Continuing Education and
Communication Services
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
10/24/01
Contacts:
Paul Lasley, Extension Sociology, (515) 294-0937, plasley@iastate.edu
Del Marks, Extension Communication Systems, (515) 294-9807, delmarks@iastate.edu
Poll Finds Farm Communities Headed in the Right Direction
AMES, Iowa -- A small majority of Iowa farmers (54 percent) think the communities where they live are headed in the right direction, despite some of the difficulties experienced in rural Iowa in recent years, according to the 2001 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.
Another 24 percent say their hometowns are headed off on the wrong track, while 21 percent are not sure whether community life is improving or declining, according to Paul Lasley, Iowa State University Extension sociologist who directed the poll. Strengths of farm communities include their role as a place to raise children, viewed as good or excellent by 93 percent of the poll respondents, and as a good place to attend public schools, rated good or excellent by 83 percent.
Poll respondents also gave high marks to the friendliness of people in their communities and to the overall quality of life. Health care services were rated good or excellent by 75 percent of those surveyed, and protection against crime was rated good or excellent by 77 percent.
Also receiving good or excellent ratings from large majorities of farmers were the availability of credit for home or business loans (67 percent), the quality of housing (73 percent) and community or civic spirit, 65 percent.
Attitudes toward their communities may depend in part on how farmers define where they live. "What do you call your community?" a Monona County farmer asked. "Your old hometown five miles away with a population of 800 or the 2,500 population town 18 miles away?"
At the low end of the satisfaction scale, only 14 percent said shopping facilities in their communities were excellent, while 18 percent said they were poor. Ten percent said their communities offered good job opportunities, while 17 percent said job opportunities were poor.
One poll respondent commented, "gas prices take a big bite out of a family budget when you have to drive 20 miles to the nearest town to get items you may need that aren't found locally." And a farmer from Jones County commented, "there are lots of jobs available, but at low wages with poor benefits. Many in rural Iowans live in a high-tech wilderness."
The Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll is funded by ISU Extension and the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. The purpose of the poll, conducted since 1982, is to ask farmers' views on a variety of rural and agricultural issues. A statewide random sample of 3,376 Iowa farm operators were sent mail questionnaires in February, with a 61 percent response rate.
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