Welcome to Rural Economic Development Today

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by Lif Strand

Rural Economic Development Today

Bailouts, foreclosures, stock market losses, job insecurity, financial uncertainty:  Signs of our economic times.  Who isn't worried about our economic future as individuals, families and a nation?

Welcome to Rural Economic Development Today, a blog dedicated to the specific needs of rural economies.  

My name is Lif Strand, and I'm a Local Economic Developer in Catron County, New Mexico.  As I write this, I’m sitting in an economic conference, listening to doom and gloom about the economic situation today. (I should be paying full attention, but the sound system is pretty bad). 

People are afraid, and that’s understandable.  Elections are coming up and no one knows what changes the new administration will bring about; no one knows if those changes will make things better or worse for each of us, particularly those of us who live in rural America.  No one knows if stock market fluctuations will wipe out our investments or shore them up; no one knows if the government’s bailout plans will wipe out our economy or save us.

Rural Americans are often the step-children of economic development planning on the federal and state level.  Lip service is given to us, but generally funds go to developed areas and we are left with the trickle-down, which isn’t much benefit at all.

The sad fact is that rural America is the very foundation of our country’s economy (and to an extent that of the world).  Rural America feeds everyone, supplies the natural resources that manufacturing is based on.  The focus of all economic development, particularly right now when things are so shaky, should be to stabilize the foundation, to assess what is wrong and fix it – making sure that the fix is not just for rural economic development today but for tomorrow and the next decade and beyond. 

This blog is here to examine the issues of rural economic development and, collaboratively – with your help – to identify those issues and look for solutions that will work for rural economic development.  Your feedback is welcome.