The Socio-Political-Economic Framework of Agriculture in the Rural-Urban Fringe

Abstract

HE movement of people from the central cities into rural areas has created a new environment for agriculture and a different set of problems than those with which farmers have been accustomed. There are some gains, to be sure, but the social, political and economic power of the urban is not easy to handle. Farmers, in most cases, find themselves wrestling with urban problems in a rural setting. And with very little, if any, experience on how to handle them. The situation which farmers face is clearly depicted in population shifts in recent years. Within 212 Standard Metropolitan Areas, the population of the city itself in the past 10 years rose 1%2 percent; that outside the city limits but within the metropolitan areas rose by 44 percent; but in rural areas within the metropolitan areas but beyond the central city and the suburbs as they existed in 1950, the population rose 85 percent. Metropolitan areas have been the fastest growing sectors of this country since 1900. In that year, they included less than one-third of the total population of the United States. By 1960, they contained over 60 percent. It is significant that in the nation as a whole, 80 percent of the growth in metropolitan areas between 1950 and 1960 took place in the suburbs. Predictions by many students of population are that by 1975, the population of the United States will be over 220 million, with two-thirds of these in metropolitan areas and almost 60 percent of the metropolitan population residing in the suburbs. There is much being written about saving the central city. And this is one of the problems of this country. But there seems to be no prospect of a sizeable population flow from the suburbs or fringe areas back to the central city. If anything, the fringe will grow larger with extensions deeper into rural areas. The central city must find a new reason for existence than a place for people to live. Cities generally have chosen to grow horizontally rather than vertically. The flight to the suburbs or the open country is evidence of this fact. The desire for room by a people who can afford it is doubtless one of the principal reasons. Especially is this true with automobiles in abundance and good roads over which to travel. And possibly another factor is land at lower prices than that which could be purchased in the cities. But whatever the reason, millions of families prefer a house of their own in the country to an apartment house in town. Credit is available to the