America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education gives farmers the opportunity to nominate a public school district in their rural community to compete for a grant. The Monsanto Fund will award 199 grants this year. There will be 177 $10,000 grants and 22 grants of $25,000 awarded. 

 The nomination period takes place January 6 – April 15, 2012. Nominated school district administrators can then submit an application for either a $10,000 or $25,000 grant to support a science and/or math educational program by April 30, 2012.

 Not all states or regions are eligible but you can see a complete list of the1,245 counties in 39 states that are eligible. Overall, the Monsanto Fund will donate more than $2.3 million to school districts through this program.  Grants will be awarded based on merit, need and community support.

 The America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education Advisory Council will select the winning grant application. This group is made up of 26 farmer leaders from across the country, who are passionate about both farming and rural education. The council members are actively engaged in their local communities through various leadership positions, such as a member of the local School Board, an active Farm Bureau leader or a member of an educational organization or committee within various organizations.

 The America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education program is part of a broad commitment by Monsanto Fund to highlight the important contributions farmers make every day to our society by helping them grow their youth. Visit www.growruraleducation.com for additional information and to view a complete list of winning school districts.  An addition page of FAQ answers such questions as Why did you choose only these counties?; Why can only farmers apply? Or How will the school districts’ applications be evaluated?

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that USDA is seeking applications to provide assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to complete a variety of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Funding is available from USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) authorized by 2008 Farm Bill.

This USDA funding helps revitalize rural economies to create opportunities for growth and prosperity, supports innovative technologies, identifies new markets for agricultural producers, and better utilizes our natural resources.

The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), announced in the January 20, 2012 Federal Register, (pages 2948 through 2954), is designed to help agricultural producers and rural small businesses reduce energy costs and consumption and help meet the Nation’s critical energy needs. For 2012, USDA has approximately $12.5 million in grant monies available to fund REAP activities.

USDA is accepting the following applications:

Due February 21, 2012: The Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance Grant Program provides grant assistance to entities that will assist agriculture producers and small rural businesses by conducting energy audits and providing information on renewable energy development assistance. Read more

Due March 30, 2012: The Renewable Energy System and Energy Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Loan and Grant Program provides financial assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase, install, and construct renewable energy systems; make energy efficiency improvements; use renewable technologies that reduce energy consumption; and participate in energy audits, renewable energy development assistance, and feasibility studies. Read more

Due March 30, 2012: The Feasibility Studies Grant Program assists financially applicants that need to complete a feasibility study, which are required in applications for many of USDA’s and other government agencies’ energy programs. Read more

It is recommended that you contact your local USDA Rural Development office for further information and assistance or visit USDA Rural Development’s web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov.

Map key: Biomass (green), Solar (yellow),  Wind (gray), Geothermal (red), Hydroelectric (blue),Other (purple); Energy Efficiency projects (orange).

The Renewable Energy Investments web map contains information regarding USDA programs that provide assistance to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.  The map displays investment location, type of energy investment, amount of assistance provided and the administering USDA program.  The energy investment data is also summarized by state, county and congressional districts to display total number of investments and total dollar amounts obligated by USDA. Also available is the Renewable Energy Special Projects Report.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will give the keynote address and moderate a historic plenary panel at its Agricultural Outlook Forum, Feb. 23-24, in Arlington, Va. USDA is commemorating its 150th anniversary throughout 2012, celebrating the department’s founding in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. 

The forum’s 25 breakout sessions with more than 80 speakers will focus on a broad range of topical issues, including global food security; foreign trade, financial markets and economic development; conservation; energy; climate change; food safety; food hubs; Extension programs; and next generation farmers. The forum continues to feature the traditional USDA commodity supply and demand and food price outlooks. Among the session speakers will be representatives from major banks, trade associations, agricultural institutions, corporations, cooperatives, consultants and academia.

Former secretaries of agriculture Ed Schafer, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Ann Veneman, Dan Glickman, Mike Espy, Clayton Yeutter, John Block and Bob Bergland have been invited to participate in a panel about the future of agriculture in America.  USDA’s Chief Economist Joseph Glauber will present the foreign trade and domestic agricultural economic outlooks. The forum’s dinner speaker will be Jim Miller, senior policy adviser to the Senate Budget Committee. 

Full 2-day registration for the public, which includes 2 working luncheons and one dinner is $375, or one-day registration with one luncheon is $275.  The price increases after Monday, January 23, 2012.  For more information, visit the website or read the USDA news release.  Speeches from past Outlook Forums are online.

 Back in March of 2010, I shared some data on the future of online education from Jesse Ward, policy analyst for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, from the NTCA study, “Rural Education and Technology,” which details how educators are incorporating digital tools into the classroom.  This post is an update to highlight how many states are responding to opportunities afforded by online learning.  Digital education is particularly important to students who live in rural areas who may not have easy access to libraries or other school resources.

 A new report, Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning, finds many more families are taking advantage of online learning opportunities.  30 states have full-time online school options open to any student across the state.  Virtual schools are offered in 40 states, with charter schools and private providers providing much of the expansion.   

Keeping Pace, published by the Evergreen Education Group and sponsored by many online learning organizations in the US, is an annual report (now in its eighth year) that tracks developments in K-12 online learning policy and practice.  Information about the publication, which includes free downloadable reports and figures for use in presentations or by the media, is available at kpk12.com.

Here are some bits from Keeping Pace’s Executive Summary:

• “Several states passed important new online learning laws, some of which cited the Ten Elements of Digital Learning created by Digital Learning Now. Florida, Utah, Idaho, Ohio, and Wisconsin were among the states passing new online learning laws that will change the education landscape in those states in coming years. Digital Learning Now—an initiative managed by the Foundation for Excellence in Education in partnership with the Alliance for Excellent Education. 
• Open educational resources, from sources including Khan Academy [really, check this out if you don’t already know about it] and the National Repository of Online Courses, are helping districts add a digital component without investing in developing or acquiring content.
• Most district programs are blended, instead of fully online. A corollary to the growth of district online programs is that many of these options blend online and face-to-face learning, instead of being entirely online as many state-level schools were. One reason is simple: Districts are often serving their own students, who are local, so there is limited need to bridge large distances. Even when the district is providing an online course with a remote teacher, the local school often provides a computer lab, facilitator, or other on-site resources that may define the course as blended instead of fully online. Many of the schools that have received significant media attention in 2011 fall into this category.”

The website also shares articles and reports on digital learning – (with entertaining headlines like My Teacher Is an App, Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2011).  Some examples of different types of programs are the George Washington University Online High School ( a virtual prep school), the Florida Virtual School  (the first statewide online high school and today is the largest e-learning system with more than 220,000 students), the Houston Independent School District ( online credit-recovery courses to students in danger of failing a class which uses “grad coaches” instead of teachers to monitor student progress) , and the California Virtual Academies (a network of nine online charter schools throughout CA with 10,000 students enrolled in 2009).

Back in October, I attended a conference on creating and preserving wealth in rural communities.  Periodically I get updates from the partners who organized the conference with resources that are available for others to use.  The latest installment of resources came to my inbox from Shanna Ratner of Yellow Wood Associates, Deborah Markley of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, Wayne Fawbush of the Ford Foundation and the members of the Wealth Creation Resource Team.

 Below are excerpts from the reports of particular interest to rural areas:

 Rural Support Partners (a social enterprise working across the Southeast to strengthen anchor organizations, develop collective impact networks, and help move sustainable economic development efforts to scale) collected qualitative data from 24 practitioners at six successful networks working across the country on issues related to local food, housing and conservation.  The report, “Rural Networks for Wealth Creation,” identifies ten building blocks of a successful network as well as compelling data on why networks matter. 

 Rural networks have a strong sense of place, a shared culture, identity, way of life, landscape, and geography. The idea behind the framework is that the resources and assets of rural communities – their natural resources, agricultural produce, labor force, and young people – have for too long flowed out of rural areas, along with income and wealth (Chapter 1).

 The Executive Summary states: “This is a study of networks of organizations working to create wealth that sticks in rural communities. Our research is based on three concepts. First, networks are webs of organizations that are collaborating strategically to move forward a coordinated body of work. Second, rural networks are webs of organizations where the majority of the work takes place in towns with populations under 50,000 or in unincorporated areas. Finally, networks for wealth creation are webs of organizations that are developing institutions and collective strategies that build local assets and create wealth that stays local. 

 “We began our research with some basic questions about networks, questions such as,

• What is a network able to do that an individual organization is unable to do on its own?

• Why would we want to build a network in the first place?

• Why might a network be worth the time and money that it requires?

Wealth Creation in Rural Communities seeks to improve rural livelihoods with a systems approach to development that creates multiple forms of wealth that are owned and controlled locally.  This initiative has been supported by the Ford Foundation since early 2008.  The wealth creation approach of this initiative:

Focuses on Place: Respects, builds on and advances the work people are already doing.
Incentivizes Collaboration: Breaks out of rural isolation by building regional collaborations and tapping market demand.
Creates Multiple Forms of Wealth: Builds many forms of capital – knowledge, resilient natural resources, social networks, and more.
Emphasizes Local Ownership: Enhances the livelihoods of low-wealth people and places by building wealth that is owned and controlled locally.     

  This research also led to the development of an accessible toolkit with worksheets developed for a range of audiences. The toolkit is designed for emerging networks and organizations that are considering forming a network. It provides tools to help build and sustain networks. Links to all of the released papers are posted at www.yellowwood.org/wealthcreation.aspx.

 The  December 21, 2011 Voice of America posted an article about how Kansas University is using interactive TV to train doctors in the rural community of Salina, KS.  The goal is to have students stay in rural places – six years of medical school and residency – so they will put down roots in those small towns and want to stay there when they go into practice.

 Another incentive to encourage these students to work in rural towns is to offer one year of tuition defrayment for each year that student  works in medicine in an underserved rural community.  

 The original article by David Weinberg gives much more information about how the program works.

 Rural Medical School Keeps Doctors in Small Towns

Kansas University program aims to stop exodus to big cities

David Weinberg | Salina, Kansas

For the first time in modern history, more people are now living in cities than in rural areas. That includes doctors, leaving many small communities with no primary care physician. However, a new program at Kansas University may change that.

The director of the School of Medicine–Salina campus, Dr. William Cathcart-Rake, talks to Salina's new first-year medical students, including Kayla Johnson, on the first day of orientation. KMS photo.

“We need more doctors. A quarter of all of our physicians in Kansas are 60 years or older. So we need to be replacing physicians too,” says Dr. William Cathcart-Rake, who directs a new program at Kansas University which is designed to provide those physicians.

The idea is to get medical school students to practice in rural Kansas by educating them in the state’s smaller communities.

According to Cathcart-Rake, students from rural areas typically go off to medical schools in Wichita and Kansas City.

“They say they have every intention of coming back to rural Kansas but they meet a soul mate, they get married. Their soul mate happens to be from a big city and we never see them again. They get captured in the big city,” he says. “Hopefully, if we train them in smaller communities, they can meet their prospective spouses here, they can network here and they have those connections which can be lifelong.”

The program is based in the small town of Salina – population 50,000 – which is about a three-hour drive from Kansas City, past corn and soybean fields and the occasional cattle ranch. The medical school in downtown Salina is housed in a three-story brick building which was refurbished specifically for the program.

Salina classroom. Dennis Conrow photo

The first thing you notice is that the professor is not in the room. Instead, he appears on a flat-screen monitor at the front of the classroom.

“It’s set up with interactive TV, so we have two monitors. On one, we see the lecturer’s slides, and on the other monitor, we see video of the lecturer,” says Claire Hinrichsen, a student in the Salina program. “Most of our lecturers are out of Kansas City. Today, our lecturer was in Wichita.”

The professor in Wichita also has a video feed of the Salina classroom. When students have a question, they raise their hand and speak into the microphone built into their desk.

Hinrichsen grew up in Lecompton, Kansas, a town of about 600 people. One of the reasons she chose the Salina program is because of the size of the class. There are only eight students, making it the smallest medical school in the country.

“I really like it. I know everybody in my class,” she says. “We are close and it’s a nice feeling. It goes back to when I went to KU (Kansas University), so I went to a big school, and I’m getting back to the small feel.”

Other classes are taught by professors in Salina, and students will get hands-on training throughout the four-year program. Then each one will go on to a residency in a small community in the surrounding area.

Dr. Kerry Murphy is a family physician at the Clay Center Clinic, about 100 kilometers northeast of Salina. Chances are at least one of the eight students in the program will do a residency here.

“This is a clinic that has currently eight doctors and four mid-level practitioners and we cover this town, but we also have satellite clinics in two nearby towns,” Murphy says. “We operate as what I call a cradle-to- grave operation, we deliver babies and go up to doing nursing home care.”

It’s unlikely that there will ever be enough primary care physicians for every small town to have its own doctor. Cathcart-Rake expects several doctors will work out of a central clinic, like Clay Center, and see patients at satellite clinics spread out around the county, like spokes of a wheel.

“Clay Center is a great model for what I foresee as what a primary care center in Kansas might be,” he says.

At the end of their residency, the students will have spent six years in rural communities in Kansas. Cathcart-Rake hopes that will be enough time for them to put down roots.

“And it’s gonna hopefully harder for them to break away from those roots and go to bigger cities.”

One thing that could lure them away is money. Rural doctors typically serve older, poorer patients and going into a specialty practice in a big city tends to be far more lucrative. And with the high cost of medical school, it’s difficult for graduates to turn down those opportunities. So the Salina program is offering extra financial incentives to help them resist.

“It’s called the KMS, the medical student repayment program,” says Claire Hinrichsen, one of the five medical students who signed up for it. “For every year you give back to a rural area they pay for all our tuition.”

That means, if they practice in an underserved county for four years, they will have essentially gotten their medical degree for free. But, Cathcart-Rake says there’s a catch.

“If they don’t practice primary care in an under-served area, they have to pay that back, with interest. So they have got those hooks in them. We hope this innovative program will keep students close to their roots. But only time will tell.”

Top 9 Rural Small Business Trends for 2012

 December 20, 2011 by Beck McCray

Rural small business trends are always different from general small business trends. This year, the difference is in the economic outlook. With the consensus of economic predictions for 2012 showing slower national growth and the odds of a renewed U.S. recession at 1 in 3, the national economy doesn’t look good. Contrast that with the local economies in rural areas. The Rural Mainstreet Index is at its highest level since 2007, and rural small business looks promising.

Here are the top 9 small business trends in small towns and rural areas this year:

1. Strong farm commodity prices mean strong local economies. That is the biggest factor in the strong Rural Mainstreet Index and is also driving a continuing boom in farmland prices, as investors look for “safer” investment classes. That makes a strong foundation for local agriculture-based economies.

2. Some places get “just one more” oil boom. Relatively strong oil and natural gas prices mean a continued boom in production, mostly happening in rural areas. Several regions are seeing new or renewed plays. That brings new residents, new businesses and temporary prosperity.

3. Supporting the local economy takes more than “Shop Local.” We’re seeing more interest in moving money into locally-owned community banks and credit unions. With extra-tight lending standards for small businesses from big banks, many small businesses are turning to alternative financing methods. The book Locavesting by Amy Cortese outlines a number of local investing and business financing alternatives. More new businesses will consider cooperatives as a viable form of business this year, and 2012 is the International Year of Cooperatives.

4. Self-employment continues to rise. With all these positive trends in rural small business, there is more reason than ever to expect a continued increase in self-employment and business startups in small towns. We have to factor in the highly entrepreneurial Millennial generation, too, as the Kansas City Business Journal reports.

5. Ruralsourcing brings more high-tech to rural areas. Ruralsourcing is competing with global outsourcing, bringing manufacturing and IT service jobs into rural areas. With global supply chains threatened by higher shipping costs and rising manufacturing costs in China, we’re also seeing more projects returning manufacturing to home shores, Agurban reports.

6. Government cuts hurt. One negative factor is that 42 U.S. state governments are facing budget shortfalls again this year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports, though recent revenue is up slightly for many. After trimming services three years straight, outlying areas are likely to be targeted this year. Watch for big cuts in two rural mainstays: tourism and arts funding.

7. Online doesn’t mean in front of a computer. Mobile Internet access just keeps growing. Tablets and smartphones are changing the way potential customers look for businesses everywhere, including in small towns. The strength of cell signals and WiFi availability are important for tourism, and for small business capturing mobile customers. Rural businesses need to get mobile-friendly now.

8. Online reviews make everyone a local. Business pages have been created for almost every single business (even in small towns) by Google, Facebook and Yelp!, among others. Reviews and comments by customers give every visitor an inside view into local businesses. Result: We’re all in one big small town. This will help some terrific local businesses be found more often, and hurt some that really haven’t kept up their quality.

9. Rural broadband drives business development. With around 28 percent of the rural population still lacking access to 3mpbs or better service, much more needs to be done on access. Those who can access broadband are using it to build businesses and conduct commerce at a record pace. Expect more public and private projects to develop more business use of broadband.

Overall, most small town businesses have plenty to look forward to in 2012. The challenges of outside competition, the need to innovate and improve service, and the importance of connection with customers won’t be going away. But the economic outlook is generally strong, and new opportunities are out there. We have more information about the 2012 trends and updates during the year at our Rural Trends page.

Main Street Photo via Shutterstock

Farm Mechanics

This article on Boy Scout ag-related merit badges is reprinted from American Farm Bureau Federation’s FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE December 12, 2011 column.  Cyndie Sirekis is director of news services with the American Farm Bureau Federation and is also a Cub Scout leader in Virginia.

 Boy Scouts, Farm Bureau Members Agree on Merits of Ag By Cyndie Sirekis

 Boy Scouts in Indiana will have more opportunities than ever before to earn agriculture-related merit badges in 2012, thanks to members of Farm Bureau in Indiana who are responding to a shortage of volunteers. Farm Bureau members are training to become registered merit badge counselors with Boy Scouts of America.

 BSA merit badge counselors must be experts in a specific subject. Counselors encourage Scouts to learn about the chosen subject and coach them in how to fulfill the requirements to earn a badge. Through the merit badge program, boys learn career skills that often prove useful later as they consider which profession to enter. Regardless of rank, they may work on any merit badge at any time. The only catch is that a merit badge counselor in the chosen subject must be available.

Plant Science

Agriculture-related badges offered by BSA include animal science, plant science, farm mechanics, soil and water conservation, horsemanship and veterinary medicine. Other merit badges with agricultural ties are fish and wildlife management, environmental science, gardening and landscape architecture.

 The requirements for completing each merit badge are rigorous. Typically, Scouts must demonstrate academic competency in the subject area and research related career opportunities, in addition to completing hands-on requirements. For the ag-related merit badges, hands-on requirements include visiting a farm or related agribusiness, raising a feeder pig or chicks, growing a crop, pruning plants and helping harvest a crop.

Landscape Architecture

 “This is a great opportunity for Scouts to learn from experts in various agriculture-related fields while earning merit badges on their path to Eagle Scout,” explains Clay Worley, team leader in partner services at the Indianapolis-based National FFA Organization. Boy Scouts generally enter the program at the beginning of 6^th grade and advance through several ranks; Eagle is the highest.

 “Earning the ag-related merit badges is a great way for young people to learn about the complexity of today’s agriculture, so that they realize it’s much more than just corn and soybeans, which is a very common perception,” Worley says.

 A Boy Scout leader for his son’s troop, Worley will provide training in becoming a merit badge counselor to interested Indiana Farm Bureau members at their annual Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference at the end of January.

Gardening

 “Our young farmer and rancher members are committed to serving their communities by volunteering and making a difference,” says Julie Roop, director of program development at the American Farm Bureau Federation. “That is why Farm Bureau and the BSA merit badge program is such a great fit,” she says. 

The 2^nd Annual Beginning Farmer and Rancher Conference will take place Feb. 18-20, 2012, in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel & DeVos Place Convention Center. The conference is presented by the American Farm Bureau Federation and Start2Farm.gov.

 Beginning farmers and ranchers interested in all types of agriculture are encouraged to attend. Farm Bureau membership is not required. The conference provides an opportunity for attendees to network with other farmers from around the country and learn from experts about how to start and maintain a thriving farm or ranch business. 

 American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said beginning and young farmers and ranchers are integral to U.S. agriculture’s future.

 “America’s farmers recognize that providing food that satisfies the tastes and preferences of today’s consumers is more important than ever before,” said Stallman. “We welcome into our ranks and extend a helping hand to beginning farmers who are just starting their careers as food producers,” he said. 

 The “early bird” rate of $200 per person applies for all conference registrations received by Dec. 15. (The regular registration rate of $250 per person for the conference will apply Dec. 16–Jan. 17.) The registration fee includes conference materials, farm tours and meals for Saturday lunch, Sunday lunch and dinner, and Monday lunch and dinner. Attendees are responsible for their own hotel reservations.

 The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Conference will be held in conjunction with the annual American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference. Attendees at both conferences will have the opportunity to attend sessions at the other meeting. For more information, including online registration and hotel information, visit http://2012bfrconference.eventbrite.com or email questions to info@start2farm.gov.

 The Start2Farm website and program are a project of the National Agricultural Library in partnership with AFBF. Start2Farm is funded through a Beginning Farming and Ranching Development Program grant funded by the Agriculture Department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to assist people new to farming or ranching and those who have less than 10 years experience.

The December 2011 Rural Affairs News contains information on training opportunities, the Value-Added Ag/Rural Communities Conference in Michigan in June, a description of AFBF rural development work with state Farm Bureaus, AFBF rural development congressional issues, grant funds available, recent topics on the AFBF rural development blog, articles of interest from various news sources and upcoming events for Farm Bureau staff interested in community work.

The December 2011 Rural Affairs News is available here: 11December RD News for state staff