Assembly ends with wish list, calls for diversity

The second National Rural Assembly ended today in Washington, D.C., with calls from the audience for a broader constituency for the effort, which is aimed at developing The Rural Compact, a comprehensive public-policy platform for rural interests to advocate collectively.

The assembly was an invitation-only event, dominated by nonprofit groups and sponsored chiefly by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, whose historic focus has been on food systems and rural development. Yesterday, breakout groups focused on health, education, natural resources and development worked up messages to the presidential candidates and wish lists of ideas for action by the new president and Congress.

After the lists were presented to the entire group today without dissent, Gail Bellamy, the rural health director at Florida State University, said she had heard another attendee say "We seem to be too much in agreement," and she said that may be true. Noting that her main interest group, the National Rural Health Association, has many disagreements because it encompasses a broad range of health providers, Bellamy said, "Maybe we need to look a little harder to find those people . . . who would not agree with what we're saying here."

Phil Anderson of the Indiana Rural Development Council noted the absence of agricultural commodity groups he once worked with, such as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which he said was a block away from the J.W. Marriott Hotel, the assembly's main meeting place. "Those are not corporate folks, those are my family," he said, adding that such groups need to be part of discussions about programs that affect them because they are powerful lobbies. Other speakers called for more ethnic diversity.

Organizers of the assembly offered no public reaction to the comments, but Catherine Pearson Criss of the Center for Rural Strategies, who moderated the session, endorsed an idea offered by NRHA lobbyist Tim Fry, who spoke before Bellamy. Noting that the final point of the compact now says "We are accountable to ourselves," Fry said it should say that the assembly is accountable to the 60 million residents of rural America. "I think we should be accountable to more than ourselves," he said. Criss replied, "Good suggestion."

Details of the compact are to be finalized by a committee. Criss said a final report on the assembly will be issued within six weeks. The compact is likely to focus on "why rural is important," said John Molinaro of the Community Strategies Group of the Aspen Institute, who facilitated a breakout meeting of national groups while regional groups had their own breakouts.

Dee Davis, right, president of the Center for Rural Strategies, told the assembly that it was an effort to "create agency" in an unusual way -- less by membership in a group than "by the power of the ideas we have." Davis said he has often been frustrated by rural advocates' propensity to "retreat to our neck of the woods," not just geographically, but by interest sector. He said the assembly prompted "rooting" by disparate interests across regions and sectors, "and also about the country as a whole. In that, we should all take some comfort that we are creating some conversation to move this country forward." The closing speaker, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln, D-Ark., said, "When we work together, we find solutions."

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues was invited to the assembly, and attended, but played no role in development of the wish list. The Institute has endorsed the general compact but generally does not advocate -- except for coverage of issues important to rural communities. For Davis's op-ed piece about the compact, click here.