Farms, families and welfare

America's farms and inner cities face crises which only seem unrelated.  In fact, a solution for one could help solve the other.

The crisis on America's farms has been brewing for 50 years. Small-scale farmers have a tougher time making ends meet than larger operations, which benefit from efficiencies of scale.  Plus, larger operators typically hedge their crops on the commodities markets; small farmers often lack the money or the financial sophistication to protect their livelihood this way.  But larger operations employ fewer farmers, and farmers are the economic life-blood of rural towns.

Farming is hard work.  Farmers get up before the rooster, and don't let up until the crops are in and the cows are home.  Farm kids see the comparatively easy life of their urban contemporaries, and realize that potentially more lucrative opportunities await elsewhere. 

 The result:

• America's younger generations are leaving farm country.
• The majority of small farmers are older, and when they die their knowledge may not be passed along. 
• Declining population in farm towns kills other small, locally owned businesses.

Meanwhile, huge numbers of able-bodied individuals struggle to survive in America's bleak and violent urban cores.  Jobs are scarce, crime is rampant, and children are easily corrupted by the apparent quick rewards of criminal gang life.  The pressures of work and raising children in the inner city overwhelm most parents, and teachers too.

Inner city folks are deprived of clean air, trees, flowers, open spaces and quiet places.  They breathe exhaust and live near factories and toxic waste dumps.  

Welfare fails to provide a viable alternative.  Why work when you'll pay so much for child care that you'll actually come out behind?  Why work when you'll deplete the rest of your earnings maintaining a car?  Why work if that will leave your children at the mercy of strangers and of the streets.

The Solution?

Take single-parent welfare families out of the horrid inner cities and place them on small farms, preferably organic farms.  The welfare recipient works and lives on the farm full time, learning a new skill under the tutelage of the farmer.  They receive a monthly stipend from the government equal to some portion of what they get now.  They enjoy a non-toxic environment.  Their expenses will be very low, so they wind up saving more.  Night school should be available.

The children of the welfare recipient go to school by day, boosting enrollment in rural schools where flagging attendance often means no money.  The children work in the evenings and weekends, when appropriate, gaining farm skills.

The farmer gets a government stipend for providing decent housing and three square meals a day for the welfare family, equal to about a third of the welfare check of each individual on site.  Farmers should also get a foster-parent fee based on the number of children at the farm.  The farmer also gets a helping hand on the farm, and the opportunity to pass a lifetime of knowledge onto others.  For organic farmers, who often have a lot of labor and a lot of knowledge, this program offers tangible and intangible benefits.

Enter your comments or read others' comments about this idea.

Moving out of cities and away from bad influences can make the difference for youth at risk of becoming gang members and drug addicts.  The cost of this program pales in comparison to the cost of not educating our children, and having to incarcerate them for much of the rest of their lives. 

The children of farmers may yearn for city life.  So, if opposites attract, plenty of inner-city folks would jump at the chance for the simple, yet rewarding life in the country.  Rural schools certainly need the extra students, young and old, and rural towns could use new bodies, as well.

This program is ideally suited for single mothers, but could possibly work with other arrangements, such as kids and grandparents, or siblings. 

If we want to break the cycle of poverty, crime and despair in our cities, we need innovative programs.  Your comments about this proposal, or suggestions to improve it, go below:

Comments from the Sustainable Enterprises community:

• It sounds like a re-invention of the wheel, albeit a good one. Sharecropping has been around for many years, especially on now dwindling tobacco farms. It is a wonderful idea to get people back to a more simpler rewarding life and a wonderful tool to educate children. I grew up on a farm and hope to keep my three small children there to gain the insights and opportunities I had when I was a child. Oh what fun it was to see things grow and to build a tree-house wherever I wanted to.....without a permit. I work off the farm but love to live there and manage the open space that remains.--Tom Meloy
• I think this is a wonderful idea. It will give children a chance to learn how to earn money, keep them out of the city where drugs are so easy to get. Keep the family a unit and also start giving pride back to welfare recipients. It will also help the amount of welfare. People who are not willing to work do not deserve a hand out.
• I think it would be a good idea to address the discipline issues concerning the inner-city children and a more detailed list of responsibilities of the adults. The amount of work that will be asked of them will be great and to put the farmer's mind at ease there should be some sort of contract so that both parties are held accountable. I am very interested in joining a program like this myself an have given it a lot of thought. I too feel like it is a perfect combination of needs being met.—Jonathan Ramey
• Education should be one of the key ingredients to this program. There should be a guarantee that the inner city families are given access to a computer so they can take on-line courses to obtain various degrees. Their lives need to be changed in more ways than one. I cannot not say enough about how supportive I am of this idea; it is just the thing that can help equalize our society. I work with a number of single welfare mothers and I plan to show them the description of this program and get their feedback.
• It sounds like a re-invention of the wheel, albeit a good one. Sharecropping has been around for many years, especially on now dwindling tobacco farms. It is a wonderful idea to get people back to a more simpler rewarding life and a wonderful tool to educate children. I grew up on a farm and hope to keep my three small children there to gain the insights and opportunities I had when I was a child. Oh what fun it was to see things grow and build a tree-house wherever I wanted to.....without a permit. I work off the farm but love to live there and manage the open space that remains.— Tom Meloy
• I think this is a wonderful idea. It will give children a chance to learn how to earn money, keep them out of the city where drugs are so easy to get. Keep the family a unit and also start giving pride back to welfare recipients. It will also help the amount of welfare. People who are not willing to work do not deserve a hand out.