concentrated on Indian reservations in the West, in
the Eastern and Southern mountain areas, in the
Mississippi Delta counties, and in the Southern
Black Belt of remote counties with high proportions
of minority residents. Mississippi is the poorest state
in the nation, but New Mexico, South Dakota, and
Maine are the poorest states in their respective re-
gions (Bureau of Census).
MAJOR CATEGORIES OF RURAL POOR
Rural Farm Residents
Less than 10 percent of the rural population resides
on farms. Poor farm residents tend to be older, in bad
health, and many have suffered financial reversals
associated with the agricultural economy
(Tickameyer and Duncan). Debertine and Infanger
conclude that poverty in low-income rural regions
where a subsistence agriculture dominates is caused
primarily by deficiencies in human and physical
capital. Rural poverty occurring as a result of farm
financial crises is caused by a different set of factors,
many of which affect the general farm economy and
are outside the control of the individual farmer (Mol-
nar).
Farm Workers
In 1980, only 2.8 percent of the total U.S. work
force, 8.5 percent of the work force in rural America,
and 7.2 percent in nonmetropolitan areas could be
classified as agricultural workers even by the most
inclusive definition [wage and salary, self-em-
ployed, and unpaid family] (Elo and Beale). Farm
workers include farm employees with relatively sta-
ble year-round jobs, part-time farm workers, and
migrant laborers. Full-time farm employees have
been growing in number in recent years, while part-
time employees have been declining. Little data is
available on the terms and conditions of benefits
associated with full-time employment.
Part-time farm employees are engaged to meet
seasonal labor demands. Although many youth and
second-job individuals supply this type of labor,
some part is filled by individuals in between jobs or
in long-term unemployment. Rarely are individuals
who rely on low-paying, sporadic farm employment
able to generate annual income above the officially
defined poverty threshold.
Migrant laborers comprise the poorest segment of
the farm worker population. Ginsberg maintains that
farm workers should be considered as a separate
ethnic group, as their problems are so complex and
widespread. Near constant travel inflicts particular
hardship on families which do not experience the
continuity of housing, schooling, and neighbor-
hoods that define the central parameters of normality
for most Americans. Disrupted schooling inflicts
particular hardships on young people who fail to
develop endowments that might otherwise lead to
more stable and productive livelihoods.
Training programs specifically targeted to nonim-
migrant migratory and seasonal farm workers in-
clude the U.S. Department of Labor CETA 303 and
JTPA 402 programs. These are primarily intended to
enhance job skills of farm workers either for farm
work, especially in machinery mechanics and weld-
ing, or for nonfarm jobs, mainly clerical. Huffman
notes that little information is available on the actual
impacts of the substantial sums spent on these pro-
grams.
Farm unions exert little influence on farm worker
conditions in the South. Unionization has been
viewed as one means for improving the status of
migrant laborers by increasing their ability to influ-
ence wage rates and working conditions. Martin and
Abele find that farm worker jobs covered by the six
California unions now number 12,400 — the largest
number in the country, though a decrease from the
1980s.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the California
unions set the pace for farm wage increases state-
wide. The number of contracts peaked at 100 in
1978. Today only one commodity, mushrooms, is
predominantly unionized. Employers now tend to
offer wage increases that depend on local conditions,
and these wage increases are often less than rates
achieved through union bargaining. In general, un-
ion activities had few spillover effects in non-union
commodities in the 1980s.
Blacks
Most rural blacks reside in the South. Poverty rates
for blacks are higher than for whites (Wilson). Rural
blacks tend to be concentrated in remote agricultural
Coimties that have few alternative employment op-
portunities, poor school systems, and a regressive
political structure. There is some evidence that local
elites retarded the development of adequate school
systems to protect agricultural labor supplies, as
educated human capital tend to flee to cities and
other regions (Molnar and Lawson).
Poverty rates among rural blacks tend to be highest
for children and the elderly. In some rural counties
in the South, poverty rates for elderly minorities
exceed 50 percent. Some of the high rates can be
attributed to the legacy of segregation that denied
jobs, fair wages, and developmental opportunities to
whole generations of black people.
High rates of out-of-wedlock births and other in-
dicators of a disintegrating family structure in part
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