Editing Rural flight (section)

==Historical trends==
Prior to the [[Industrial Revolution]], rural flight occurred in mostly localized regions. Pre-industrial societies did not experience large rural-urban migration flows primarily due to the inability of cities to support large populations. Lack of large employment industries, high urban mortality, and low food supplies all served as checks keeping pre-industrial cities much smaller than their modern counterparts. [[Ancient Athens]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], scholars estimate, had peak populations of 80,000 and 500,000.<ref name=Weeks>{{cite book|last=Weeks|first=John|title=Population: an introduction to concepts and issues|year=2012|publisher=Wadsworth, Cengage Learning|location=Belmont, CA|pages=353–391}}</ref>

The onset of the [[Industrial Revolution|Industrial Revolution in Europe]] in the late 19th century removed many of these checks. As food supplies increased and stabilized and industrialized centers arose, cities began to support larger populations, sparking the start of rural flight on a massive scale.<ref name=Weeks /> This was often helped along by periodic [[agricultural recession]]s. The United Kingdom went from having 20% of the population living in urban areas in 1800 to more than 70% by 1925.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Davis|first=Kingsley|title=The Urbanization of the Human Population|journal=Scientific American|volume=213|issue=3|pages=40–53|url=http://lgdata.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/docs/3245/871552/The_Urbanization_of_the_Human_Population--Kingsley_Davis.pdf|access-date=13 March 2014|bibcode=1965SciAm.213c..40D|year=1965|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0965-40}}</ref> While the late 19th century and early 20th century saw much of rural flight focused in [[Western Europe]] and the United States, as [[industrialization]] spread throughout the world during the 20th century, rural flight and [[urbanization]] followed quickly behind. In the early twenty-first century, rural flight was especially distinctive phenomenon in [[China]] and [[sub-Saharan Africa]].<ref name=Weeks /><ref name=ChinaDaily>{{cite news|last=Juan|first=Shan|title=Rural exodus to cities continue|url=http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2012-08/08/content_15652220.htm|newspaper=China Daily|access-date=13 March 2014}}</ref>

=== Mechanization and ecology: case study of the Dust Bowl in 1930s North America ===
[[File:Dust Bowl - Dallas, South Dakota 1936.jpg|thumb|250px|The effects of the [[Dust Bowl]] in [[Dallas, South Dakota]], May 1936|left]]
The shift from mixed [[subsistence farming]] to commodity crops and livestock began in the late 19th century. New capital market systems and the railroad network began the trend towards larger farms that employed fewer people per acre. These larger farms used more efficient technologies such as steel plows, mechanical [[reaper]]s, and higher-yield seed stock, which reduced human input per unit of production.<ref name="Cronon">{{cite book | last=Cronon| first=William| title=Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West| url=https://archive.org/details/naturesmetropoli00cron_0| url-access=registration| publisher=Norton| location=New York| year=1991| isbn=9780393029215}}</ref> The other issue on the Great Plains was that people were using inappropriate farming techniques for the soil and weather conditions.  Most [[Homestead Acts|homestead]]ers had [[family farm]]s generally considered too small to survive (under 320 acres), and [[European Americans|European-American]] subsistence farming could not continue as it was then practiced.

During the [[Dust Bowl]] and the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s, large numbers of people [[Depopulation of the Great Plains|fled rural areas of the Great Plains]] and the Midwest due to depressed commodity prices and high debt loads exacerbated by several years of drought and large [[dust storm]]s.<ref name="Cooper">{{cite book | last=Cooper| first=Michael L.| title=Dust to eat: drought and depression in the 1930s| url=https://archive.org/details/dusttoeatdrought00coop| url-access=registration| publisher=Clarion| location=New York| year=2004| isbn=9780618154494}}</ref> Rural flight from the Great Plains has been depicted in literature, as in [[John Steinbeck]]'s novel ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939), in which a family from the [[Great Plains]] migrates to [[California]], fleeing the Dust Bowl.

===Since World War II===
{{Blockquote|"Women leave in greater numbers than men. There is a glass ceiling for women everywhere, but in rural areas it tends to be made of thick steel." ''Hiroya Masuda, author of Japanese report on rural depopulation.''<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/06/29/rural-areas-bear-the-burden-of-japans-ageing-shrinking-population |title = Rural areas bear the burden of Japan's ageing, shrinking population|newspaper = The Economist|date = 29 June 2019}}</ref>}}

Post-World War II rural flight has been caused primarily by the spread of [[industrialized agriculture]]. Small, labor-intensive [[family farms]] have grown into, or have been replaced by, heavily mechanized and specialized industrial farms. While a small family farm typically produced a wide range of crop, garden, and animal products—all requiring substantial labor—large industrial farms typically specialize in just a few crop or livestock varieties, using large machinery and high-density livestock containment systems that require a fraction of the labor per unit produced. For example, [[Iowa State University]] reports the number of [[hog farmer]]s in Iowa dropped from 65,000 in 1980 to 10,000 in 2002, while the number of hogs per farm increased from 200 to 1,400.<ref name="ISU 1">{{cite web  |url=http://www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/summer_03/article1.aspx| title=Living with Hogs in Rural Iowa| year=2003| work=Iowa Ag Review| publisher=[[Iowa State University]]| access-date=25 November 2009}}</ref>

The consolidation of the feed, seed, [[processed grain]], and livestock industries has meant that there are fewer small businesses in rural areas. This decrease in turn exacerbated the decreased demand for labor. Rural areas that used to be able to provide employment for all young adults willing to work in challenging conditions, increasingly provide fewer opportunities for young adults. The situation is made worse by the decrease in services such as schools, business, and cultural opportunities that accompany the decline in population, and the increasing age of the remaining population further stresses the social service system of rural areas.

===Abandonment of small towns===
[[File:Menkovo - abandoned post office - DSCF5841.JPG|thumb|An abandoned post office in [[Menkovo]], [[Yaroslavl Oblast]], Russia]]The rise of corporate agricultural structures directly affects small rural communities, resulting in decreased populations, decreased incomes for some segments, increased income inequality, decreased community participation, fewer retail outlets and less retail trade, and increased environmental pollution.<ref>[http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/articles/duffy/DuffyOct97.htm "Changes in Iowa farm structure"]; University of Iowa Extension;</ref>

Since the 1990s, China has merged schools into more centralized village-, town-, or county-level schools in rural areas to address some of these very problems.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1016/j.chieco.2017.07.010|title = Has the compulsory school merger program reduced the welfare of rural residents in China?|journal = China Economic Review|volume = 46|pages = 123–141|year = 2017|last1 = Cai|first1 = Weixian|last2 = Chen|first2 = Gong|last3 = Zhu|first3 = Feng}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url=https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/effect-primary-school-mergers-academic-performance-students-rural-china | title=The Effect of Primary School Mergers on Academic Performance of Students in Rural China| journal=International Journal of Educational Development| issue=6| pages=570–585| date=November 2010| last1=Loyalka| first1=Prashant| last2=Rozelle| first2=Scott| last3=Luo| first3=Renfu| last4=Zhang| first4=Linxiu| last5=Liu| first5=Chengfang| volume=30| doi=10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.05.003| url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/chernobyl-animals-red-forest | title=In the Wake of Nuclear Disaster, Animals Are Thriving in the Red Forest of Chernobyl| date=19 February 2019}}</ref>