If The Dems Made A Concerted Effort To Appeal To Rural Voters What Would You Recommend They Do?....

[tama]

112. We didn't

We moved north as the ice was smelting.

As for Cuba, I consider it good example in right direction, as we are all facing same future where we can't rely on food produced with fossil fuels but have to learn to feed ourselves locally and sustainably. In Russia, where land ownership is still very open and confused issue, also many of most urban people have a "datsha" garden and ordinary people produce about half the food and are not totally dependent from government for their basic survival, and in fact have survived many near total collapses of the top hierarchy. And also in Russia AFAIK government is at least to some extent supportive of the local ecovillage movement. Unlike the local (and federal) governments in US as you point out. And not just in US, permaculture and ecovillage and generally organic farming and local food folks have faced in capitalistic Western countries mostly obstruction from government.

Governments being owned by big money are in fact in doing continuous land reform by supporting big landowners and industrial farming in numerous ways. And that's not in the benefit of rural people, just selected few who do business in terms of big corporations. Land ownership is concentrating all the time in fewer and fewer hands because of government and corporate policies. And even worse outside US, e.g. in much of Latin America where neocolonialist corporations and governments have forced people to farm consumer products for northern consumers instead of feeding their own people. So many of them become dislocated and are forced to seek employment in US as legal and illegal immigrants.

And no, I'm not speaking of anyone as evil human beings, humans act according to the system they live in. The issues are structural and systemic.