These eye-opening talks on the state of Iowa's economy and future plans rounded out the morning of March 4th in the symposium on Agriculture and the economy.  The short version of topics of interest to environmentalists is that farm communities are deteriorating under increasing stresses, that although Iowa is seeing job growth, this is not bringing quality jobs to Iowa, and Iowa's plans for the future include funded projects already under way for developing pharmaceuticals in corn. 

For the details, read on. 

Peggy Murdock


Implications of the Change in Rural Economy
Paul Lasley, Professor of Sociology at ISU Social Communities/Institution

The most significant change is that rural culture used to be synonymous with farming and it included livestock.  There are now more people not on farms in the country than farmers in Iowa

Stress in farming is due to lack of control, risk of loss, inability to manage their cash flow. Hard work is not enough.  Farmers have lost their independence.  They have lost neighbors and their work is hectic and isolating and they are not making profits.

In the last five years the personal level of stress among farmers has increased to 57%.  Concern about stress has increased to 45%.

Farmers’ perceptions of quality of life has changed as well. 28% of them believe the quality of life for farm families has changed for the worse.  51% believe their own family’s quality of life is worse. 

When they are asked what will happen to the quality of life for farm families in the next five years 50% believe it will be worse.  64% said their economic problems will worsen in the next 5 years.

In 2000 farmers reached their lowest level of optimism, even lower than in the farm crisis. This revolves around the social changes.  The rural area is vacant during the day. Livestock has become industrialized. Abandoned farmsteads mark the out migration.

This is a period of turbulence because of the rapid change. These are externally driven social changes and over which they are powerless, and therefore move into a reactive mode.

There are declines in civility.   Stress produces unyielding positions.  People are less tolerant.  Communities are divided.

Social institutions that a sense of community have weakened, churches, public schools, hospitals, cooperatives.  There is a diminished faith in government.

Anxiety has become chronic and even well to do people are fearful.  There is fear of the future, fear of prosperity, fear of losing what I have.

There are widening gaps between groups and sectors between genders, races, and age groups.3

There is consolidation of organizations and businesses.  Centralization and concentration of economic power in retailing, marketing, and production.

There are also occupational changes.  We have moved from a nation of self employed people to a nation of employees who are less rooted and less attached.  They don’t have the same reasons to care for the environment.

People move south and west because they have spoiled the environment where they worked and they want to find a cleaner place to live.  Farming, main street businesses, family owned businesses have given place to franchise chains.

There is a new callousness, an erosion in community trust, blaming the victim.  All these trends are creating a distrustful culture where people no longer trust each other, expediency takes place of ethics, and the profit motive takes precedence.

We see the traits of a distrustful culture, in increased legal representation and formal contracts, where a promise used to be enough.  There is fear of liability, less personal contact, more formal communication patterns and less informal interaction. Is it possible that we are creating a culture where no one wants to live?

Historically we have focused  on building things - schools, recreational centers, airports, industrial parks, highways, water systems, hospitals.  Now the focus should be on strengthening relationships, partnering, cooperation, sharing alliances, networks, trust. “It takes a village to raise a child.” .We should be focusing on getting people to work together

We need to spend more time with neighbors.  Now that people have less time to spend with neighbors there is less knowing, less communication, less trust,  less willingness to work together which erodes the community.

Satisfaction comes from farming consistent with one’s own values in harmony with the environment, and one’s community/neighbors.

Iowa’s Evolving Economy:  Consequences and Challenges
David Swenson, ISU

There have been major fundamental changes in Iowa’s economy over time with impacts on standards of living. In the 80s farm prices were down and there was both a state and national recession.  A lot of jobs have been added to Iowa’s  economy since then, a lot of them non-farm jobs, and as a result we did not go into a recession with the nation recently.

Since 1940 farm jobs have been going down persistently.  We have manufacturing jobs, retail jobs, and  central Iowa finance and insurance is a big deal and growing. Services have grown at an extraordinary pace,  education, lawyers, health care, janitors, yard keepers.  There is a range of quality in service jobs and our competitive advantage in manufacturing has skyrocketed.

In order to evaluate these changes we need to look at the earning share compared to the job share. While the numbers of jobs have grown , the earning share of non farm jobs have eroded tremendously.  Manufacturing and service sector job earnings have declined as well.  These are not the quality jobs you would want.

During this time the number of jobs per person has gone up as well. The average job is paying less, and it takes more people per household to maintain the standard of living.  There are a lot of older people that we don’t expect to be in the workforce.  If they were counted the figures would be much higher.

Most of the jobs added to non metropolitan areas are not attached to value added agriculture.

He showed a  map of Iowa counties by dependency type.  Eleven counties depend on agriculture, thirteen are largely metropolitan, and eighteen are dependent on manufacturing.  The other fifty seven counties were listed in the “other” category.

Average earnings in every category were down between 1992 and 1999.  None of these sectors is equal to the national average,  all are loosing ground.  People are accumulating in metropolitan areas.

There are more people relative to the job statistics in metropolitan areas which means that some people are holding two, three, and even four jobs.

Iowa has lost 2500 children lost.  Only 1500 children have been added and these are in urban areas.

Outcomes:  Job growth has not made Iowa recession proof but appears to help it be recession resilient. The 350,000 additional jobs have only given us 100,000 more people.  Manufacturing jobs are shifting to non-metropolitan areas.  And there is a concentration of non-manufacturing jobs in metropolitan areas.
There has been a persistent erosion in average earnings as there were persistent gains in workforce participation, which raises serious questions about job quality.

Job growth in non-metropolitan areas is not yielding stability in populations and family structure, which is indicated by the serious shifting in the location of children towards metropolitan regions.

Structure of Agriculture
David Oman of Townsend

Iowans are a people who love progress but hate change.  We need to think about how we can be less reactive and more proactive.

Iowa is growing at a rate much lower than all other states. The number of Iowans over age seventy four has grown.  There are fewer Iowans under 5 than over seventy four.  Only one other state in the country has that kind of a statistic - Florida.  It got there a different way.

Half of the college graduates from ISU and the University of Iowa remain in the state.  There are better ratios for community colleges and the University of Northern Iowa.

Half of Iowa’s workers are making $10 or less per hour. Baby boomers are retiring. Many farmers took non farm jobs in farm crisis of 70s and 80s.

Iowa’s 2010 plan has been being formed since 1999.  Fifteen town meetings were held at which twenty six thousand Iowans showed up.

Iowa has the highest percentage of two income families. With the number of working-age Iowans decreasing after 2007 what do we do?

Iowans value a living wage, educational excellence, recreational opportunities and a clean environment, which is especially important to the young Iowans that Iowa wants to keep.

The goals of the 2010 plan are to increase population.  There will be a statewide housing plan, new Iowan centers, centers for rural vitality.

Although the Governor has engaged in "sell Iowa" trips not a lot of progress has been made.

The scale of initiatives does not match the need.  The recent vote to establish English as the official language sends a negative message.

Efforts are being made to make high speed Internet access available.  The Governor has convened new economy task forces and an alliance for an advanced communications report.

Web nights are being made available for chats with young Iowans and young ex-Iowans.  They want high speed Internet access.

The third goal is progress in agriculture.  He mentioned the ISU research park which is engaged in promoting high tech crop plants.  There are new companies at the University of Iowa’s Oakdale Research Park, developing corn for the pharmaceutical market.  One million dollars has been invested in this.

Another goal is to create recreational opportunities.  The Vision Iowa program and Imagine Iowa 2010 has led to initial funding for flagship state parks however the twenty four percent cut in the tourism budget indicates a lack of long term commitment to destination attractions.

Wages and income are also an important consideration.  Iowa has venture capital legislation and a new economies taskforce. Iowa is thirtieth in the nation in the cost of living and fortieth in wages.

The tax code needs to be revised as well.  So far a new economy council has not been established, nor the economy task force recommendations implemented.  There has been no significant effort to completely revise Iowa’s tax code.

In the area of education there should be an increase in teacher ‘s salaries, character counts initiatives and
AEA mergers.  Iowa has 100 schools under 200.  These students aren't getting the advanced placement courses they need.

In the area of the environment, there is a statewide energy task force, an increase in funding for water quality. 

Runoff from a variety of sources threatens water quality and we have air pollution control program.  The fact that we have not resolved the issues about animal confinement hurts local efforts to control pollution.

There should be governmental restructuring.  There are a variety of government restructuring initiatives, an accountable government act, and a municipal leadership academy.

Every county needs streamlining.  We need to embrace the new economy, encourage entrepreneurs, welcome new and returning Iowans and support quality of life projects.

A web site where you can learn more about this program is http://www.betteriowa.com