The source of our wealth is in the things we grow. But today, those
things get shipped off into a vast global supply chain, where profits
are siphoned off and little remains for us to save or invest. Farmers’
share of every retail food dollar has fallen from about50 percent
<https://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/research/economics/TR37/welcome.html>in 1952
to15 percent
<https://nfu.org/2019/04/25/farmers-share-of-the-food-dollar-falls-to-all-time-low/>today.
Corporationscontrol more and more
<https://www.iatp.org/documents/revisiting-crisis-design-corporate-concentration-agriculture>of
the agriculture business—from the seed and fertilizer farmers buy to the
grain, milk and meat they sell—sucking out profits instead of giving
farmers a fair price or a fair shot at the market. Every day, small
farmers are squeezed: They can either expand their operations and take
on more debt in an attempt to produce more, or close their business
entirely because of chronically low commodity prices.
The digital divide is also real: About28 percent
<https://www.wpr.org/demand-broadband-internet-remains-high-rural-wisconsin>of
rural Wisconsinites lack high-speed internet, which stifles rural
economic growth. Working from home or starting a new business is next to
impossible in today’s economy without high-speed internet. Kids can’t
learn from home without it either.
Rural health care is a disaster. At least176
<https://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/programs-projects/rural-health/rural-hospital-closures/>rural
hospitals have closed since 2005, the majority of them in the past 10
years; it’s generally not profitable for hospitals to operate in
low-population areas. Wisconsin has not been hit as badly as other
states, but those hospitals that remain open in rural parts of the state
are scaling back services and struggling to retain doctors. In my own
county, there arezero
<https://khn.org/news/as-coronavirus-spreads-widely-millions-of-older-americans-live-in-counties-with-no-icu-beds/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=85056102&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8goJhrKjKUWmiY18nSF25ox8_jEzbytK1E0Q6EH1MXE3exNhajCeGjelBWgRvFtW5lHmYEycVPoaPyQkyZHXKF8T6u9Q&_hsmi=85056102>ICU
beds, even as Covid infection rates surge. Our profit-based health care
system is failing rural people.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/01/democrats-rural-vote-wisconsin-441458?
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