CNCounty News

Analytics coming to Department of Agriculture

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Numbers will support which programs USDA throws its weight behind. "We are called rural development, we are not rural aid" - USDA Innovation Officer Gina Sheets

Rural Innovation Centers were a staple of Sonny Perdue’s tenure as Georgia governor, and now one is a part of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), now that he is secretary.

His chief innovation officer, Gina Sheets, briefed Rural Action Caucus members at their conference business meeting. Sheets, previously served as Indiana’s director of agriculture, and in her new role will build collaboration between USDA and local governments, foundations, nonprofits and associations to get the best out of rural America.

“Rural America isn’t just about agriculture and forestry,” she said.

“It produces most of the nation’s energy, it’s home to a significant share of the nation’s manufacturing and most of America’s dynamic and attractive small towns, our greatest scenic and vacation destinations.”

Analytics will inform much of the innovation center’s work, with demonstrated success being key to winning support from USDA.

“We are called rural development, we are not rural aid,” Sheets said. “There are times that we use programs to the aid of our communities, but we are looking for the development to see rural prosperity actually take place. If we say we’re going to do it, we’d better be able to measure it.”

Rural areas have also seen a disproportionate impact from the opioid epidemic. Betty-Ann Bryce, a USDA senior policy advisor, described the scope of the series of opioid roundtables USDA is planning across the country.

“Rural development looks at this not as a public health issue but as a prosperity challenge,” Bryce said.

“In order for us to move forward and say we’re building healthy, prosperous communities, we have to look at what’s happening with respect to opioids, because that’s taking away from your ability to be prosperous and that’s your bottom line.”

The summits will focus on what is working, what is not working and where locals see the next opportunity.

“We believe if we have a series of local in-depth conversations in different counties, we will hear from your leadership; we’ll hear from folks on the ground; we’ll hear from social services; we’ll hear from economic development; we’ll hear all aspects in these conversations,” she said.

With health trends outpacing the rest of the country by 10 or 15 years, the Appalachian region has been a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country, and Michael Meit, co-director of the NORCH Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis explained how data from opioid deaths and other diseases of despair could be used to figure out these epidemics.

That data will be loaded into an interactive feature available in March at norc.org.

 
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