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Not Just Seasonal Change |
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Marlatt’s XIII Brood is a variant of the 17-year species of cicada specific to Northern Illinois, emerging in numbers that often exceed 1 ½ million per acre. In 1990, their last appearance aboveground, residents used snow shovels to clear them from their driveways, rakes to clear them from their yards. Dogs gorged themselves on the nutrient-rich corpses and slept the sleep of the well fed. This summer of 2007 was their year, and a joke common amongst the blue-collar workers makes plain a social trend occurring in much of rural America.
What did one cicada say to the other?
Where did all these Mexicans come from?
The area, historically white middle-class, has seen significant changes since the parents of this year’s hatch left the soil in 1990. Indeed, across the country time has made notions of rural America outdated, with demographic trends swinging in unprecedented directions. The Rockwellian notion of white American families bringing up crops on modest family farms in the ruralities of our continental 48 is no longer valid. Agriculture accounts for only 6.5% of the rural labor force. The lion’s share of agricultural land is tied up in industrial farming; large acreages held by single farmers. Other industries now employ the bulk of those living outside metro areas, with manufacturing accounting for a stout 12.4% of the rural workforce. To anyone who was around to see the last batch of Marlatt’s XIII, one thing is clear; the economic and ethnic face of rural America is changing.
Change is, of course, not a new phenomenon to these areas. For much of the 20th century it had seen an exodus of its youth, lured away by the employment opportunities offered in urban centers. Then in the 1970’s it saw a reversal of that flight, with many citizens opting for the quiet life over the bustle of the city. Over the course of the decade, rural America marked a net population gain of 2.5 million. In the 80’s the population growth leveled off, then declined, only to increase again in the 1990’s. As is so often the case, history proved cyclical but not symmetrical; the reasons for the increase were attributed to entirely different factors.
Over forty percent of America’s rural counties have experienced natural decrease of late (when childbirth rates do not match rates of death). This fact is at odds with history, where rural birth rates are continuously bountiful– providing more hands to help in the fields, allowing for population increases without importing residents from elsewhere. That is no longer the case. Population increases have come in spite of the natural decrease, and are owed to the large influx of Hispanic migrants. Hence, when Marlatt’s XIII appeared this summer, they bore witness to a citizenry no longer so homogenous.
A study by Julie Ardery, conducted in Surrey County, North Carolina, birthplace of Andy Griffith and inspiration for “Mayberry,†makes plain another transformation taking place, this time an economic transformation.
The three staple industries of the region; textiles, tobacco, and furniture making, are on the wane. Tobacco farmers are finding lower prices for their flu-cured tobacco, higher prices for fertilizers and a cessation of tobacco price supports in the wake of 2004’s Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act. All furniture makers in the area have closed in favor of the cheaper labor and parts to be found in Vietnam or China. All that remains is the making of simple cabinets, a heavily mechanized process. The few textiles that remain consist largely of sock manufacturers, also a highly mechanized process. Cheaper labor in Costa Rica, Mexico and Brazil have precipitated the decline.
The change in population has come hand-in-hand with this economic transformation; jobs that cannot be so easily outsourced, such as employment at chicken hatcheries and feed mills, don’t appeal to much of the Caucasian population. As such, immigrants have filled the positions. At Wayne Farms, in Surrey County, 80-85% of the employees are Hispanic. This puts previously unknown strains on other segments of society. Over the past decade Surry County has seen an over 500% increase in Hispanic enrollment in its schools, leaving many principals scrambling for ways to integrate Spanish speaking children into their scholastic fold. This problem, however, has been adequately adapted to. Other problems of the area have proven trickier to solve.
The biggest, and most pressing, concern for the area is the dimming economic horizon. With so many jobs being lost to workers overseas, or to cheap, efficient machines, people are beginning to wonder where the children who graduate from the area’s schools will find work. The most obvious answer is outside of the county, leaving in doubt the future viability of the towns themselves.
There have, however, been some encouraging developments. Tourism has become an emphasis in the town, with recreational opportunities being both developed and marketed simultaneously. Others have chosen different virtues of the area to tout; the low cost of living and Mayberry image of Surrey County make it attractive to “active retirees.†Still others have invested in a new spin on the old agricultural traditions in the town, purchasing what was formerly tobacco land, now dedicated to the cultivation of grapes. Former tobacco farmers are wary, but the outsiders who have invested in the vineyards are betting that, in seven to ten years (the amount of time it takes a grape vine to mature), they will reap both grapes and profits.
While these options are not available to all of rural America, where climates and topographies often void opportunities for vineyards, or retirement communities, the unique aspects of different regions, coupled with entrepreneurial spirit, can ensure that the rural areas of America continue to be economically vital. Sure, Mayberry will never be the same again, and another bit of American nostalgia is lost, but that is nothing to be regretted. In a rare twist on cosmetic surgery, towns in rural America need a facelift for their very survival.
The notion that Americans will simply abandon their rural areas is silly, as you illustrate. People will find uses for land and will always enjoy rural life in some sense. Though major industries may change (that’s a good thing too, IMO), there will always be people who prefer the country to the city.