Boosting Rural Broadband

Boosting Rural Broadband. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Computers are here to stay. The novelty has worn off and we have integrated them into just about every aspect of our lives. And it is not just computers, the internet has become a mainstay. But there are still many areas of rural America where internet access is either very spotty or inaccessible. Congress has set aside more than $7 billion to make broadband internet access available throughout the country.  Now the big question is how to tackle that enormous task. American Farm Bureau rural development specialist Pat Wolff says it is crucial that rural America gets its fair share of those bucks. 

WOLFF: There are vast parts of this country that are not connected by high-speed internet and that puts farmers at a disadvantage. Lots of people like to go online and check the weather. It’s a matter of convenience, but if you’re a farmer, knowing the weather forecast can make or break your crop for a year.  So it’s information like that that’s so critical for farmers to have.

More than half of all urban and suburban households subscribe to broadband.  In rural areas, only 38 percent do.

WOLFF: As the federal agencies work to get broadband out to rural America, we need to make sure that there is no price discrimination, that broadband is available and at a cost similar to people who live in urban and suburban areas.

Wolff explains how providing broadband access to rural areas will help stimulate the economy. 

WOLFF: Stimulus means people spending money, people starting new businesses and people building up the businesses they have to create jobs.  That’s what broadband in rural areas will do.  It will help people start new businesses.  It will help a part of the economy that can’t be helped in any other way.

Broadband access will make a huge difference in healthcare for rural areas according to Wolff.

WOLFF: Health internet technology holds out great promise to improve medical care and decrease the cost heath I.T. means using the internet to get services to places where they’re not available now.  If we can’t get broadband out to rural America, it means that healthcare in rural America will be substandard and that the savings that other parts of our country will achieve won’t exist for farmers and ranchers. 

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.