Rural Ed SIG Steps Up

It wasn't until recently I realized that the Rural Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association has migrated it's website over to Blogger and added some new features. These new features make the site one of the most valuable online resources available to those interested in rural education issues. Of particular note is the addition of links to other rural education blogs and news items. The combination of research, news and commentary creates, what could be, a powerful forum to address rural education issues. The challenge for the SIG is to maintain an online community that pushes all of us out of our comfort zones.

Well done to SIG President Dennis Mulcahy and to everyone who has worked on the site. Visit the site by clicking the headline of this post or go to http://ruralsig.blogspot.com/

World Wide Growth in Agriculture

If you live near a rapidly expanding city that is steadily gobbling up agricultural land for development, you might be surprised by a small piece in the most recent Smithsonian magazine. According to University of Wisconsin researchers, the percentage of the world's landmass devoted to agriculture has increased significantly over the past century. Using satallite images and ground-level surveys, scientists estimate that 40 percent of the earth's landmass is under cultivation or used to graze animals. That figure is up from about 25 percent a hundred years ago. South America accounts for a good portion of this growth thanks to an increase in soy bean production, most of which is exported to China.

You can find the item on page 18 of the February 2006 Smithsonian magazine.