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Repopulating Rural America - Blessing or Curse?
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-(Business Wire)-May 1, 2008 - "Increasing numbers of people are moving to rural communities because they want to leave stressful urban environments and get back in touch with the land," says Peter Holter, executive director of the international environmental non-profit, Holistic Management International http://www.holisticmanagement.org.
Holter, whose organization works on four continents with stewards of large landholdings to restore land to health, productivity and profitability, was reacting to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "The New American Gentry." According to the author, reporter Conor Dougherty, gentrification is coming to "broad swaths of rural America" due to an influx of affluent retirees and people with high incomes.
Does this trend portend needed economic renewal and environmental sustainability, or a less positive future?
According to Holter, "This population shift provides an opportunity to care for the land so that it remains healthy for future generations."
Holter points out many of the new rural residents are - or will be - Baby Boomers, who intend to remain youthful and active for as long as possible by reducing stress, exercising regularly and eating properly.
"We can say the same thing about the land they're moving to: if - like the human body - the land is managed properly, it will remain healthy. And if the land remains healthy, it can yield a 'triple bottom line' of economic, social and environmental sustainability for rural communities."
"'Healthy land' is actually a real and fundamental issue," Holter says, "because the land sustains all of us. On average, our planet is covered with little more than three feet of topsoil, and we are losing about 1% of that topsoil every year to erosion."
Can we restore health to our topsoil? "HMI's 24 years of experience shows us that we can," says Holter. "We begin the process with no-till and organic farming. We also bring the animals back to the land with controlled grazing, which replicates how wild animals kept land healthy before modern agricultural methods were introduced."
"Just as the human body needs both exercise and rest, the land does, too," notes Holter. "And the positive results will include increased biodiversity, erosion resistance and carbon sequestration, which will help resist the effects of global warming."
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