Rural Development News
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Vol. 22, No. 4
The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Winter 1998-99
From the Director
Quality of Life Versus Standard of Living
by Cor nelia Butler Flora
Q
uality of life and standard of living are often
used interchangeably.
But in fact they are two
different concepts that are not
necessarily related. Standard of
living is generally measured by
levels of consumption and thus,
by levels of income. Satisfaction
of basic needs of food, clothing
and shelter are all standard of
living issues. Quality of life is
related to feeling good about
one’s life and one’s self. One
can have a very high standard
of living and a low quality of
life. And one can have a low
standard of living and a high
quality of life.
Inside RD News
National Small Stores Institute
NCRCRD Presents Workshop
at White House Conference
Sustainable Development
Extension Network
Extension Helps Rural Residents
Seek New Sources of Income
Rural Nebraskan’s Optimistic
About the Future
BOD Profile
Does it Take a Village?
Departments
It is not strange that we tend to
confuse quality of life and
standard of living. A major goal
of advertising is to have us
equate the consumption of a
particular product with a higher
quality of life. Thus models in
advertisements are smiling,
admired by other beautiful
people and having fun.
Happiness, respect and joy are
aspects of quality of life that are
generally recognized. Linking
products to those aspects of
quality of life is simply a good
marketing strategy. The product
acquires a meaning larger than
whatever function it will provide
for us—quench our thirst or
transport us from point “a” to
point “b.” Quality of life in
advertising is not equated with
lack of thirst or movement
through space—it is equated
with the feeling of happiness,
choice and esteem that occurs
when that state is achieved in
appropriate ways.
The problem is not that advertisers are evil. Conflating meaning
with an object to have it perform
social functions beyond their
utilitarian function is the only
practical action in a highly
competitive marketplace, where
people may need very little of
what they consume. The need is
socially, not materially, defined.
Eco (1976) argues that any
object, such as a car, can be
considered in any of five separate ways:
Cornelia Butler Flora
1. Physically, as a material object.
2. Mechanically, as an instrument or tool that performs a
function.
3. Economically, as possessing
exchange value.
4. Socially, as a sign status.
5. Semantically, as a cultural
unit that can be used in
discussion. For example, a
car serves as a marker of
time in the statement, “Oh
yes, 1987. That’s when I was
driving the Dodge Valiant”
(Heller 1987).
The confusion between quality of
life and standard of living is not
surprising. Many believe that
those living in urban areas
experience a higher quality of
life, primarily due to their
ability to purchase more goods
and services. As a result, rural
development efforts are often
oriented toward making rural
From the Director
continued on page 2
From the Director
continued from page 1
Origins of Quality
of Life Research
areas more like urban areas,
particularly through industrial
recruitment, usually followed in
the United States by the placement of box stores.
However, when we envision our
future and our community’s
future, it can be dangerous to
confuse quality of life and
standard of living. Because
standard of living is so much
easier to measure, we may
sacrifice quality of life at the
same time we think we are
increasing standard of living.
A research group coordinated by
the North Central Regional
Center for Regional Development
in cooperation with the North
Central Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Extension program, has examined quality of
life and standard of living as
they relate to agriculture and
community.
Center Staff
Cornelia Butler Flora
Director
Pam Cooper
Administrative Secretary
Julie Stewart
Communications Director
Kristi Hetland
Editorial Assistant
Timothy O. Borich
Senior Fellow
Stephen Aigner
Senior Fellow
Much of the quality of life
research comes from the medical community. Schuessler and
Fisher (1985) point out that
quality of life among the elderly
and ill has been studied intensively because these groups are
the target populations of many
large-scale government programs. This may explain the
focus on the physical ability to
do for one’s self in many of the
quality of life studies.
Another set of measures on
personal quality of life focus on
individuals’ judgments about
their own life quality, particularly the effects of disease and
therapy on ill persons. Thus,
quality of life indicators from
the medical model include an
individual’s ability to tie one’s
shoe, to bathe one’s self, fix
one’s own meals, and feed one’s
self. These indicators relate
The North Central Regional Center for Rural
Development is one of four regional centers coor dinating rural development research and education throughout the United States. It is supported
by the land-grant universities of the North Central
region, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and
grants and contracts from private foundations.
The mission of the NCRCRD is to initiate and
facilitate rural development research and education programs to improve the social and economic
well-being of rural people in the region. The
NCRCRD also provides leadership in rural development regionally and nationally by identifying,
developing and supporting programs on the
vanguard of emerging issues.
Rural Development News is published four times a
year. If you would like an article about your
center-funded project included, please submit
copy to the communications director, along with
photographs or other illustrations.
ISSN 0886-8611
Programs of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development are available to all potential clientele without regard to race, color, sex or national origin.
2/Rural Development News
physical condition to personal
self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency
is also a basic aspect of quality
of life measures in alternative
agriculture and community
development.
The goal of community development is not simply to increase
income, but to increase the
means by which people increase
their quality of life. One line of
research, based on quality of life
definitions arising from people
undergoing rapid change, links
quality of life to environmental
quality (Eyles 1990). Much
research by geographers suggests that environmental quality
and quality of life may be two
sides of the same coin.
Subjective versus
Objective Quality of Life
Not all authors are comfortable
with self-reported quality of life.
Moum (1988) argues that systematic errors, as well as
random errors specific in the
shape or mood of the day effects,
will tend to suppress, mask or
wash out statistical associations
between objective indicators of
well-being and self-reported
quality of life.
His study of Norwegian quality
of life uses health measures as
the objective measures. He
found the subjective measures
overestimated quality of life
among older respondents and
underestimated it among welleducated respondents. The
subjective measures he uses for
quality of life include satisfied
with self, lack faith in self, life
is worth living, life is meaningless, in very good spirits, depressed, and a depression score.
The objective measures are
related to how the individuals
felt in the last two weeks,
including using sedatives and
sleeping pills, trouble with
sleep, and being nervous or
fidgety. We included a number of
these measures in our study.
Many studies of quality of life
suggest that interpersonal
relations are an important
aspect, or perhaps the most
important aspect, of quality of
life. For example, Wilkening and
McGranahan (1978) found that
change in interpersonal relations appear to contribute more
heavily to satisfaction with
quality of life than does either
socioeconomic status or social
participation.
Combining these subjective and
objective quality of life measures, the NCRCRD study, led
by Regina Striegel, conducted a
survey of men and women in
farmers’ groups in the North
Central region. Relating the
objective measures with subjective measures of quality of life,
we found:
1. Quality of life is not related—
either positively or negatively—to standard of living.
2. Having choices in the productive work that you do is the
most important dimension of
quality of life. (Note how this
relates to the ability to do for
one’s self, as was found in
the medical research on
quality of life.)
3. The respect of family and
people who matter to you in
your communities of place
and interest is the second key
dimension of quality of life.
Rural development is most
effective in increasing quality of
life when it can increase diver sity, both in the environment
and in the economy, which can
increase social capital—the
norms and networks that provide for a collective identity and
mutual respect. It can also
increase standard of living.
Efforts to promote standard of
living that ignore these dimensions of quality of life may have
National Small Stores Institute
Offers Level 1 and 2 Workshops
J
oin retailing support
practitioners and professionals for the second
National Small Stores Institute
Skills Enhancement Workshop
on February 28 to March 3,
1999. This years workshop will
be held in historic downtown St.
Charles, Illinois, providing firsthand observation of successful
small stores in a unique community setting.
The mission of the National
Small Stores Institute is to
strengthen through educational
processes the knowledge, per spectives and skills of those
professionals who provide
assistance to small store owners
across the United States. Level
1 and Level 2 workshops will
run concurrently this year (only
participants receiving a certificate from Level 1 are eligible for
Level 2).
We encourage the following to
attend: Small Business Development Center staff, Main Street
managers, Extension educators,
bankers and accountants,
serious negative consequences
for people and places.
References
Eco, Humberto. 1976. A Theory
of Semiotics. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
Eyles, John. 1990. “Objectifying
the Subjective: The Measurement of Environmental Quality.”
Social Indicators Research
22:139-153.
Heller, Steve. 1987. The Automotive History of Lucky Keller man.
Chelsea, VT: Chelsea Green
Publishing Company.
Chamber of Commerce professionals, and economic development professionals.
NSSI is part of the USDA Communities in Economic T ransition
program. A national team from
land-grant universities, the
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Small Business Development Centers, the four Regional
Rural Development Centers, and
the private sector are working
together to assist retailers to
become more competitive.
For complete workshop infor mation contact Nor ma Turok at the
University of Illinois CES, 105 E.
Pleasant Hill Rd., Carbondale, IL
62901; (618) 453-5563, (618) 4537106 fax,
turokn@mail.aces.uiuc.edu.9
Moum, Torbjor n. 1988. “Yea
Saying and Mood of the Day
Effects in Self-reported Quality
of Life.” Social Indicators Research 117-139.
Schuessler, K.F. and G.A.
Fisher. 1985. “Quality of Life
Research in Sociology.” Annual
Review of Sociology 11:129-149.
Wilkening, E.A., and D.
McGranahan. 1978. “Correlates
of Subjective Well Being in
Northern Wisconsin.” Social
Indicators Research 5:211-234.9
Winter 1998-99/3
NCRCRD Presents Workshop at White House
Conference on Community Empowerment
by Stephen Aigner
V
ice President Gore welcomed nearly 2,400 local
officials and residents of
urban and rural communities to
the White House Conference on
Community Empowerment in
mid-July. The event focused on
the 10 year Empowerment Zone/
Enterprise Community Initiative
first launched in 1994 by the
Clinton-Gore Administration.
The Initiative is designed to
reduce persistent, pervasive
poverty in both rural and urban
areas by 2005.
The North Central Regional
Center for Rural Development
has monitored and evaluated the
first three year’s performance in
the 33 rural sites through a
cooperative agreement with
USDA’s Rural Development.
Stephen Aigner, a senior fellow
at the Center and head of the
EZ/EC research team, was
invited to the White House
conference to present a workshop on building performance
measurement plans to fit the
locality and to address the four
key principles of the mandating
legislation.
NCRCRD’s presence was unique
in that only two of the 25 workshops were led by university
professors and researchers. The
other presenters were staff
representatives of departments
and agencies. More than 100
attended the workshop on
building performance measurement plans to fit the locality.
Several communities have
contacted the NCRCRD for
additional consultation, including the island of Molokai’ in
Hawaii; Pine Ridge Reservation
4/Rural Development News
in South Dakota; Sacramento,
Califor nia; and New York City.
The NCRCRD has also shared its
generic workbook for building
measurement plans with locally
relevant indicators with Rural
Development and with communities seeking assistance. Carrie
Wilcox, research assistant at
the Center, is the primary
author of the workbook.
The EZ/EC Initiative is an
innovative concept that also
incorporates the thrust to
reinvent government and devolve
authority. The workshops were
geared to the many local elected
officials in attendance.
Undersecretaries and senior
staff from the Department of
Agriculture and the Department
of Housing and Urban Develop-
ment provided technical assistance. The Environmental
Protection Agency and the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration Agency had a
significant presence as well.
Workshop sessions were designed to assist communities in
preparing applications for the
second round of funding. The
Vice-President moderated several panels and used the platform effectively to promote the
Initiative and its vision for the
future. Secretary Glickman of
USDA and Secretary Cuomo of
HUD also brought conference
attendees to their feet as they
expressed their vision of a
responsive government and
EZ/EC
continued on page 7
The EZ/EC legislation fashioned a new approach to the reduction
of poverty, which NCRCRD calls the place-based approach. The
award goes to areas of total 30,000 or less with a poverty rate
average of 25 percent and at least one tract with a poverty rate
equal to or greater than 35 percent.
Communities also had to satisfy four key principles. Each area
submitted a strategic plan or vision that articulated goals and
objectives, and detailed the ways citizens as individual residents
of census tracts participated in developing the plan. The plan
had to identify the community-based partnerships formed to
implement the plan through the crafting of “benchmark” activities over the life of the legislation. The legislation’s key principles also point toward two outcomes, sustainable community
development and economic opportunity for all residents.
In the first round, USDA and HUD selected 33 rural communities
and 65 urban communities to receive the package of tax incentives and community development block grant awards: $40
million to sites designated as Empowerment Zones and $3 million
packages to sites designated as Enterprise Communities. More
than 150 rural communities have submitted strategic plans/
visions for funding in round two. Fourteen of those represent
enlarged, regional EZ applications from 18 of the original 30
Enterprise Communities. A total of 20 communities will receive
round two designation, five rural and 15 urban.
Sustainable Development Extension
Network Provides Educational Support
to Solve Problems on the Ground
E
very American community
wrestles with the problem
of balancing economic
growth with the need to maintain environmental and social
health. Those who succeed are
known as sustainable communities. The approaches they use—
collectively called sustainable
development—require technical
education to make the right
decisions.
Making that resource available
to all communities who need it
is the purpose of a new partner ship that unites elements of
federal, state and local government with private and nonprofit
organizations. The Sustainable
Development Extension Network
provides educational support for
sustainable development. In par ticular, that means easy access to
the significant resources of the
federal government’s Extension
services and related programs.
SDEN is designed to help localities (cities, towns, counties and
regions) solve problems on the
ground. Though the focus is on
two-way informal education, it
has many applications. They
range from supporting more
efficient agriculture to helping
businesses get information
about new technologies to
prevent pollution. Working with
local individuals or organizations that spearhead sustainable development efforts, SDEN
helps build networks of people
working toward similar goals
and fuels their efforts with
relevant information from
federal and other sources.
To succeed, sustainable development needs community-wide
participation in the processes of
planning, making decisions, and
investing in economic activity.
Common ground must be
reached and disputes minimized. Those goals are most
easily attained if all parties
have access to the results of
research on a range of relevant
subjects, such as best practices,
as well as objective, informal
instruction and locally-available
expertise that can turn this
information into knowledge.
Many communities, however,
lack the skilled, credible educators required and/or the funds
to pay for them. Further, while
national polls show public support for protecting the environment at an all time high, they
also reflect very low familiarity
with even the most fundamental
environmental issues. These
factors are difficult obstacles for
communities trying to plan
economic growth that looks to
the future, but protects the
social needs of their people and
the health of their environment.
That is where SDEN comes in. It
is the backbone of what David
Buzzelli, co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable
Development, calls “a broad,
national strategy that fosters
environmental and economic
vitality.” Buzzelli, a vice president of the Dow Chemical
Company, describes sustainable
development as “a social and
business imperative for change.”
At its core “is the search for a
new regulatory system to rise
above command and control
policies,” he says. “Instead, the
paths to concurrent economic
and environmental progress are
voluntary actions, market
incentives, partnerships, and
consensus building.”
Who is Involved?
Several federal, private and
nonprofit agencies and organizations are involved in SDEN,
including U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Cooperative State
Research, Education and Extension Service; U.S. Department of
Commerce’s National Institute
for Technology and Standards;
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency; Federal Emergency
Management Agency; National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (Space Grant); National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Sea Grant Marine
Advisory Services); Small Business Administration (Small
Business Assistance Centers);
American Chamber of Commerce
Executives; American Planning
Association; Center for a Sustainable Future; Hudson Valley
Sustainable Communities
Network; and National Pollution
Prevention Roundtable. The
North Central Regional Center
for Rural Development is also a
collaborator.
Sustainable Development
Program Examples
The following program examples
offer varying contributions to
the multiple dimensions of
sustainable development. Research, education, and extension-funded projects offer
effective examples of technologies, decision aids, higher
SDEN
continued on page 9
Winter 1998-99/5
Extension Helps Rural Residents
Seek New Sources of Income through
Home-based and Micro Businesses
by Barbara Rowe
A
pproximately 75 Extension educators and other
community development
professionals from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana received
training on the new national
curriculum on home-based and
micro businesses at a workshop
held October 7-9, 1998 in
Burlington, Kentucky. In an
effort to strengthen communities
and households through
strengthening businesses,
participants now have a new
tool to work with those in their
states to start a home-based
business or enhance the one
they have.
Ca$hing in on Business Opportunities: A Guide to Building a
Home-based/Micro Business
Program is a two-volume cur riculum designed for educators
who work with home-based and
micro businesses. The curriculum is comprehensive, covering
a wide array of topics of interest
to current or potential business
owners. The curriculum consists
of 22 chapters, each of which is
a packaged lesson containing a
leader’s guide, narrative, camera-ready handouts, and transparency masters. Also included
are two disks containing a
computer -generated graphic
slide presentation for each
chapter.
Patricia Miller, co-founder and
co-CEO of Vera Bradley Designs,
described the struggles and the
joys of starting and managing
your own business, providing
the inspiration for the intensive
three-day workshop.
Representatives from the Small
Business Development Corporation, state economic development agencies, Chambers of
Commerce, and the Service
Corps of Retired Executives
addressed the linkages they
have already formed in their
states with Extension personnel
and their enthusiastic acceptance of Extension in the small
business arena.
Recruiting employees, marketing, record keeping, setting
prices, and advertising and
selling techniques that work are
all critical aspects of successful
micro businesses. Members of
the national design team on
Home-Based and Micro Business
who wrote the chapter in the
curriculum led the training in
these topics.
Stephanie Bevens, Microenter prise Coordinator for the Com-
“Many of today’s successful companies began in someone’s home.
And many small businesses still operate from a home base,
increasing the income of the household and often creating jobs for
members of the community. Starting these businesses involves
skills as well as hard work and inspiration. The new national
curriculum on home-based and micro businesses is the most
complete and well-designed set of materials available to facilitate
the start of new home-based businesses and the success of existing ones. The training offered at the tri-state training workshop
will prepare Extension educators to increase the economic health
and diversity of their communities and the economic and social
stability of families.”
Cornelia Butler Flora
Director
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
6/Rural Development News
munity Action Committee in
northern Ohio, emphasized selfemployment as a means to selfsufficiency. One of her clients
went from welfare to the front
page of the Wall Street Jour nal.
Greg Passewitz, Kendra Conley
and Jimmy Lindner from The
Ohio State University; Patty Rai
Smith, Kathy Roesel and Jane
Proctor from the University of
Kentucky; and Barbara Rowe,
Glenda DeFord and Dan Baugh
from Purdue University planned
the workshop. Sponsors
included the North Central
Regional Center for Rural Development and the Southern Rural
Development Center.
Ca$hing in on Business Opportunities (SRDC #210) is available
for $85 plus $15 shipping and
handling (prepaid) from the
Southern Rural Development
Center, Mississippi State University, Box 9656, Mississippi
State, MS 39762-9656.9
Top, Kevin Fee,
“Consulting
Fee;” Bottom,
Judy and Ken
Grayson, “Big
Rock Vineyard,” Opposite
page, Frank
Dulin, Sr. and
Frank Dulin, Jr.,
“Dulin & Son
Country Hams.”
Photos courtesy
of Patty Rai
Smith, University
of Kentucky
Cooperative
Extension
Service, Home
Economics
Extension
Programs.
EZ/EC
continued from page 4
spoke to the future of sustainable communities and economic
opportunity for all.
Other plenary sessions focused
on the accomplishments of EZ/
EC sites and selected round one
sites wer e showcased to encour age applicants for round two
funding. No doubt, the confer ence strengthened the ties
between representatives of
persistently poor areas and
government officials striving to
respond to local conditions.
To cap off the excitement, the
President and Vice President
invited conference participants
to a reception and full dinner
buffet on the South Lawn of the
White House, complete with the
Marine Band. Standing on
picnic tables and pressing
together in sweltering heat,
conference participants strained
to glimpse and hear the President and Vice President who
came out to applaud the accomplishments to date.
President Clinton shared his
view in 1992 about the future
role of government in addressing
the issues many communities
have endured after previous
attempts to reduce poverty have
run their course. Government is
not the source of all the problems nor is it the source of all
solutions. All levels of government must collaborate and
cooperate with local citizens and
community-based partners to
harness the resources for
sustainable development.
We at NCRCRD ar e pleased to
have made a contribution to the
empowerment of local communities and we look forward to the
continuation of this work.9
Winter 1998-99/6
Rural Nebraskan’s Optimistic About the Future
N
ebraska’s economy and
population have shown
growth during recent
years. Agricultural producers
are experiencing change as well
with the implementation of a
new farm program. How have
these changes affected rural
Nebraskans at a local level?
How do they perceive their
quality of life? Do their perceptions differ by the size of their
community, the region in which
they live or by their occupation?
To answer these and other
questions, the 1998 Rural
Nebraska Poll was conducted by
the University of Nebraska
Center for Rural Community
Revitalization and Development
in conjunction with the Partner ship for Rural Nebraska and
Cooperative Extension Division,
UNL. Results of this third
annual effort to take the pulse
of rural Nebraskans is available
in the working paper, Rural
Nebraskan’s Quality of Life:
T rends and Contributing Factors.
The report details results of
more than 4,000 responses to
the poll, which included a series
of questions about respondents’
general well-being and their
satisfaction with specific
aspects of well-being. T rends
are examined by comparing data
from the two previous polls to
this year’s results. In addition,
comparisons are made among
different subgroups of respondents.
•
More than half of rural
Nebraskans are very satisfied with the following: their
marriage, their family, and
greenery and open space.
•
Items receiving the highest
proportion of very dissatisfied responses include
financial security during
retirement, current income
level and job opportunities
for the respondent. The rank
ordering of these items has
been relatively stable since
1996.
•
Farmers and ranchers are
not as optimistic about the
future as respondents with
other occupations. Only 31
percent of farmers or ranchers felt they would be better
off 10 years from now, compared to 51 percent of the
respondents with professional/administrative occupations.
Based on these analyses, some
key findings emerged:
•
Rural Nebraskans show
continued optimism about
their current and future
situations. In 1996, 36
percent of the respondents
said they were better off
8/Rural Development News
own lives is affected by size
of the respondent’s community, household income, age
and education. A multiple
regression analysis revealed
that respondents living in
smaller communities, those
with lower income levels,
older respondents, and those
with less education were the
groups most likely to think
that people are powerless.
compared to five years ago.
This increased to 41 percent
in 1998. This pattern continued when asked how they
thought they would be 10
years from now.
•
The belief that people are
powerless to control their
•
Overall, household income,
age and occupation
(whether or not a farmer)
affect general well-being.
Multiple regression analyses
revealed the primary influences on well-being were
household income, age and
occupation. As age increases,
well-being scores decrease.
Household income had a
positive relationship with
well-being; as income levels
increase so do well-being
scores. Farmers report lower
well-being scores than nonfarmers.
•
Farmers and ranchers were
more likely than other
occupational groups to be
satisfied with clean air and
water. Eighty-eight per cent of
the farmers/ranchers report
being satisfied with clean air
and water, compared to 75
per cent of the manual labor ers.
•
•
Satisfaction with
respondent’s housing was
related to age. Eighty-seven
percent of the respondents
age 65 and older stated they
were satisfied with their
housing; only 68 percent of
the respondents between the
ages of 19 and 29 were satisfied with their housing.
Respondents living in the
north central and northeast
regions of the state were
more likely than those living
in other regions to feel that
people are powerless to
control their lives. Approximately 35 percent of the
respondents in these two
regions agreed or strongly
agreed with the statement
that people are powerless to
control their own lives,
compared to 27 percent of the
people living in the Panhandle.
Additional information from the
poll targeting community
attributes and issues, and taxes
and school financing have also
been published as working
papers. Copies of these reports
can be downloaded from the
World Wide Web at http://
www.ianr.unl.edu/rural/
ruralpoll.htm.
Excerpted from the Executive
Summary of Rural Nebraskans’
Quality of Life: Trends and
Contributing Factors, published
by the Center for Rural Community Revitalization and Development, University of NebraskaLincoln, Institute of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, 58 H.C.
Filley Hall, P.O. Box 830947,
Lincoln, NE 68583-0947; (402)
472-1772, (402) 472-0688 fax.9
SDEN
continued from page 5
education, training, and extension programs that address
problems of producers, private
landowners, municipal officials,
food processors, and other
audiences. When a number of
these traditional tools are
appropriately linked, programs
emerge that balance economic,
environmental and social goals.
Developing Environmentally
and Economically Sustainable
Food Processing Systems
Scientists at Purdue University
are designing and benchmarking
computer aided tools with local
manufacturers to support the
design and operation of integrated
food processing. The goal is to
decrease the use of water, energy
and process waste while increasing the flexibility for using
the plant equipment to produce
several kinds of products. This
is of considerable benefit to
rural communities with manufacturing facilities that convert
agricultural raw materials into
finished food goods. This project
is funded by the CSREES
National Research Initiative.
For more information contact
Gintaras V. Reklaitis, Purdue
University, 104 Chemical Engineering Building, West
Lafayette, IN 47907-1283; (765)
494-4075, (765) 494-0805 fax,
reklaiti@purdue.edu.
Effects of Economics and Social
Restructuring on Rural Localities
This research project is conducting a comprehensive analysis of recent economic and
social changes on the well-being
of rural localities in the U.S.
Researchers from Kansas State
University, the University of
Wisconsin and the USDA Economic Research Service are
studying the effects of farm
consolidation, reorganization of
the food processing industry,
concentration of the labor force
in the service and high tech
industries, and such factors as
the increase in the single parent
household on rural America. The
goal is to identify the ingredients of effective community
response to these national and
global changes.
Leonard Bloomquist, Kansas
State University, 204 Waters
Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506;
(913) 532-4962, (913) 532-6978
fax, lbloomqu@02.umb.ksu.edu.
Far m*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst
This University of Wisconsin led
effort has been adopted by 47
states. Farm*A*Syst/
Home*A*Syst is a voluntary
approach to pollution prevention
by increasing landowners’
ability to assess environmental
risks. Education about technical
assistance and adoption of
practices to solve the problems
is the primary mission. EPA,
NRCS and Extension work
together on this effort. The
translation of materials into
native languages is an example
of the social equity component of
sustainable development.
Gary Jackson, University of
Wisconsin Extension, B142
Steenbock Library, 550 Babcock
Dr., Madison, WI 53706-1293;
(608) 262-0024, (608) 265-2775
fax, farmasyst@macc.wisc.edu.
For additional infor mation about
the Sustainable Development
Extension Network, contact Greg
Crosby, National Program Leader,
USDA/CSREES, Ag Box 2210,
Room 826 Aerospace Building,
Washington, D.C. 20250-2210;
(202) 401-6050 or (202) 401-4510,
(202) 401-1706 or (202) 401-4512
(fax), gcrosby@reeusda.gov.9
Winter 1998-99/9
Meet Patricia Jensen, Member
of the NCRCRD Board of Directors
P
atricia A. Jensen, vice
president, dean and director of the College of Agriculture at North Dakota State
University, has joined the Board
of Directors of the North Central
Regional Center for Rural
Development.
“I am honored to be a member of
the NCRCRD Board, which is
actively supportive of both
research and education programs to enhance and sustain
rural communities,” Jensen
said.
Jensen currently serves as the
chief operational officer for
agricultural programs, including
teaching, research and extension, at North Dakota State
University. Her duties also
include providing leadership and
overall direction for managing
the operations of the North
Dakota Agricultural Experiment
Station, the NDSU Extension
Service, and the Northern Crops
Institute.
Prior to her appointment at
NDSU, Jensen served as executive director of the Agricultural
Utilization Research Institute in
Crookston, Minnesota; acting
assistant secretary for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
Marketing and Regulatory
Programs; executive director and
attorney for the Farmers’ Legal
Action Group, Inc. in St. Paul,
Minnesota; and executive director of the Legislative Water
Commission in St. Paul.
Jensen has been a partner in
two law firms. She served the
State of Minnesota in several
capacities, including deputy
10/Rural Development News
Board of
Directors
Walter Armbruster
Farm Foundation
(630) 571-9393
walt@farmfoundation.org
Janet Bokemeier
Michigan State University
(517) 355-0123
bokemeie@pilot.msu.edu
Patricia A. Jensen
commissioner of Agriculture;
special assistant to the Gover nor—Liaison for the Governor to
the Pollution Control Agency,
Waste Management Boar d, and
Department of Corrections;
staff attorney to the Minnesota
Pardon Board; and extradition
of ficer. In addition, she has
served as director of government relations for the Pillsbury
Company in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Jensen received her doctor of
jurisprudence from the William
Mitchell College of Law in St.
Paul, Minnesota. She received
her bachelor’s degree in psychology with an additional
concentration in chemistry
from the College of St.
Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota.9
Mark Drabenstott
Kansas City Federal
Reserve Bank
(816) 881-2697
frbkc!mdrabenstott@uunet.uu.net
June Holley
Appalachian Center
for Economic Networks
(614) 592-3854
jholley@tmn.com
Pat Jensen
North Dakota State University
(701) 231-7656
pjensen@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Stanley Johnson
Iowa State University
(515) 294-6192
vpforext@exnet.iastate.edu
Robert Koopman
ECS-CSREES-USDA
(202) 720-7947
rkoopman@reeusda.gov
Arlen Leholm
Michigan State University
(517) 355-2308
leholm@msue.msu.edu
Carl O'Connor
University of Wisconsin Extension
(608) 263-2775
oconnor@admin.uwex.edu
Colin Scanes
Iowa State University
(515) 294-1823
cscanes@iastate.edu
Does it Take a Village?
by Stephen Small
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A
national symposium
titled Does it Take a
Village? Community Effects
on Children, Adolescents and
Families was held November 5-6,
1998 at Pennsylvania State
University. The symposium
brought together a diverse array
of social and behavioral scientists, educators and community
practitioners, all of whom
shared an interest in better
understanding how communities
can affect the well-being of
youth and their families.
Despite recent, growing interest
from both researchers and
practitioners in the role that
communities play in supporting
and undermining human development and family life, this
area of interest is still not well
understood and there have been
few opportunities for practitioners and scholars to come
together to share the latest
knowledge and discuss future
directions.
Topics covered at the symposium ranged from the theoretical to the practical and included
presentations on methodological
approaches to the study of
community and neighborhood
effects, developmental and
sociological theory on how
communities can influence
human development, research
on the mechanisms by which
neighborhoods enhance or
interfere with a family’s ability
to raise children, and practical
strategies for developing and
implementing community-wide
initiatives on behalf of children,
youth and families.
The symposium provided an
excellent forum for crossdisciplinary dialogue and the
cross-fertilization of ideas. It
also afforded an opportunity for
practitioners and researchers
to discuss the limits of current
scientific knowledge and identify areas where new research
is needed. It was clear from the
symposium that community
practitioners and traditional
researchers have the potential
to learn a great deal from one
another and that such dialogue
can contribute not only to our
scientific knowledge base, but
also to our ability to enhance a
community’s potential to support its children, adolescents
and families.
A book based on the conference
presentations is currently
being edited and is scheduled
for publication next year.
The symposium was sponsored
by the Colleges of Liberal Arts,
Health and Human Development and Agricultural Sciences; the Population Research
Institute; the Prevention
Research Center; and the
Departments of Anthropology,
Economics, Education Policy
Studies, Human Development
and Family Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Crime, Law and
Justice, and Women’s Studies
at The Pennsylvania State
University.
For more infor mation about the
conference or the proceedings,
contact Alan Booth, Department
of Sociology, The Pennsylvania
State University, 211 Oswald
Tower, University Park, PA
16802; (814) 863-1141, (814)
863-7216, axb24@psu.edu or
Ann Crouter, Department of
Human Development and Family
Studies, The Pennsylvania State
University, S-110 Henderson
Building, University Park, PA
16802; (814) 865-1447, (814)
863-6207 fax, AC1@psu.edu.9
P ublications
New Video on Black Farmers
Homecoming is the first film to
explore the rural roots of African American life. It chronicles
the generation-old struggle of
African Americans for land of
their own which pitted them
against both the Southern white
power structure and the federal
agencies responsible for helping
them.
Homecoming is also a mediation
on the unfinished work of
redeeming the land African
Americans worked on as slaves
for hundreds of years. This film
argues that Black farms, though
small in number today, can
continue to provide African
Americans with a sense of
cultural stability and family
unity in the 1990s.
For more information on Homecoming, which is 56 minutes
long, contact Steve Guy, California Newsreel, 149 Ninth St.,
San Francisco, CA 94103; (415)
621-6196, (415) 621-6522 fax,
contact@newsreel.org, http://
www.newsreel.org.
9 9 9
The Myth of the
Rural Skills Gap
The theory that rural education
and job training are inferior to
that offered in urban areas has
been debunked by a new book
published by Iowa State Univer sity Press. The book, Rural
Education and T raining in the
New Economy: The Myth of the
Rural Skills Gap, develops
significantly better means to
measure rural skills than
methods previously used. It also
offers realistic information
regarding the structures,
Winter 1998-99/11
strengths and weaknesses of the
current rural labor market, and
suggests means of professional
improvement, from traditional
schooling through adult education.
This book (ISBN 0-8138-2333-1)
is available for $54.95. For more
infor mation, contact Iowa State
University Press, 2121 S. State
Ave., Ames, IA 50014-8300; (800)
862-6657, (515) 292-0155, (515)
292-3348 fax, http://
www.isupress.edu.
9 9 9
study also explores a variety of
methods and technologies for
controlling odor. It ends with a
survey of regulations both in the
United States and in Europe.
The report also includes recommendations for reform, including
labeling pork that is “produced
in a socially and environmentally responsible manner,” so
consumers will know, and a plea
for community involvement in
solving odor problems.
This report is available for $5
from the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, P.O. Box 588,
Poteau, OK 74953; (918) 6479123, (918) 647-8712 fax,
mailbox@kerrcenter.com, http://
wwww.kerrcenter.com.
and lead to understanding of
and respect for our Southeast
Asian and Latino neighbors.
New Faces on Main Street is
available for $195 plus $10
shipping/handling. To order,
contact NEWIST/CESA 7, IS
1040, University of WisconsinGreen Bay, 2420 Nicolet Dr.,
Green Bay, WI 54311; (920) 4652599, (800) 633-7445, (920) 4652576 fax, newist@uwgb.edu,
http://www.uwgb.edu/~newist.
Shipping is free if check accompanies order.
9 9 9
9 9 9
New Faces on Main Street
Fresh Air,
Fresh Food,
Clean Water
A recent study by the Yale
Environmental Protection Clinic
provides an interesting introduction to the whole question of
odor and large-scale, industrial
hog facilities. Controlling Odor
and Gaseous Emission Problems
from Industrial Swine Facilities: A
Handbook for All Interested
Parties provides a quick, comprehensive education in hog
waste.
The 65-page study first explores
odor—where it comes from, how
to measure it, its health effects
on neighbors and workers in the
swine industry, and its effects
on local economies, property
values and community cohesiveness. Ammonia, methane and
other gases generated in swine
facilities are explored next. The
12/Rural Development News
Throughout the last decade,
newcomers from Southeast Asia,
Mexico and Central America
have been entering the U.S. in
just about the same numbers as
European immigrants did during
the historic peak immigration at
the turn of the 20th Century.
These newcomers are settling in
northeast Wisconsin and the
Midwest.
New Faces on Main Street, a 60minute investigative video,
offers unique and dynamically
illustrated perspectives of
immigration in today’s nonurban society. It probes to learn
how northeast Wisconsin (as a
microcosm of the U.S.) is seen
through the eyes of the new
immigrants and to learn how
they are seen through the eyes
of the people of northeast Wisconsin.
The goal of this video is to
present, through people, facts
and ideas, information that will
help prevent misconception,
segregation and discrimination,
Welfare Reform Decisions as
“Portfolio Management”
State welfare reform decisions
are very much like investment
choices made by mutual fund
companies and brokers, according to a report from Tufts
University’s Center on Hunger,
Poverty and Nutrition Policy.
State welfare policies can be an
investment in the independence
of poor households, with gains
to the state itself in terms of
employment, its tax base and
the quality of its workforce. Or
welfare policies can represent
short-sighted investment decisions which save in the short
term, but ultimately rob the
state of a more independent and
productive work force.
State Investments in Family
Economic Security: A Portfolio
Management Approach to State
Welfare Investments describes
how state welfare reform policies can be adopted within the
context of managing an investment portfolio. It applies standard investment principles and
considerations to welfare policy.
As such, it is designed to be of
immediate use to state administrators and policymakers.
•
For more infor mation contact the
Center on Hunger, Poverty and
Nutrition Policy, Tufts University,
11 Curtis Ave., Medford, MA
02155; (617) 627-3956, (617)
627-3020 fax.
•
9 9 9
Community Toolbox
for Welfare Reform
A new paper from the AssetBased Community Development
Institute demonstrates how five
tools successfully used for
community-building activities
may be adapted to help former
welfare recipients move toward
economic independence and
more fulfilling lives.
Building the Bridge from Client to
Citizen: A Community Toolbox for
Welfare Reform classifies the
tools as either inventories or
support groups:
•
•
•
The Capacity Inventory is
designed to elicit information
about the skills, talents and
interests of individuals,
which may be used to reconnect them to community life
and economic opportunities.
The Associational Inventory
can help discover the many
small-scale voluntary groups
that exist within a community and to which a formerly
isolated recipient of services
may connect and contribute.
The Business Inventory
gathers information about
local economic opportunities
from interviews with local
business owners.
Self-Help Peer Groups, such
as Alcoholics Anonymous or
“loan circles” such as the
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh,
provide support for everything
from eating disorders to
microenterprise development.
Circles of Support, invented
in Canada to reconnect people
with disabilities to the larger
community, assemble a group
of friends—not peers or professionals—to support a
person’s vision or plan for the
future.
Building the Bridge also offers
sample capacity inventories,
illustrates associational support
for community-building activities, and supplies questions for
interviewing local business
owners.
The paper is available for $5 from
the Institute for Policy Research,
Publications Department, 2040
Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL
60208-4100; (847) 491-8712,
(847) 491-9916 fax. Prepayment is
required. It is also available for
downloading at http://
www.nwu.edu/IPR/publications/
toolbox.html.
9 9 9
C onferences
Balancing Working Lands and
Development conference June 69, 1999 at the Adam’s Mark
Hotel in Philadelphia.
The conference will focus on the
social, economic and environmental issues inherent with the
land use changes taking place
in America. Presentations will
address the following issues:
•
•
•
•
•
•
What contributes to sprawl?
Can we have growth and
development without destroying working lands?
Why save working lands?
What is destroying working
lands?
What can we do to protect
working lands?
What is sustainable, responsible development?
Keep America Growing is being
held in cooperation with the U.S
Department of Agriculture’s
Forest Service, Natural Resources
Conservation Service and Rural
Development, and the U.S.
Department of T ransportation’s
Federal Highway Administration.
For additional information contact
Cindy Delaney, Keep America
Growing Conference, 123 Brick
Church Rd., Fairfax, VT 05454;
(802) 655-7215, (802) 644-7216
fax, delaney@together.net, http://
www.far mland.org/KAG.html.
9 9 9
Technology-led
Economic Development
Keep America Growing
Persons interested in exploring
ways of conserving working land
(farm and ranch lands and
working forests) while allowing
for growth and development to
satisfy the needs of our growing
population are invited to attend
the Keep America Growing:
The 1999 National Forum on
Economic Development, “State of
the Art Practices for the 21st
Century,” will be held January
25-26, 1999 at the Department
of Commerce building located at
14th and Constitution Avenue in
Washington, D.C. The free forum
will bring together government
officials, practitioners, professionals and academics to discuss
Winter 1998-99/13
best practices that economically
distressed communities can use
to become competitive in today’s
technology-led global marketplace.
Register for this free event by
January 15. Space is limited to
the first 500 registrants. Please
submit a separate registration
form for each attendee.
The 1999 National Forum on
Economic Development is sponsored by the Coalition for Economic Development and facilitated by the National Association
of Regional Councils and the
National Association of Development Organizations under an
award from the Economic Development Administration, Department of Commerce.
For detailed infor mation about
the forum, including program
materials, panel topics and hotel
infor mation, visit the web site at
http://www.nado.org/
edaforum.htm or call Bev Nykwest,
National Association of Regional
Councils, (202) 457-0710 ext. 20,
or Matt Chase, National Association of Development Organizations, (202) 624-7806.
9 9 9
World Wide Web
PovertyNet: Social Capital for Development
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/
Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion—social capital—is
critical for societies to prosper economically and for development
to be sustainable. This web site is the World Bank’s link with
external partners, researchers, institutions, governments and
others interested in understanding and applying social capital for
sustainable social and economic development. This site includes
a database of abstracts of articles and papers on social capital,
developed in part by the Social Capital Interest Group at Michigan State University.
Our Best to You
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~ginlard/
This web site is a collection of abstracted Extension publications
intended to provide the reader access to bulletins and short
pieces on a variety of topics that address community development, leadership development and economic development issues.
The publications and essays include some of the best available
materials written by Extension professionals in the United
States. This project was supported with a grant from the
NCRCRD.
Rural Voice
http://wtw.doleta.gov
Rural Voice focuses on the Welfare-to-Work service providers in
rural areas. It includes regularly published issue briefs designed
to provide practical and innovative technical assistance to practitioners implementing Welfare-to-Work grants.
14/Rural Development News
Digest
Learning to Use Technology
in the Classroom
Technology is a gift to education. With it, rural students can
see a dinosaur come to life on
their computer screens as they
hear the story of its existence
and demise; learn from an
instructor who is hundreds or
even thousands of miles away;
or create their own web site to
inform others about their rural
school.
Technology is bringing the world
into the classroom and can be a
valuable resource for any
teacher. But this benefit may
never be realized if a teacher
isn’t prepared to use it.
To demonstrate the value of
instructing future teachers on
how they can use technology in
the classroom, the Center for
Rural Pennsylvania is sponsor ing two grant projects at State
System of Higher Education
universities.
Fusion 2000, sponsored by
Mansfield University, and
Development of a Telecommunications/Technology Course for
Education Majors, sponsored by
the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, are teaching under graduate education majors how
to more effectively use technology and telecommunications for
classroom instruction.
The end result will be better
prepared professionals, and the
possibility of reducing the need
for intensive remediation training after the new teachers enter
the classroom.
Excerpted from Rural Perspectives, No. 5, Vol. 7, September/
October 1998, published by the
Center for Rural Pennsylvania,
212 Locust St., Harrisburg, PA
17101; (717) 787-9555, (717) 7723587 fax, http://
www.ruralpa.org.
9 9 9
School’s Out
(Outside, that is)
says. “There was some math
involved in figuring out where to
put the rows and how to plant
the seeds 3 inches apart.”
The 35 plots, each 4-by-8 feet,
have different themes, including
pizza, salsa, spicy, scent rainbow, salad and prehistoric. “The
kids will make pizza, salads and
such. They will also use natural
dyes from their vegetables for
art projects,” Warmund says.
Excerpted from Focus 21, Summer 1998, published by the
University of Missouri-Columbia
College of Agriculture, Food and
Natural Resources. Written by Joe
Marks and Forrest Rose.
9 9 9
It’s outdoors, dirty and fun—so
kids naturally love it. Students
at Gentry Middle School in
Columbia, Missouri, are digging
into the Junior Master Gardener
program as part of a pilot
project that is expected to
spread across the state. The
program is being developed by
Jackie Lansman, University of
Missouri horticulture graduate
research assistant, and Michele
War mund, University of Missouri Extension horticulturist.
Chris Pudenz, a science teacher
at Gentry, says outdoor classrooms are a wonderful way to
engage her students. “It’s a lot
harder than being in a room and
reading it from a book, but it’s
worth it. It was interesting for
everyone to find out the difficulties involved in getting 140 kids
to plant a garden, but they did
it.”
The youthful gardeners learned
not only about horticulture, but
also about math, social studies
and language arts by covering
such topics as costs, life cycles
and fertilization. “They had to
sketch out a plan before they
ever got in the dirt,” Pudenz
created the Collection in cooperation with the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln College of
Architecture and the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.
Users may visit the Collection in
person, or access annotations of
the Collection materials electronically. The address of the
web home page is http://
www.unl.edu/kellogg/
index.html.
The Collection includes books,
videotapes, newsletters, curriculum guides, conference reports,
white papers, pamphlets, policy
studies, trend analyses, future
projections, planning documents
and data summaries. The Collection items are organized into
seven categories:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kellogg Collection Expands
If you’re looking to do research
on rural issues, your job has
become easier. The number of
quality print and video materials available through the W.K.
Kellogg Collection of Rural
Development Resources has
increased by one-third to nearly
800 titles in the past year. “We
have also improved the Web Site
so that anyone can easily download a hard copy of source
infor mation,” adds Vicki Luther,
co-director of the Heartland
Center.
Community Development
Economic Development
Health Care
Land and Natural Resources
Leadership Development
Strategic Planning
Telecommunications and
Education
For more infor mation about using
the W.K. Kellogg Collection in
person or on-line, or to nominate
materials for inclusion in the
Collection, please call (402) 4747667 or write the Heartland
Center for Leadership Development at 941 O Street, Suite 920,
Lincoln, Nebraska 68508.
9 9 9
Funded by a grant from the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation and centrally located in Lincoln,
Nebraska, the Heartland Center
for Leadership Development
Winter 1998-99/15
Rural Development News
North Central Regional Center
for Rural Development
Iowa State University
107 Curtiss Hall
Ames, Iowa 50011-1050
(515) 294-8321, (515) 294-3180 fax
jstewart@iastate.edu
http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu
Address Correction Requested
Vol. 22, No. 4
Rural Development Directory
The NCRCRD works with an extension liaison in each of the 12 states in our region. The liaisons, listed below, can be
contacted for information concerning rural development programs in their respective states. Complete contact information can be found on our World Wide Web homepage at http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu.
Illinois—John van Es
University of Illinois
(217) 333-3790
e-van1@uiuc.edu
Indiana—Janet Ayres
Purdue University
(765) 494-4215
ayres@agecon.purdue.edu
Iowa—Paul Coates
Iowa State University
(515) 294-8397
x1paulc@exnet.iastate.edu
Kansas—Daryl Buchholz
Kansas State University
(785) 532-5838
dbuchhol@oz.oznet.ksu.edu
Michigan—Ray Vlasin
Michigan State University
(517) 355-0215
vlasin@msue.msu.edu
Minnesota—Marilyn Grantham
University of Minnesota
Extension Service
(612) 625-4252
mgrantham@extension.umn.edu
Minnesota—Nancy Nelson
University of Minnesota
Extension Service
(218) 299-5020
nnelson@extension.umn.edu
Missouri—Jim Preston
University of Missouri
(573) 882-5859
prestonj@umsystem.edu
Nebraska—Elbert Dickey
University of Nebraska
(402) 472-2966
edickey1@unl.edu
North Dakota—Kathy Tweeten
NDSU Extension Service
(701) 221-6865
ktweeten@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Ohio—John Rohrer
The Ohio State University
(614) 292-6232
rohrer.2@osu.edu
South Dakota—Larry Tidemann
South Dakota State University
(605) 688-4147
tidemanl@www.ces.sdstate.edu
Wisconsin—Pat Walsh
University of Wisconsin Extension
(608) 262-1748
patrick.walsh@ces.uwex.edu
For infor mation about family and consumer science programming in the North Central region, contact:
April Mason
Purdue University
(765) 494-8252
masona@cfs.purdue.edu