On not reaching the rural poor: Urban bias in poverty policy

In a country where for many generations the virtues of rural life have appeared to be a t the heart of the national ethos, there currently exists astonishingly little hard information about critical economic and social aspects of that life. That, a t least, is the conclusion of a recent review of research into the economics of rural poverty by economists Keith Bryant, Lee Bawden, and WilliarnSaupe, all former or current IRP associates. Not only is there confusion over terminology-"The fact of the matter is that the concepts and measurements of rural, urban, farm, nonfarm, metropolitan, nonmetropolitan have all shifted significantly over the past 35 years" (p. 5)-but even sidestepping definitional problems, such central facts of poverty as housing, nutrition, health, and farm labor markets remain, as on the old maps, "unknown lands."