Pope Encourages International Support for Small Family Farms
Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the international community to support small family farms and make sure they have access to the increasingly globalized market, according to a report by
John Tavis with the Catholic News Service.
The pope was speaking to representatives of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome. He praised that organization for its efforts to fight hunger and fairly distribute development assistance to poorer countries.
“Humanity is presently experiencing a worrisome paradox – side by side with ever new and positive advances in the areas of the economy, science, and technology, we are witnessing a continuing increase of poverty,” the pope said.
Among those most vulnerable to economic changes today are family farmers, he said. Referencing a WTO conference on commerce and farm products which was held in Hong Kong in December, the Pope said:
“The Holy See is confident that a sense of responsibility and solidarity with the most disadvantaged will prevail, so that narrow interests and the logic of power will be set aside. It must not be forgotten that the vulnerability of rural areas has significant repercussions on the subsistence of small farmers and their families if they are denied access to the market.”
The pope told the experts that in devising solutions to world hunger, they need to remember that technical progress, although necessary, is not everything. True progress also protects the dignity of human beings and enables people to share their material and spiritual resources for the benefit of all, he said. Source:
The Catholic News Service, Vatican City
New Approach to Beginning Farmer/Rancher Issues
Fewer than 70,000 young people will farm by 2007 with current trends – it is imperative for the next farm bill to change that outcome
The 2007 farm bill is the means by which genuine opportunity for rural people and a future for communities can be achieved. Elemental to this vital effort is the existence of beginning farmers and ranchers on the land and within the community. Present trends and current obstacles are working against that very existence.
In 1978, there were approximately 350,000 farmers and ranchers 35 years old or younger in the U.S. That total has gone into a free-fall to the point that in 2002 there were less than 125,000 farmers and ranchers under 35. If the current trend line is extended, by 2007 there will be fewer than 70,000 nationwide. While the number of beginning farmers is falling, nearly half of farmers and ranchers will reach the age of 65 within the next 10 years.
It is critical that the new farm bill address beginning farmer and rancher issues. Traditional methods of farm entry and farm succession are no longer adequate to meet current challenges. There must be a new approach if we are to successfully usher in a new generation of farmers and ranchers.
One way of doing that is through the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), authorized in Section 7405 of the 2002 farm bill, which would have been the first-ever USDA program other than farm credit/debt financing programs targeted specifically to beginning farmers and ranchers. This program is designed to support training, mentoring, linking, education, and planning activities to assist beginning farmers and ranchers.
However, the program was only extended discretionary funding status under the 2002 farm bill and never appropriated funds to be implemented. We believe the BFRDP should be reauthorized with $15 million in mandatory funding for the 2007 farm bill.
Escalating land values across the nation have priced most beginning farmers and ranchers out of the market for land, the most valuable commodity in any agricultural operation. The 2002 farm bill established the Beginning Farmer Land Contract pilot program to allow USDA to provide loan guarantees to sellers who self-finance the sale of land to beginning farmers and ranchers. The 2007 farm bill should reauthorize this as a nationwide program.
The new farm bill is approaching. We need to continue developing innovative policy ideas that will better serve beginning farmers and ranchers. We need to work to build momentum behind these policies and work every day to make our voices heard on these and other issues.
Contact: Traci Bruckner, tracib@cfra.org
or 402.687.2103 x 1016 for more information on beginning farmer issues.
Taking Care of Our Rural Children
Rural children living in poverty are most likely to be from two-parent families in which both parents work
We have highlighted problems associated with mental health care in rural areas and what some places are doing to lighten the pressure. We know that the charge set before us in rural areas is to become more self sufficient and creative in solving these concerns.
Yet growing poverty seeps our ability and resources to solve these problems. Nationally, we confront poverty largely based on adult statistics. What about the children? Where do they belong in the scale of poverty across the country?
Rural children in poverty are more likely to be from two-parent families and in families where at least one adult works. The reason for this unusual statistic is the quality of jobs, not the quantity of jobs. Frequently rural children in poverty come from two adults in the labor force. Unemployment rates may be lower in rural areas, but many jobs are substandard in pay and are often part-time.
In Nebraska it is estimated that 13.5 percent of rural children live in poverty while 11.3 percent of urban children live in poverty. As disturbingly high as they are, these figures are not indicative of the real picture in rural America. Two factors tend to disguise rural poverty. First, rural areas lack access to benefits which are much more accessible to residents of metro and urban communities. Secondly, rural residents have been brought up with a set of traditional values that low-income households in rural areas would feel shame in accepting “handouts.”
Another concern in child poverty and well being is the care given when both parents must work to support the household. Where are the children cared for? Most urban families use what is known as center-based care. More than three-fourths of children in urban families are sent to center-based care facilities.
The percentage is opposite in rural areas, with only one-fourth of children sent to qualified center-based care. To top this off, many of the centers that exist in rural areas are often subsidized, and thus they target special populations, leaving working-poor and middle-class families with few choices.
Next month we will look at how South Dakota is attempting to remedy this situation through new and creative financing loan packages especially made for child-care providers and center-based facilities.
Contact: Michael L. Holton, michaellh@cfra.org
or 402.687.2103 x 1015 for more information on rural community development.
Work with Nature to Manage Insect Pests
The Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) has released “Manage Insects on Your Farm: A Guide to Ecological Strategies,” a pest management primer to help farmers improve their farms’ natural defenses against insect pests.
While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm outlines the principles of ecologically based pest management and illustrates the strategies used by farmers around the world to address insect problems by:
- Increasing on-farm diversity above and below ground
- Encouraging beneficial insects to attack their worst pests
- Enhancing plants’ natural defenses against pests
- Managing soil to minimize crop pests
Examples of successful pest management strategies featured throughout the book demonstrate real-life examples of how to address insect problems and develop a more complex and diverse on-farm ecosystem. Readers will learn how to minimize insect damage with wise soil management and identify beneficial insects to put these “good bugs” to work.
Download the book at www.sare.org/publications/insect.htm
for free. To order print copies ($15.95 plus $5.95 s/h) visit www.sare.org/WebStore, call 301.374.9696 or send check or money order to Sustainable Agriculture Publications, PO Box 753, Waldorf, Maryland 20604-0753. (Please specify title requested when ordering by mail.)
National Rural Action Network Update: Issuing a Challenge
Building a network through people like you will take hard work and commitment; building rural leaders will be a critical component
Thanks to all of you who called or sent notes about the creation of the National Rural Action Network! We appreciate the show of support, and it helps bring home the idea that there is a need for this type of effort.
Organizing a rural constituency to speak out for what Rural America wants and needs in terms of public policy is going to take a lot of work and commitment – but it will be good and worthwhile work.
We need fair opportunities for Rural America, and the comments we received support that need. Here are a few excerpts from notes and phone calls:
“I want to applaud the Center for working on the creation of the Network. I think it is a good way to move.”
“Our voice needs to be heard.”
“This IS an idea whose time has come. A nat’l rural action network with good advisors could really shape and help empower folks across the U.S.”
A “Leadership Development for the National Rural Action Network” training session was held in Fargo, North Dakota, in conjunction with the annual Marketplace for Entrepreneurs. Developing leaders within the Network is a critical component of its success. Helping these leaders build the capacity to do the types of things that will be required to have a successful Network is the focus of this training.
This is just the beginning, and I would like to ask something of those of you who are reading this article. Within the next month, will you speak to three other people in your community about the National Rural Action Network?
Ask those three people how important it is to ensure their community has a future. Hand them a copy of this newsletter and ask them to be engaged.
Let me know, will you, if you took up this challenge? I’d like to hear how it went and who you spoke with. We’re building this network through people like you; we need to start now!
Contact: Kathie Starkweather, kathies@cfra.org
or 402.687.2103 x 1014. Kathie is spearheading network organizing for the Center.
CORPORATE FARMING NOTES
I-300 appeal filed; organizer is barred from a state-funded North Dakota swine tour; Missouri citizens grapple with hog expansions
>> “Initiative 300, Nebraska’s ban on corporate farming, does not violate the commerce clause, nor does it discriminate against out-of-state individuals or corporations,” argued Attorney General
Jon Bruning in petitioning the U.S. District Court for permission to appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith-Camp recently declared that Initiative 300 violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution and Americans with Disabilities Act. Bruning argues that, “The district court went far beyond the language of Initiative 300, the explanatory statement, and the ballot title in reaching the conclusion of unconstitutionality.”
If the appeal is successful, the case could be sent back to Omaha for trial. Smith-Camp’s ruling was a summary judgment made prior to hearing evidence on the facts of the case.
“This ruling is broad and dangerously expansive. We believe that Initiative 300 should have its day in court,” said
Chuck Hassebrook, the Center’s Executive Director.
>> Investors have plans for a 5,000 sow facility south of Center, North Dakota.
Rick Schmidt, Oliver County extension, organized a bus trip of county residents in December to tour a Manitoba swine operation. Barb Price, an organizer for the Dakota Resource Council said she was barred from the tour, which was funded by the state Agriculture Department.
Craig Jarolimek, who works with a Canadian swine management group, reported that company policy banning “environmental activists” was the reason Price was barred from the tour. “We’d be naive to think something good would come of that,” Jarolimek said.
Price believes she was banned because she was the first to report and raise concerns about plans for the sow operation to Oliver County officials.
A 5,000 sow facility would produce about 120,000 pigs and 4.8 million gallons of liquid waste per year.
>> In late December 2005, Commissioners in Macon County, Missouri approved an ordinance requiring that large-scale livestock operations obtain a county health permit. Talk of public health ordinances for industrial hog operations comes as Cargill Pork looks to expand its operations in northern Missouri. East of Macon, Shelby County is considering similar ordinances, with heated response from both sides.
“Some don’t want to limit growth, don’t want a health ordinance,” Commissioner
Chuck Wood said of his Shelby County constituents. “But they sure as hell don’t want a hog farm next to them without a say in it.”
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org
or 402.687.2103 x 1010 for more information on the Center’s Corporate Farming Notes.
Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse
The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) will host the 17th annual Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in Wisconsin at the La Crosse Center February 23-25, 2006. This year’s theme “Growing More Organic!” reflects the growing excitement and enthusiasm for healthy food and farming practices across the region and around the world.
The keynote speaker is Michael Ableman, executive director of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens in southern California and author of critically acclaimed “From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World.” New this year, Chef
Monique Hooker of De Soto, Wisconsin hosts Coulee Region Chefs Cook Organic! Participants can enjoy fine cuisine made with local organic food and join area restaurateurs and local celebrity tasters in a presentation of excellent cooking.
The conference provides more than 45 workshop topics including: specialty crops, marketing issues, crop production, animal husbandry, soil management, organic certification, and more. The exhibit hall features over 130 exhibitors.
To receive a pre-conference flyer, with complete information on the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference and the Organic University held on Feb. 23, email
info@mosesorganic.org . For updates on the conference, visit
www.mosesorganic.org .
Center Sets 2006 Legislative Agenda for the Unicameral
As the Nebraska Legislature begins its 2006 session, the Center has developed its agenda for the session. Even though the session is a non-budget session, constitutionally-mandated for only 60 days, taxes and spending will be the focus.
The 2006 session must also be viewed through the prism of some very political events. For the first time voter-approved term limits will affect the session – 20 state senators are serving their last year in the Legislature in 2006. In addition, Governor
Dave Heineman is seeking election in 2006, but first faces Rep. Tom Osborne and
Dave Nabity in a primary showdown for the Republican nomination.
With that backdrop, the following items comprise the Center’s 2006 Nebraska legislative agenda:
Taxes and Spending – Governor Heineman has proposed over $420 million in tax cuts for the next three years (through a combination of income and sales tax rate decreases and increased state aid to schools to decrease property tax rates). With a growing state surplus the question will become whether to cut taxes or spend on state priorities.
If tax cuts become the legislative preference, we will advocate for removing the cap on the new Microenterprise Tax Credit Act (now limited to $2 million). If the Legislature chooses to spend, we will advocate for increasing funds allotted to the new Building Entrepreneurial Communities Act and the amount appropriated to the Nebraska Microenterprise Partnership Fund; both programs invest in the future of rural communities through entrepreneurship.
Value-Added Agriculture – The Center will continue to advocate for LB 132, a bill that will allow for greater value-added opportunities for small-scale dairies and processors. In addition, the Center supports a proposal to provide grants to promote the growing and marketing of specialty crops such as fruits and vegetables.
Rural School Finance and Structure – The Center will continue to oppose the provision in LB 129 that would penalize school districts with fewer than 390 students through dramatic decreases in state aid. The Center will also support efforts to suspend LB 126, the bill adopted in 2005 that will eliminate many of Nebraska’s rural elementary-only schools. The permanent suspension of LB 126 will be the subject of a vote of the people in November 2006.
Beginning Farmers and Ranchers – The Center will continue to support LB 346, modifications to the state’s Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Act to make it more attractive and usable.
If you wish to stay in the know about these bills and other happenings in the Nebraska Legislature, please subscribe to the Center’s free Legislative
Update (see this week's Update). You will receive a weekly update in your email box complete with analysis of legislative goings-on from the Center’s perspective. If you are interested in receiving the Legislative Update, simply forward a request to Jon Bailey at
jonb@cfra.org .
Telling the Center’s Story: New Development and Outreach Staff
The Center recently hired a new Media Associate, Elisha Greeley Smith from Pender, Nebraska. Elisha will be taking on many of the responsibilities of the Center’s media work as
John Crabtree takes on more involvement with development. John was named Assistant Director of Development and Outreach in late 2005.
Elisha received her bachelor’s degree in Diversified Agriculture with a minor in Rangeland Science from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Growing up in Imperial, Nebraska, she was involved in the family farm. This fostered her love and pride for family farms and ranches and rural life. Elisha also works with her husband and in-laws on their farm south of Pender.
We asked Elisha to tell us more about herself, and both she and John to talk about their approach and the future of their work:
Elisha – I was involved with my parent’s farming and ranching operation. It was hard work, discouraging at times, sometimes seemingly hopeless. But my parents never gave up. After years of watching them struggle to keep going, I knew I wanted to do something to help them and other family farmers and ranchers like them.
I was, however, never certain how I could do that. After many hours of searching for the perfect career, I discovered the Center for Rural Affairs. The Center is the perfect place for me, an organization that values rural communities, small businesses, and family farmers and ranchers. And has the vision, dedication, determination, and grit to act on those values.
We asked John, what is development about at the Center? John – It’s all about the money (laughing). But, to be serious, nothing could be further from the truth. The heart of development is engaging people in our work. One of the most profound forms of support that an individual can give to an organization like the Center is some of their hard earned money. Moreover, individual contributions fund some of our most crucial and, at times, controversial work.
We wondered what the future holds for this work? Elisha – We have a lot of great stories to tell about our work, and 2006 promises to be a very big year. In the future I want to see the Center’s stories told in more places than ever before – big and small newspapers, radio and television, everywhere and anywhere that people who care about the issues facing rural America can hear our message.
John – And in ways that we have never told our story before, on the internet, certainly, but in many ways that are unfolding right before our eyes. People today get their information from so many new sources, and we want to be there too, from the start.
In development too, with the launch of the National Rural Action Network, we are planning to take our efforts to engage rural people in our work to a new level. I want the Center for Rural Affairs to become a place with tens of thousands, instead of thousands, supporting and engaging in our work.
Contact: Elisha at 402.687.2103 x 1007 or elishas@cfra.org
. John is at 402.687.2103 x 1010 or johnc@cfra.org
.
Advancing Our Common Interest Builds a Stronger, Better World
A rare example of a selfless act shows that we have the power to improve our communities, our nation, and the world around us
A corporate CEO made a shocking request last year.
Ethan Berman of RiskMetrics “requested that he receive no increase in salary, zero stock options, a smaller bonus than last year, and a piece of the company’s profit sharing equal to that received by all employees,” according to
The New York Times.
It’s a refreshing departure from those on top grabbing all they can get. The Wall Street Journal reported the latest excess. Corporations are paying taxes for their top executives and hiding it from stockholders. Gillette shareholders paid $13 million of taxes on their CEO’s golden parachute.
Berman’s selfless act compels some moral reflection. It is often assumed that we must act according to our selfish interest. But in truth, we often protect what we value most by acting unselfishly. Each of us is part of something bigger that is at least as important to us as extra cash. Our true interest is tied to the health of our community, our nation, and the world around us.
If our community dies, even as we prosper, we too suffer as schools close, churches dwindle, and our neighbors leave. Even taxpayers in Omaha, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, and Kansas City feel the effects of rural decline.
When there is no opportunity for young families to earn a living and pay taxes, rural communities become tax takers. Metro residents pick up the tab. But when we revitalize rural communities, they become economic and fiscal contributors and city people benefit.
Similarly, if working people, family farmers and small business people are denied the American dream, they lose their stake in America and their reason to give back. But if they share in the good life, they have a reason to take responsibility for sustaining it. America is made stronger, to the benefit of all.
It’s also true at a global level. Desperately poor people in the developing world form legions of potential low-wage workers. In a global economy, that depresses wages worldwide. And if the world’s poor look jealously to America, it lessens our security. When the whole world shares in prosperity, we are more secure in our lives and livelihoods.
Nonetheless, inequality is intensifying. Top management and the best educated – particularly those residing in the centers of commerce – demand ever more for their services, while working people and rural areas fall behind. Wealth is concentrating. The gap is growing between rich and poor, between the upper middle class and lower middle class, and between rural and metropolitan.
Those economic forces won’t be changed by CEO Ethan Berman alone saying “no thanks.” But good citizens recognizing that their true interest is tied to the common good can work together to change trends and shape their own destiny.
Ordinary citizens make a difference by committing time and energy to community projects or just spending a little more to shop locally. Landowners who forego the highest cash rent enable young families to get started or survive in farming. Successful professional and business people donating to local foundations for stimulating small business development help revitalize local economies. Many of us in rural America hold substantial assets. We can make a difference by investing them in the future of our community.
We also advance our common interest through public policy when we look beyond selfish interests. When we advocate for limits on what we might someday receive – for example limits on farm program payments or estate tax exemptions – we ensure that opportunity is widely shared and the community and nation are strengthened.
We all benefit when we endure short-term sacrifice (paying taxes) to invest in a long-term greater good. If our America is to sustain itself, we must invest in conservation of natural resources to meet the needs of future generations.
If our struggling communities are to be made strong, government must invest in entrepreneurship to create genuine opportunity. We must invest in education – including help for the new immigrants into rural America to gain the language skills they need to become contributing members of our communities.
If trade is to benefit all Americans, we must invest in creating opportunity for the poor in developing nations so they too can prosper, rather than become a drag on wages.
No society can fully achieve the common good if its people act solely on the basis of their selfish interests. America and its communities are strongest and we all benefit when, like CEO Ethan Berman, we act accordingly.
Agree or disagree? Send your opinions or comments to Chuck Hassebrook, 402.687.2103 x 1018 or
chuckh@cfra.org .
Notables this Month
>> The Midstates Community and Economic Development Conference will be held March 22, 2006 at the Sioux City Convention Center in Sioux City, Iowa. Workshops will be presented by local communities as they tell about projects that have had an impact on their community.
The featured afternoon workshop presenter will be Malcom Chapman who will present a workshop called “Harvesting the Company Mind” which focuses on the customer and how to deliver extraordinary customer service. Find out more about Chapman at
http://www.malcomchapman.com
For more information, contact Michael Holton, 402.687.2103 x 1015 or michaellh@cfra.org
.
>> REAP Madison County Latino Business Associación has teamed up with Creighton University Community Economic Development Law Clinic to present a two-hour training on legal issues that may be impacting small businesses in the area.
The session presenter is Steve Virgil, Attorney and Director of Creighton University’s Community Economic Law Clinic. Topics will include: Legal structure, Financing a new or expanding business, Employment laws and issues, and open time for questions.
The meeting will be held Wednesday February. 22, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. in the New American Center (Workforce Development building located at 105 E. Norfolk, Ave. Ste. 100). It is free and open to the public.
For more information contact: Miguel A. Felix at 402.640.7836 or REAP Northeast Business Specialist Adriana Dungan at 402.494.1013.
>> REAP Women’s Business Center, HTC Entrepreneurship Task Force, and Knox County Development Agency are sponsoring a Business Plans Basic training in Center, Nebraska. The five-week training will be on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. at the Extension Office meeting room.
The Extension Office is located at 308 Bridge Street, Center, NE. The training begins March 1, 2006 and ends March 29, 2006. For more information, contact Adriana Dungan, REAP Business Specialist, 402.494.1013 or
adungan@msn.com or Terry Johnson, Knox County Development Agency, 402.486.2601 or 402.288.5619.
FEATURE ARTICLE:
Center for Rural Affairs Annual Gathering,
February 25, 2006, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
University of Nebraska at Kearney Nebraskan Student Union
1013 West 27th Street, Kearney, Nebraska
Schedule of Activities
8:00 a.m. — Small Business Fair set-up
8:30 to 9:30 a.m. — Registration, atrium, main floor southern entrance
9:00 to 9:30 a.m. — Small Business Fair/refreshments
9:30 to 10:30 a.m. — Teach ins I
10:45 to 11:45 a.m. — Teach ins II
Noon to 1:00 p.m. — Lunch and Keynote Address, Chuck Hassebrook, Center for Rural Affairs
1:00 to 1:30 p.m.— Small Business Fair
1:15 to 1:45 p.m. — Center for Rural Affairs Awards
2:00 p.m. — Small Business Fair closes
2:00 to 3:30 p.m. — Nebraska Gubernatorial Candidate Forum
3:30 to 4:00 p.m. — Closing Reception/refreshments
NOTE: We recommend parking in the lot east of the student union (Lot 3 – see a
map
of Kearney and the University. The Nebraskan Student Union is three floors. Registration will take place in the atrium at the southern entrance on the main floor. Nearly all of the other activities take place on the second floor adjacent to the large Ponderosa meeting room. The exception is the Teach-ins, which will use rooms on all three floors. Check the program on the day of the event to locate teach-in sessions.
Event Descriptions
Small Business Fair – 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Special browsing times have been set aside from 9:00 to 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. Visit the vendor booths throughout the day on the second floor of the student center and show your support for rural small business. You will also find tables for other organizations and groups.
Morning Teach-ins – 9:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
We are offering two sets of seven concurrent teach-ins. In these informal, small group sessions, participants learn about contemporary rural issues and the Center’s perspective on them. Characterized by a lot of feedback and personal contact with Center staff and guests, you’ll want to attend every one! Find a description of this year’s teach-ins.
Lunch and Keynote – noon to 1:00 p.m.
Lunch is a buffet of chicken and beef entries with salads, vegetable, and dessert. Chuck Hassebrook, a noted authority on farm and rural issues, will keynote. Chuck is a regent of the University of Nebraska and the Center’s executive director. The cost for lunch is $10.00 (includes morning and afternoon refreshments).
Center Awards – 1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
At around 1:15 p.m. the Center will announce the award winners for 2006 – people who have been integrally involved in the Center’s programs over the last year. By attending the awards, you’ll be sure of a good seat to see the main attraction of the day, a Nebraska Gubernatorial Candidate Forum hosted by Nebraska Educational Television and the Center for Rural Affairs (see below).
Nebraska Gubernatorial Candidate Forum – 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Featuring: Congressman Tom Osborne, Republican; Dave Nabity, Republican; David Hahn, Democrat
Moderator: Sarah McCammon, NET Radio and a three-person impartial panel TBD
Note: Governor Dave Heineman, Republican, was invited to participate in the forum. His campaign declined on Jan. 27, citing a scheduling conflict.
Closing Reception – 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Following the forum, brush shoulders with the candidates and enjoy flavored tea and cookies before you depart for the day, hopefully with renewed spirit and determination to join in our efforts to build a vibrant future for rural Nebraska and rural America.
Teach-ins I (9:30 to 10:30 a.m.)
- 2007 Farm Bill
- HomeTown Competitiveness and Community Development
- Improving Chances of Rural Business Success
- Boost Your Business – How REAP May Help!
- Success with SARE Grants and Sustainable Agriculture
- Farm Beginnings: Start Out Right in Agriculture
- Listening Session – Marketplace for Entrepreneurs
Teach-ins II (10:45 to 11:45 a.m.)
- Big Trouble for Rural Schools
- Wills, Trusts, Titling and Transfers: An Overview of Estate Planning
- Improving Chances of Rural Business Success
- How to Target the Hispanic Market
- Transition to Organic Agriculture
- FFARM Cooperative: A Market Opportunity for Natural Livestock Producers
- Listening Session – Marketplace for Entrepreneurs
See a description
of the teach-in sessions.
For more information, contact Monica Braun, mbraun@alltel.net
or 402.643.2673 or Marie Powell, mariep@cfra.org
or 402.687.2100.
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