A Slow Demise in the Delta

Farm-state lawmakers have repeatedly argued that the farm subsidies will trickle down to the local economies, spurring growth. But as farms consolidate and become more mechanized, there are fewer jobs, especially for unskilled laborers.

"The problem with agriculture is that it's not a wealth builder for the people who live here," said John Greer Jr., director of the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone in Leflore County. "It's a wealth builder for the few who own the property and the resources."

But the farmers say they would not be able to survive without their subsidies. "I am not getting rich on subsidies," said G. Rives Neblett, a Shelby lawyer and businessman whose family has farmed here for three generations. Farms in which Neblett holds an interest have received about $3 million in federal payments since 2001.

"I understand the disparity and desperately wish there was something we could do about it," he said. "But without the safety net of subsidies for prices and bad weather, we would have no more agriculture in the Delta, and agriculture is all we've got left."

'We've Lost Generations'

When income supports for farmers were first passed during the Great Depression, nearly 1 in 4 Americans lived on a farm. Today, 1 in 75 lives on a farm, and 1 in 750 on a full-time commercial farm. Still, the subsidies flow, with cotton and rice producers in the Delta among the largest beneficiaries.

Despite the payments, many rural economies have seen their populations wilt and have lost thousands of jobs. That is true in poor, isolated farm towns in the Great Plains states, as well as in the Delta, where sprawling farms abut tiny towns like Shelby and Mound Bayou, which are all but boarded up.

This trend is especially pronounced in this northwest corner of the Mississippi Delta, where subsidies and poverty rank among the highest in the nation.

Bolivar County has lost nearly 5 percent of its population and more than 10 percent of its non-farm jobs since 2001, federal data show. Sunflower County lost 6 percent of its population and 19 percent of its non-farm jobs. Humphreys County lost 6 percent of its population and almost 36 percent of its non-farm jobs.

"We've lost entire generations of young blacks because we told them to stay in school and get a good job," said John Mayo, a state legislator who represents several Delta counties. "But unfortunately there's not a good job for them to get when they get out. The smart kids are leaving. It leaves us with the families who have given up hope."

Some officials and residents blame crime, drugs, underperforming schools, an unskilled labor pool and poor work habits for the area's demise, not a shortage of federal aid. Neblett said that children "don't have a dog's chance" of succeeding in some Delta schools.

Mimi Dossett, the Bolivar County administrator, said: "We have had employers who just gave up and left. It takes longer to train people around here because of the poor education . . . and workforce turnover is terrible."

"It's a tough situation," said Willie F. Brown, a member of the Humphreys County Board of Supervisors since 1988. "We hired an economic development person. They leave empty-handed. They come back empty-handed."