family farmers face blatant threats of fear and intimidation from FBI recognized, violent, domestic, extremist groups, such as the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, who attack private property as the means of imposing their radical agendas on society. Well-funded, ancillary, propaganda networks also support this extremist agenda and commonly blame these attacks entirely on the victims.
Urban gangs recruit in rural areas. Criminals use rural locations to manufacture and distribute illegal drugs, such as methamphetamine, and leave landowners with toxic waste sites. Laws regarding criminal penalties for the use of firearms during the commission of a crime are not adequately enforced. The basic rights of crime victims in rural areas go unprotected. Rural law enforcement agencies are often unprepared to address these challenges because they lack the latest technologies needed to communicate with each other and other first responders.
10. Improve the Quality of Rural Education – Public education is important to rural communities because every child deserves a high quality education and the academic success of our children must never depend more on where they live than on their individual potential. An Office of Rural Education should be established within the U.S. Department of Education to specifically advocate for the needs of rural school districts.
We must reform federal education statutes in order to return the authority to direct students’ educations to parents, teachers, and local school boards and to assure that all federally mandated education programs, especially programs for special needs students, are fully and appropriately funded. We must reward teachers who successfully instruct their students to master basic skills and knowledge necessary to become productive members of their community. We must empower teachers and schools officials to quickly confront and respond to disruptive or violent students, without fear of professional retribution. Rural public schools must combat childhood obesity by offering only healthy foods and snacks to students, and through physical education programs.
Home schooling should be a viable alternative to traditional education in rural communities, especially where the distance and cost of transporting students to and from school can impede a child’s ability to learn. Non-intrusive regulations and cooperative partnerships with local school districts can assure that rural home-schooled students receive a high quality education.
