Re-Building Rural America

Re-Building Rural America

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Matt Brechwald worries greatly about the decay and decline in rural communities throughout America and believes that entrepreneurship is one way to bring these communities back to life. To that end, he hosts and produces The Off Farm Income Podcast. “ There are boarded up buildings all over and the reason this is going on is twofold. One, it is becoming very difficult to get the younger generations, when they leave the rural area and go off to college, to come back. And one of those reasons is that there is an absence of jobs. The second reason is, as our farmers in the United States and especially our land owners grow older, their kids don’t want to farm. So these large corporate farms are either buying those properties or they are leasing them out and they’ve got all the technology in the world so they don't need as many people to work for them and help them farm. A lot of those agricultural jobs are being replaced by technology. I am not saying corporate farms are a bad thing but they are contributing to our rural communities shrinking. The only way that I can see to try and reestablish these rural communities and bring good, well-educated people with good values back to these communities is through entrepreneurship. I was able to do it and I figure there’s got to be other people out there who have. I have been able to find many of them and have them come on as guests on my podcast so I can share their stories. This way I can give people ideas and methods on how to make it work.”
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