Building the Agricultural City: A Handbook for Rural Renewal

The centralized economy doesn't work for most Americans, particularly rural Americans. Building the Agricultural City demonstrates the need for rural Americans to work cooperatively to create self-reliant, decentralized economies. It describes tools for self-reliance and sustainability that exist across the U.S. and can be assembled within any region to transform service economies into productive economies.

Here are a few of the tools that can effect the transformation: Community development banks, whose mandate is to serve the under-served, would focus on small business start-ups. What kind of businesses ? Ideally, worker-owned cooperatives that would democratize the economy. Closed-loop aquaponic systems that raised fish and vegetables to provide locally grown, fresh food year round. Municipal owned utilities powered by renewable energy .

Rural Americans now understand that they must be self-reliant, that regionalism is the only counter to globalism. Building the Agricultural City promote the idea of a democratic, decentralized economy.

Many rural Americans are conservative, distrustful of change. Many cannot see alternatives to the present system, even when they know their towns are dying. Others have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Those of us involved in this project have no illusions about winning everyone over, or that building a cooperative regional economy will take a few years. It will be a long, arduous process. But we have no alternative but to try. And there are enough creative people who have pledged to work on the project's behalf that we know we can build a successful model in the Driftless region of the Upper Midwest that will that will serve as a beacon to others'urban and rural.