The apples of the valley hold the seeds of happiness, The  ground is rich from tender care; Repay, do not forget.
(Led Zeppelin) 
 
We work to hold onto the present because we believe in the future. The American economy today is tilted in favor of large scale, standardized operations. For instance, most of the produce the country eats comes from California. 
That is not because only California can grow food, but because government policies encourage interstate trucking, warehousing, massive irrigation and a supply of poorly paid farm laborers that all combine to make winners of the
largest corporate operations.
 
But those policies aren’t efficient. And they aren’t very good at delivering high-quality goods at fair prices. None of
the food is fresh, but consumers accept the poor quality as long as the price is cheap and not too many people get sick from e coli food poisoning. But if those artificial policies weaken in the future or if consumers ever demand quality for their money, horticulture on a smaller scale will become viable. And then small Midwestern towns will be viable again, too. So it makes sense to keep communities like Roachdale in place, ready to meet the demands that the old system couldn’t satisfy.
 
The same argument applies to other sectors of the economy. If we were starting over to design national energy
policy, we wouldn’t choose the petroleum-based system we rely on now. Wind and solar and bio-fuels make sense when you look forward, and all those sources thrive in the sparsely populated Midwest. 
 
Or think about the travel industry. On-line services like Orbitz, Travelocity, and Priceline make it easy to choose
a flight and a hotel. But they decide which hotels to include, and they make no effort to include unique, off-beat or local options. Captain Kirk boldly went where no man had gone before, but today William Shatner shills for a search
engine that makes you go where everyone else goes. Small bed and breakfast inns are left out of the marketing picture, even though they offer more personal comfort and a more memorable experience. If the innovative on-line tools ever catch up to the reality, the small-town bed and breakfast industry can blossom.
 
Is it naïve to expect these changes? The suburban, drive-the-SUV-to-Walmart lifestyle is the new normal, and many people today can’t envision alternatives. But history teaches us that nothing is permanent. The future of big-box retail is probably like the future of the Bell Telephone monopoly, the Sears catalog and the New Bedford, Massachusetts whale oil industry. Each of these was dominant in its time, yet each was eclipsed by new rules, new technology and different consumer tastes. 

Andy Zehner is an Assessment Analyst for Purdue University and lives outside Roachdale with his family.

Happy the man whose wish and care, a few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, in his own ground.  (Alexander Pope)
 
American society has grown more divided as it has grown larger, and many Americans have no understanding or empathy for people who live differently. There are many different dividing lines keeping people apart. One of them is urban versus rural. Some people from suburbs and city have little notion of life outside their city limits. They 
would say our small rural Indiana town is “nowhere.”  To us, every place is some place. Cornfields are just as agreeable as tall buildings. 

Andy Zehner is an Assessment Analyst for Purdue University and lives outside Roachdale with his family.