rural

The Sierra Business Council guide suggests new ways for rural regions to achieve long-term prosperity. The 148-page guide brings together many of the latest innovations rural communities across North America are using to grow their economies, improve their towns and build their social capital. The product of three years of research, Investing for Prosperity includes 44 case studies and a resource list for more information.

The brief issued by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices suggests that rural strengths include natural resources, local business networks and an under-exploited entrepreneurial culture. The brief also suggests that states can utilize economic development strategies that rely predominantly on growing a regions assets rather than relying on an outside investment.

Conducted for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the report suggests that factors such as globalization, trade liberalization and consumer preferences have changed the way agricultural research is conducted. The report also states that the U.S., however, is not ready to adapt to the changing environment with its traditional organizational structure.

The working paper from Iowa State University addresses the resistance of Presidents of southern African countries to accept genetically modified food aid in 2002, given near certain starvation and long-term negative health effects of malnutrition of their constituents.

The National Center for Small Communities resource is a compilation of more than 50 original in-depth community and economic development case studies drawn from small communities, most with a population of less than 10,000. It is a fully searchable electronic database, available free of charge to anyone with Internet access.

The guidebook by the National Center for Small Communities identifies and explores effective technology-based economic development strategies for distressed, rural communities. Concrete guidance on how to put computers, the Internet and advanced telecommunications to good use is distilled from practical research of 14 distressed rural communities and supplemented by recent articles and reports.

The paper defines value-added agriculture,
describes these policies across the 50 States, and discuss how the various policies may work.

The U.S. General Accounting Office report concludes that there is little evidence that agencies consider Rural Development Act of 1972 requirements when siting new facilities. The report looked at which agencies had recently selected urban locations other than the District or 10 formerly designated federal regional cities compared to rural areas, whether or not they should have, what lessons the federal government could take from private sector site selection, and which federal functions lend themselves to rural locations.

The report identifies by a competitive process 43 dynamic and effective programs at rural community colleges in the U.S. and abroad that are helping rural businesses adapt to current economic trends. Several benchmark practices are profiled that encompass effective responses to the regional economic conditions.

The report released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Department of Commerce reveals rural communities are using telecommunications and information technologies for many purposes, from developing local economies to managing natural resources to improving access to education