Gov. Bob Holden
(Kelley McCall/AP)

"High-speed Internet, broadband, all of that," Holden said in an interview, after a speech at the annual Governor's Conference on Agriculture.

"It should be readily available like it is in the cities. If you have low living costs and better living conditions in the rural areas where you can raise your families, where would you choose to live?"

A recurring theme at the conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort was how to stimulate rural communities and bring added dollar to many farm endeavors.

Holden, who was reared on a dairy and livestock farm near Birch Tree in rural Shannon County, said he was proud of having stressed the importance of agriculture for the future of Missouri during his four-year administration.

With growing public awareness of the role of life and plant sciences, much of them based on the state's diverse agriculture, Missouri is poised to be a leader in agriculture in the global economy, Holden said.

He said that by focusing on life and plant sciences, political leaders have a reason to talk with agricultural leaders in different parts of the state. They also can confer with people at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, the University of Missouri at Columbia and at Missouri's other universities and colleges.

"It allows us to weave a policy that affects everyone," he said.

And, he added, education is the only way the state can compete with and for emerging markets in Asia, Europe and elsewhere.

"If we're going to be a part of the global economy, we've got to have a well-educated work force," Holden said.

Holden hasn't said what he will do after Jan. 10, when he turns over the governor's office to Matt Blunt, a Republican who defeated State Auditor Claire McCaskill, a Democrat.

Finding ways to revive or save rural communities with dwindling populations was the topic of Jack Schultz, chief executive of Agracel Inc. of Effingham, Ill.

Agracel helps rural communities pursue industrial development. This step usually comes after community leaders have begun the often-difficult process of working together to inventory their strengths and weaknesses and agreed upon a plan for future development, Schultz said.

"They have to look at this in a regional way," he said. "You have got to get out of your box and think differently. Just because you play each other on Friday night doesn't mean you can't work together the next day."

He used the example of communities that market themselves to travel agencies as regional destinations bound together by a common theme, such as wine and food.

People "in primarily agrarian societies are not used to working with others," he said. For those who overcome those challenges, the results can be rewarding, said Schultz, author of "Boomtown USA: The 7 1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns," a how-to book for rural revival. "Not every community is going to survive."

To compete in the global economy, Schultz said, rural communities will have to be open to diverse groups of people who have skills - such as processing information technology - that can benefit rural areas.

"They are going to be from Mexico, India, Pakistan and other places," Schultz said. "Communities that can embrace people from other countries are the communities that will survive."

Repps Hudson
Of the Post-Dispatch
December 13, 2004