A House in the Country: Rural-Urban issues and Research Needs

Abstract

People at the interface between rural and urban places are increasingly at odds over how resources will be used. There are disputes over the mix of services (and disservices) that flow from the land and water, and over the rules that govern how and by whom the mix is determined. The challenge is to design and maintain an institutional structure that achieves a satisfactory balance among the many interests involved. This article examined three issue clusters at the rural-urban fringe: (a) increasing demand for protection of farmland and open space as more people move to rural areas, (b) the environmental costs of large scale agriculture, particularly animal agriculture, and (c) the inadequacy of the legal infrastructure in rural areas to cope with change. Research priorities were identified concerning the economic and social consequences of land use change and the performance of policy options to guide that change. An approach to institutional reform is to require that more of the costs attendant with residential and other development in farming areas be internalized in the decision to locate there in the first place. Research challenges resulting from consolidation of animal agriculture were also presented, emphasizing better understanding of the effects of specific technology on farm size and policy for coping with rural-urban conflict.