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t v Strategies to Revitalize Rural America Strategy #4, Land Grant Universities Land grant universities have a critical role in revitalizing agricultural communities. They can focus their research on strengthening family farming and ranching. They can develop outreach pro- grams that support small business, leadership, and community development. And by making education af- fordable and accessible to rural people, they give them access to the knowledge they need to thrive and lead their communities in the 21 st century. Refocusing Agricultural Research Choices about what research is done shape agriculture. The past focus of agricultural research has driven technological change in directions that reduce opportunity in agriculture and rural communities. The emphasis has been on developing expensive new technologies for input companies to sell that enable fewer and larger farms to produce the nation's food. In many cases, private companies developed the prod- ucts, and land grant universities refined the production systems to put them to use. That has helped corporations that sell inputs to farmers capture a bigger share of the profit in the food sys- tem. As their increasingly expensive inputs replace the management and skills of producers, they do more of what is involved in producing food. And their profit share grows. Roundup Ready soybeans for example, have replaced much of the management in corn- soybean production. Seed prices and company profits have risen. Farmers' margins have narrowed, in part because seed costs have risen and in part because the reduced management requirements have enabled large farms to grow faster and drive up cash rents and land purchase prices. The farm and ranch share of food system profit is shrinking at a rate that would take it to zero by the year 2030, according to research by University of Maine Agricultural Economist Stewart Smith. Agricultural research has also enabled the shift to large corporate operations by creating production systems where management can be separated from labor and moved into the office. That allows labor to be provided by unskilled low -wage workers. The development of confinement systems with a controlled environment was the linchpin in the industrializa- tion of hog production because it routinized the work and reduced the judgment that had to be exercised by the person in the barn. Our land grant universities could be powerful tools to steer technology in a different direction. Every relevant poll demonstrates that most people don't want the corporatization of agriculture and dying rural communi- ties. As public research institutions in a democratic society, our land grant institutions have an obligation to seek Page 10