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