About the Center for Rural Affairs
The Center for Rural Affairs was established in 1973 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit by rural Nebraskans and has since grown to a nationally recognized policy analysis and advocacy organization focused on the upper Midwest and Great Plains. In recent years our national grassroots base has grown to nearly 30,000 individuals including people in all 50 states. Our mission is to establish strong rural communities, social and economic justice, environmental stewardship, and genuine opportunity for all while engaging people in decisions that affect the quality of their lives and the future of their communities. Our work includes:
- Advocating for federal policies supporting rural community development that reduces poverty, rewards resource stewardship, and strengthens small farms and businesses. In the recent farm bill, the Center won funding for a new microenteprise program to serve low and moderate income rural communities.
- Providing loans, technical assistance and training to small entrepreneurs through our Rural Enterprise Assistance Program (REAP), the nation’s leading statewide rural microenterprise development program.
- Providing comprehensive rural community development services.
- Developing new cooperatives to reach and expand premium markets that reward sustainable agriculture, strengthen family farms, and open the doors of opportunity to beginning farmers.
The Center for Rural Affairs has a long and proven track record in promoting sustainable agriculture policy and practices. In 1976 our Small Farm Energy Project pioneered on-farm sustainable agriculture research, now the preferred research method for sustainable agriculture. In 1979 we published a research report on the growth of large-scale hog factories, the public policies that favor them, and the threat they pose to family farms. That report, titled “Who Will Sit Up With the Corporate Sow?,” laid the foundation for the Center's continuing effort to keep hog production on sustainable family farms. In 1982, the Center played a pivotal role in a coalition of farm and religious groups to secure the passage of "Initiative 300" by a vote of Nebraskans to restrict corporate farming and to protect family farms in the state.
In 1986, the Center for Rural Affairs initiated its work on federal conservation policy with an analysis of implementation of the Conservation Reserve Program. Two years later, the Center played a leading role in the formation of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, now the leading voice for sustainable agriculture policy in Washington, D.C. In the early 1990s, we were the lead founder of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. Our historic efforts in creating these organizations were pivotal in establishing a voice for grassroots conservation and sustainable agriculture advocates in federal policy debates.
Over the last two decades, the Center has demonstrated its effectiveness by winning significant reforms in state and federal agricultural and rural development policy. The Center is also viewed by the media as a knowledgeable source and credible voice of rural people. In recent years, the Center has been quoted in many nationwide Associated Press stories, the primary national news source for the rural media. Our work is covered in the New York Times, the Economist, CNN, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, National Public Radio, PBS, the Los Angeles Times, the Clear Channel Network, and many prominent regional news media.
The Center for Rural Affairs has evolved into one of the nation’s leading rural organizations known for our pioneering work to rebuild rural America and our national work to reform federal policy.
Our Values
Our work is guided by a dedicated board of directors and our values. We value:
- Responsibility –to contribute to the betterment of our community and society;
- Conscience that balances self-interest with an obligation to the common good;
- Progress that strengthens rural communities, small businesses and family farms;
- Genuine opportunity for all to earn a living, raise a family and prosper in a rural place;
- Stewardship of the environment on which current and future generations rely;
- Widespread ownership and control of small businesses, farms and ranches by those who work them;
- Fairness that allows all who contribute to the nation’s prosperity to share in it: and
- Citizen involvement and action to shape the future.
We reflect these values in our projects as well as in the way we treat each other within the organization. We provide our staff the extraordinary opportunity to devote their professional lives to working for the things they believe in – in common purpose with people of like mind.
Center Leadership
Paul Swanson, President and Board Chair
Chuck Hassebrook, Executive Director and Rural Policy Program Director
Jon Bailey, Rural Research and Analysis Program Director
Jeff Reynolds, Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP) Program Director
Kathie Starkweather, Rural Opportunities and Stewardship Program Director
Brian Depew, Rural Organizing and Outreach Program Director
Barbara Chamness, Administrative and Organizational Development Director
Plus 25 program and administrative staff in offices in Lyons and Hartington, Nebraska and REAP field service staff in home offices in Atkinson, Minden, Morrill, Plymouth, Seward, South Sioux City, and Tecumseh, Nebraska.
Center Financial Support
The Center for Rural Affairs receives its support through grants and contracts, donations, honoraria, fees for services, and publications income. Total 2007 budget: $2.5 million.
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