Rural Dimensions of Welfare Reform—The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) dramatically altered the social safety net for poor Americans. But there is reason to believe that welfare reform outcomes may be different for many of the 7.5 million people living in poverty in rural areas. This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of PRWORA's impact on caseloads, employment, earnings, and food assistance in rural areas. It is the result of a conference—held in May of 2000—that was jointly sponsored by the Economic Research Service, the Joint Center for Poverty Research, and the Rural Policy Research Institute, and funded by ERS's Food and Nutrition Research Program. More information is available at W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Structural and Financial Characteristics of U.S. Farms: 2001 Family Farm Report—Family farms range from very small retirement and residential farms to establishments with sales in the millions of dollars. The farm typology developed by ERS categorizes farms into groups based primarily on occupation of the operator and sales class of the farm. The groups differ in their importance to the farm sector, product specialization, program participation, dependence on farm income, and other characteristics.

Federal Programs and Rural Development—a wide array of Federal programs and policies affect rural America. Analysis focuses on developments affecting Federal general assistance, infrastructure, business assistance, and housing programs, as well as regulatory policy, including financial reform, the New Markets and Livability Initiatives, and trade liberalization and adjustment policies and their rural implications.

Rural Conditions and Trends: Socioeconomic Conditions—minorities constitute an increasing proportion of the population, particularly among children and younger working-age adults. This report examines conditions and trends among rural minorities, and also includes general articles on population, migration, employment, earnings and income, poverty and well-being, housing, food security, and farm labor and income.

Natural Amenities Drive Rural Population Change—climate, topography, and water area are highly related to rural county population change over the past 25 years. A natural amenities index, discussed in this report, captures much of this relationship.

for more information, contact: Leslie Whitener
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page updated: March 23, 2004