Review of \u3ci\u3eHollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America.\u3c/i\u3e By Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas.

Hollowing out the middle refers to the loss of the well-educated young adults in rural communities of America\u27s Heartland-the Corn Belt and Great Plains. Declining rural communities invest their meager resources to educate their brightest youth, thereby providing them opportunities for rewarding careers in distant cities. This further contributes to the communities\u27 woes because it guarantees not only population loss, but also loss of expertise and leadership that could help them solve their problems. Carr and Kefalas\u27s contribution to understanding the dilemma of rural communities promoting and supporting the loss of the best and brightest is through an in-depth analysis of young adults\u27 decisions regarding their futures and the role of local institutions and organizations, especially schools, in developing and reinforcing those decisions. They conducted a case study of Ellis, Iowa (a pseudonym), population 2,014, examining the decisions and actions of young adults who graduated from high school in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their research identified four paths or types: achievers, stayers, seekers, and returners

Farm Operation Characteristics, Institutional Support, and the Use of Soil and Water Conservation Technologies

Technologies to control the severity of soil erosion and water pollution are available, and a large institutional structure supports soil conservation work, but success has been rather limited. This study of a sample of farmers in the three watersheds in central Iowa tests a number of hypotheses about the use of conservation technology. Institutional support factors were found to have a stronger relationship to the use of conservation practices than farm operation characteristics. The erosion potential of the land was conditional for specific conservation practice utilization. The use of institutional resources was positively related to farm size and scale. Thus institutional supports seem to be going to larger farms where the need for conservation practices seems to be greatest, but may not be adequate to encourage the full extent of conservation practices required on the totality of farms

Review of \u3ci\u3eHollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America.\u3c/i\u3e By Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas.

Hollowing out the middle refers to the loss of the well-educated young adults in rural communities of America\u27s Heartland-the Corn Belt and Great Plains. Declining rural communities invest their meager resources to educate their brightest youth, thereby providing them opportunities for rewarding careers in distant cities. This further contributes to the communities\u27 woes because it guarantees not only population loss, but also loss of expertise and leadership that could help them solve their problems. Carr and Kefalas\u27s contribution to understanding the dilemma of rural communities promoting and supporting the loss of the best and brightest is through an in-depth analysis of young adults\u27 decisions regarding their futures and the role of local institutions and organizations, especially schools, in developing and reinforcing those decisions. They conducted a case study of Ellis, Iowa (a pseudonym), population 2,014, examining the decisions and actions of young adults who graduated from high school in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their research identified four paths or types: achievers, stayers, seekers, and returners

Importance of Community Ethnic Background in Community Activeness

Anthropological research suggests that the predominant ethnic background of rural communities is related to the ability of the communities to adapt to social and economic change. A distinction made for Midwest farming communities is between yeoman farming communities of German background and entrepreneur farming communities of English background. This paper examines the effect of ethnicity, both in terms of the specific ethnic group(s) and the homogeneity on participation in the Iowa Community Betterment program. It is hypothesized that the greater the percentage of the population with German ancestry within a community, the more likely the community\u27s mobilization toward collective action. The findings provide marginal support for this hypothesis, and suggest that community development professionals should approach communities as extremely complex phenomena with a broad complex of factors that ultimately determine the success of development programs

Farmers’ Attitudes and Behavior Toward Sustainable Agriculture

Recent studies of ideologies of sustainable farmers and conventional farmers suggest that these two groups have differing beliefs, values, and attitudes on agriculture and rural life. Although awareness of these differing attitudes and values is an important step in moving toward educational programs and policies for a more sustainable agriculture, actual behavior may not be predictable from this knowledge. A mail survey of Iowa farmers with membership in Practical Farmers of Iowa, a sustainable agriculture organization, was used to examine the attitude—behavior relationship of these farmers and the role social influences play in this relationship. Attitude and social influence scales were developed, as well as a chemical input index that measures commitment to sustainable practices. The results indicate that, when controlling explanatory factors, the attitude—behavior relationship is moderate and the social influences examined do not facilitate this relationship. Implications for educational programs and policies of these findings are discussed