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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Planting the Seeds for a Stronger Rural Economy

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007   


Tractors and plows are great tools for growing durum and soybeans, but if North Dakota's economy is going to bring a good harvest, the state needs to cultivate small businesses, according to testimony before Congress.

Chuck Hassebrook, director of the Center For Rural Affairs, told members of Congress this week the 2007 Farm Bill must go beyond farm subsidies to include aid to small businesses and entrepreneurs. He supports a micro-enterprise assistance program within the Farm Bill.

"That would provide loans, training, and technical assistance to people who want to start small businesses with five or fewer employees. That's where most the jobs have come from in the last decade in rural North Dakota and that's the future."

Hassebrook says nearly 60 percent of the job growth in North Dakota and other parts of the Midwest throughout the 1990s came from people creating their own jobs. He believes a strong economic environment for small business development may attract young people back into the state. Hassebrook argues too much Farm Bill money goes toward disaster pools and subsidy programs.

"If we only spend on immediate assistance, and we don't invest in our future in rural America, we're not going to have much of a future. I firmly believe we owe it to the next generation, we owe it to our communities, to invest in their future and to insure their future."

Hassebrook says it will take some long-term thinking in the next Farm Bill to make those goals a reality. His comments to the Senate Ag Committee can be found at www.cfra.org.






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