Showing posts with label
National Summit of Rural America.
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Showing posts with label
National Summit of Rural America.
Show all posts
There is something so idyllic about state and county agricultural fairs.
According to the Iowa State University Center for Agricultural History and Rural Studies, the first agricultural fairs gave rural families an opportunity to see firsthand the latest agricultural techniques, equipment, crops and livestock. Throughout the course of the 19th century, fairs also incorporated a wide range of educational, recreational, competitive and social activities into their programs and within a few short generations, county and state fairs became a quintessential American tradition.
Today, there are more than 90 county fairs throughout Ohio that take place from June to October every year.
One of the most popular fairs in the state is the Ohio State Fair, which takes place this year July 27 until August 7. Our state fair is one of the largest state fairs in the U.S. From the very first three-day fair in 1850 in Cincinnati to the 11-day exposition of today, the Ohio State Fair has celebrated Ohio's products, its people and their accomplishments for more than 150 years.
Like most events, the fair has changed with the times, but the one constant is that the fair is an agricultural showplace for Ohio's leading agricultural products and livestock.
Ohio State Fair Milestones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Fair)
- 1903: The first butter cow and calf were featured (Each year a different theme is presented, but the cow and calf always return, weighing in at about 1,500 pounds)
- 1929: The Junior Fair Board was formed consisting of outstanding individuals from various youth organizations including 4-H, Future Farmers of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, Boy Scouts of America and the Farm Bureau Youth
- 1968: The first sale of champions livestock auction was held with sales amounting to $22,674
- 2000: The fair celebrated its 150th anniversary
For more information about the 2011 Ohio State Fair, visit http://www.ohiostatefair.com/.
I encourage you to visit your own local county fair or our state fair if you get the chance. There is always something for everyone to enjoy — from livestock shows and local produce judging, to tractor pulls and numerous food-stand selections — What’s not to love?
For a full listing of county fairs throughout Ohio, visit http://www.ohiofairs.org/listoffairs.html.
What are your favorite county or state fair memories? Does your family or does anyone who you know participate in any agriculture-related activities at your local fair? If so, what is your/their involvement?
Photo obtained from: planetozkids.com
To keep pace with urban, more technologically developed communities, rural areas throughout the United States need access to broadband – high data-rate Internet access.
Broadband is often called "high-speed" access to the Internet because it usually has increased rates of data transmission.
Rural businesses are equally as dependent on Internet technology to conduct business operations that are integral to remaining competitive, maintaining efficiency and being successful. It’s now impossible to compete in the global marketplace without broadband.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Broadband access plays a critical role in expanding economic, health-care, educational and public safety services in underserved rural communities.”
To assist the economic development of rural America, the USDA is giving 126 recipients $1.2 billion in funding, made available because of the Recovery Act, for new broadband infrastructure projects. This will be coupled with $117 million in private investment to bring the total funding invested to $1.31 billion.
Communication companies throughout the nation are receiving federal money to construct broadband networks in rural-American territories.
In Ohio, three projects received more than $118 million in Recovery Act grants to increase broadband access (Ohio.gov):
- Horizon Telecom, $66.5 million: The project, with nearly $28.5 million in matching contributions, will allow Horizon Telecom, a Chillicothe company, to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in 34 southern and eastern Ohio counties. The project plans to directly connect 600 community institutions to broadband. As many as 1.7 million people and 37,000 businesses will benefit. The project is expected to create more than 230 direct jobs.
- OneCommunity, $44.8 million: The project awarded to the Cleveland-based nonprofit will add nearly 1,000 miles of fiber-optic cable in 20 northeast Ohio counties. OneCommunity will connect an estimated 800 community anchor institutions, including schools, hospitals, government and public safety facilities, to the high-speed broadband network and create 200 direct jobs.
- Connected Nation, Inc. $6.9 million: This project, with more than $3.1 million in matching contributions, will allow Connected Nation to encourage broadband adoption in Ohio by deploying 2,000 new public computer workstations, upgrading 317 computer centers and conducting training sessions at community institutions throughout the state.
The United States ranks 12th in regards to worldwide broadband connectivity, with 24 percent of the population enjoying average speeds of more than 5.0 megabytes per second (mbps), compared to 74 percent in South Korea and 60 percent in Japan, according to Web analytics firm Akamai.
“Broadband is becoming the electricity of the turn of the 20th century, or the telephone in the 1930s, when federal aid brought both to rural America through cooperatives,” stated an editorial in the Bemidji Pioneer.
Examples of agricultural rural-broadband use include monitoring commodity prices and weather reports, business-to-business marketing of seed, commodities, produce and/or livestock, and utilizing GPS systems for precision farming.
"Broadband expansion is important for farmers and ranchers because it provides them the real-time information and the capacity to market their products,” said Agricultural Sec. Tom Vilsack. "The same is true for small businesses in those towns."
As rural broadband access is intensified throughout the next few years, it will be interesting to witness its impact on the progression of American agriculture.
Photo obtained from: www.broadbandsuppliers.co.uk
The federal government recognizes the power of rural America.
To harness and leverage this power, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will host The National Summit of Rural America: A Dialogue for Renewing Promise, June 3, 2010.
“This Summit will be an opportunity for rural Americans to share their vision for creating a more prosperous and promising future for rural America,” said Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack.
The campus of Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., will welcome the event.
Participants include farmers, ranchers and foresters, as well as agriculture policymakers and community leaders, and features Vilsack, Agriculture Deputy Sec. Kathleen Merrigan and the full USDA sub-cabinet.
In addition to plenary topics, several breakout sessions are planned about rural issues concerning:
- Creation of new jobs
- Improvement of infrastructure
- Improvement of farm competitiveness
- Development of small businesses
- Encouragement of innovation in renewable energy
A complete itinerary of the summit is located at its Web site.
The summit’s overall goal is the development of proposals into future program and policy discussions. The summit culminates the USDA’s Rural Tour – a 22-state circuit of specific rural-development discussions.
Interest in the summit is so great; registration for it has reached capacity and has been closed. But, the USDA has utilized social-media sites to help bring the discussion to as many people as possible.
Individuals can listen to the summit live at the USDA’s media center home page, or visit its Facebook page to participate in an online chat.
However, some are not as optimistic about the administration’s rural goals.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and other members of the Senate Western Caucus, wrote a letter to President Obama stating that current rural policies are hurting rural communities across the country. They requested a meeting with Obama before the summit.
“It is past time for the administration to put its misguided policies for rural America out to pasture,” said Hatch. “Before foisting more onerous federal regulations, costs and other burdens on rural communities in Utah and other states, the administration needs to consider the damage its current policies are doing to family farms, domestic-energy production and access to public lands and make a course-correction.”
Regardless of one’s perceptions about current rural strategy, it is certain that there is significant potential for expanding the capabilities of rural America to continue to economically support and to increase its economic support of our national economy.
Do you think rural America deserves this much federal attention? How can the administration utilize feedback from the summit in the most effective manner? Do Sen. Hatch and other critics of current rural strategy have a valid opinion?
*Photo obtained from www.USDA.gov
