Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Capt.D.C.G.Fox." <cdfox@optusnet.com.au>]

This is unfortunate as these small communities will be the large communities
of tomorrow as the population will have to reside where the food is
produced, as it will be too expensive to feed to the current large cites.
Regards,
Douglas.

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:25:37 -0600
From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
Subject: [Livingontheland] High gas prices threaten to drain small
        towns? populations
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <200807010925370052.12A70258@mail.lobo.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"


 Posted on Sat, Jun. 28, 2008
High gas prices threaten to drain small towns? populations
By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/683605.html

LEETON, Mo. | In this small town south of Warrensburg, directions usually
begin with, ?From Casey?s, you go ??

That would be Casey?s General Store, the only gas station in town. It?s
where folks fill up while talking about goings-on, politics, weather and
who?s got the best-looking tomatoes.

These days, they?re also cussing and shaking their heads about the price of
that gasoline. People are doing that everywhere, but in small towns such as
Leeton, population 619, it?s even more of a gut punch because nearly every
working adult commutes to jobs elsewhere.

These days, there had better be a really good job on the other end of that
trip.

Don Campbell?s daily commute to Kansas City ? about 100 miles each way ?
costs him roughly $866 a month at $3.90 per gallon. But he?s a union iron
worker and says he can make the math work.

Most of his neighbors can?t. For them and thousands of other small-town
residents across the country who drive long distances to jobs that pay
little more than minimum wage, the high cost of gas is making that daily
commute cost-prohibitive.

So much so that economists predict that over the next few years, the country
could see a migration that would greatly reduce the population of Small Town
America ? resulting in a painful shift away from lifestyle, family roots,
traditions and school ties.


?This town?s the only place I know,? said Louie Rector, who drives 35 miles
to his job at a window factory from his home in tiny Dixon, Mo., about 20
miles west of Rolla.

?I grew up here ? raised my kids here. I got my family and friends all here.
I don?t want to pack up and leave. But it?s getting to the point where a
fella can?t afford to drive to work, and that don?t seem right to me.?

A common fate

Towns such as Dixon and Leeton are everywhere in America. Many don?t have
much beyond a post office, a grocery and maybe a school. Economists use
Wymore, Neb., as an example in that 68 percent of working adults in town
commute to jobs elsewhere, most to Beatrice, Neb.

The expected exodus from small towns, said Don Macke, a widely considered
authority on rural economics and head of the Center for Rural
Entrepreneurship in Lincoln, Neb., will be far more profound than the
gradual erosion that has been going on since World War II. That decline was
due to the country?s shift away from an agrarian economy and a choice for
convenience: People wanted to be closer to jobs, shopping and entertainment.

The new flight, Macke thinks, will be more out of necessity.

Most commuters from small towns are high school graduates. They are driving
50 miles or more to work as school cooks, hospital aides, office workers,
dental assistants and unskilled factory workers.

?The reality is that those jobs don?t pay all that well,? said Macke, who is
also a visiting scholar with the Rural Policy Research Institute at the
University of Missouri. ?They?re spending up to $500 a month on gas. A third
to half is already technically working poor.

?And as gas goes higher, they will get poorer and these towns will soon
struggle to hold on to these people.?

David McGranahan, a senior economist with the Economic Research Service of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, added that the decline would not be
entirely longtime residents moving away.

?Young people who leave these towns to go off to college or the military may
decide not to go back ? as many have always done in years past,? McGranahan
said. ?Also, fewer people will leave the city to move to small towns in
search of a quiet life.?

But nobody is writing off small towns. Who knows what type of vehicle will
come along next? There?s carpooling. Computer technology increasingly allows
people to work from home. And some communities are working on ways to
provide jobs in town.

?I have a lot of faith in ingenuity and the entrepreneurial spirit,? Macke
said.

That rescue better happen fast, said Leeton Mayor Larry Mudd. He has lived
all his 62 years there and used to commute to Kansas City to work as a
school administrator ? back when gas was cheap.

He hears the talk around town and he expects to see people, particularly
young families, move away.

?People are mad as hell, but they don?t know who to blame,? Mudd said. ?I
know we got people here who are buying gas instead of paying bills.

?What a lot of towns are going to end up with is a bunch of empty buildings
and empty houses.?

Open space, cheap gas

Since the advent of the automobile in the early 20th century, the American
rural landscape has been one of spacious land and cheap fuel.

It was commonplace for people to drive long distances for jobs. In isolated
areas, such as western Kansas, the drive could be 100 miles or more. Those
commuters may have complained about the time in the car, but seldom about
the price of gas.

Throughout that period, too, many towns had a factory, and mom-and-pop
stores lined main streets.

That has all changed.

Factories in many towns closed years ago as small companies folded or
manufacturers sent jobs overseas. Mom-and-pop stores gave way to Wal-Marts
in bigger towns. When those changes occurred, jobs and shopping required
trips out of town.

And now, gas prices are at all-time highs.

Brian Dabson, co-director of the Truman School of Public Affairs at the
University of Missouri, said the new financial reality has changed the
parameters of ?rural poor.?

The term used to apply mainly to pockets of poverty in Appalachia, the
Mississippi Delta, Indian reservations, and the Texas-Mexico border area.

?Now, it?s everywhere ? Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska,? Dabson said. ?The price
of gas has redefined a ?sustainable wage.??

There is little public transportation in these rural areas. And there is
less pubic assistance today. Farmers make more money from corn because of
its use to make ethanol, but towns aren?t sharing in any windfall because
the cost of farming has gone up, too, and there are fewer farmers.

No question that gas prices will chase some people closer to urban areas,
Dabson predicted.

?There is no hiding place from global pressure,? he said.

So why isn?t the same thing happening in Europe, where gas prices are even
higher?

Because trains connect almost every town there, Macke said. And yes, some
people in urban and suburban areas in this country drive 30 miles to work,
too, but they tend to be more affluent.

It is in rural America where lives are being turned upside down.

?This country had not planned on a big jump in fuel costs,? Macke said.

?No jobs here?

Well I was born in a small town,

and I can breathe in a small town.

Gonna die in this small town,

and that?s probably where they?ll bury me.

? John Mellencamp, ?Small Town,? 1985


The classic song was seemingly written for guys like Rector of Dixon. He
never figured he would ever leave his hometown on the edge of the Mark Twain
National Forest.

According to Dixon?s marshal, Clifty Yoakum, most every working adult leaves
town each morning for jobs in other places, such as Rolla or Jefferson City.

?They have to ? no jobs here,? Yoakum said.

For 29 years, Rector has driven to the Quaker Window factory in Freeburg, 35
miles to the north. The factory is unusual in that it has more employees
than that town has people.

?We got about 450 workers and they come from all over, probably six or seven
counties,? said owner Mike Knoll. ?We pay $8 to $10 an hour ? better than
minimum wage ? but I know my people are really feeling the gas crunch.?

He recently ordered a switch to four 10-hour days to save his employees a
day?s drive.

?That?s one day we don?t have to pay $20 for gas,? said Rector?s daughter,
Tracy, who also works at Quaker.

?Everybody is feeling what?s going on. They?re cutting back at the grocery
store, not going out to eat. But even with that, when you get your check
there?s nothing left. Gas goes much higher ? people are going to stop going
to work.?

Her father may leave Dixon and move closer to Freeburg, but Tracy Rector
isn?t yet ready to commit to such a drastic move from her hometown.

?But I?m like most people ? I don?t know what to do.?

Back in Leeton, school Superintendent William Nicely knows he could see a
drop in enrollment if families leave. It?s a highly accredited school and
this year graduated 19 seniors.

But he knows why it would happen because he commutes the other way.

?I live in Sedalia and drive here every day ? I know what families are going
through,? Nicely said.

Resident Jerry King doesn?t have to worry about it. He?s retired. He used to
work at a tire shop in Sedalia.

?I wouldn?t want to be making that trip these days, not with gas where it
is,? King said. ?Heck, I don?t even want to drive to Windsor for groceries.?

Mudd, the mayor, worries that younger residents will start thinking the same
way.

?When people move away, towns lose their tax base,? Mudd said. ?Then you
can?t fix streets ? you can?t do much of anything. That makes even more
people leave.

?Pretty soon, won?t be much left in these old towns.?





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