And yes, US Representative Dave Loebsack conceded, it seems like that is what happens: “I will say, urban areas do have far more representation.”
A congressman with a large swathe of farmland in his district, Loebsack spoke Saturday at the KIIC Farm Show at Bridge View Center. The tool farmers need to do business today, he acknowledged, is high speed internet.
He said he naturally gravitates toward other representatives from rural areas. And dollars for broadband are important because running fiber optics a mile to reach two customers may not be cost effective.
It doesn’t matter which party they’re in, the Democrat said: In fact, there are more rural Republicans than Democrats working on farm issues: in many cases, he told a crowd that included cattle producers and farmers, they’re fighting the same battle. The rural representatives help one another keep things fair.
With internet access, he said, plenty of farm-rich areas are using dial-up connections to get online. That’s the case a decade or more after “in-town” residents got tired of them. Because even in small urban areas, high speed internet, often wireless, is a reality.
The rural representatives find themselves fighting to make sure that when the dollars are handed out, their districts are not forgotten.
“It’s only fair that rural areas can tap into available funding to expand internet … access,” Loebsack said to the audience.
A disparity like that one lead the government to create the Rural Electrification program nearly 100 years ago.
City dwellers had electricity in the 1920s and 1930s, while farmers generally had none.
Loebsack agreed the mid-1930s rural utility program changed the quality of life on the farm for the better.
“This is similar. Very similar,” he said. “Rural communities should have the same opportunity for economic development. For that to happen, they need broadband.”
©2017 the Ottumwa Courier (Ottumwa, Iowa) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
