As rural share of population declines, so does the rural voice in state legislatures

Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, is the only farmer
in the Colorado House. (AP photo by Brennan Linsley)

Rural lawmakers are in a shrinking minority in America, which presents a challenge for them to effectively communicate the needs of rural Americans, reports Steve Karnowski for The Associated Press. Rural lawmakers are struggling to get their peers to care about rural problems such as lack of broadband access and the plight of rural businesses. This disconnect is leading to the formation of rural caucuses in an attempt to give rural residents a louder voice.

"Lawmakers and political experts say the dwindling numbers of farmers, ranchers and others who make their living off the land affects not just agricultural policy but other rural concerns—highways, health care, schools and high-speed Internet access," Karnowski writes. "Urban and suburban lawmakers might be sympathetic, but they’re often unfamiliar with particular concerns." Rep. Bill Friend, a hog farmer who is the Republican floor leader in the Indiana House, told Karnowski: “They’re one, two, three generations removed from food production and agriculture. It’s kind of a foreign topic to them."

Tides are turning in states once strongly dominated by rural interests, Karnowski writes. "In ag-centric Nebraska, more than half of the legislators now come from the Omaha and Lincoln areas. Similarly, South Dakota’s legislators are bunched near Sioux Falls or Rapid City—only 11 of South Dakota’s 105 legislators as of last year were involved in agribusiness; in 1987, the figure was nearly three times higher."

Sen. John Sullivan (D-Ill.), the only active farmer in the state Senate said the agriculture committee’s chairman and other members lack agricultural backgrounds. "He expects a struggle to make the farming opinion heard as the chairman pushes legislation to require labeling of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients," Karnowski writes. Sullivan told him, “It just makes it more difficult to explain and talk to my colleagues when they’re only hearing one side of it from opponents of GMO crops.” (Read more)

UPDATE, Feb. 26: The Daily Yonder says this story incorrectly "implies that rural and agriculture are the same thing," and points out, "Agriculture is but one part of the rural economy."