Celebrating Electricity Coming To Rural America

May 20th marks a big day for rural America, and the American farmer.  The day that first generated the installation of electric power in many parts of rural America, the 90th anniversary of The Rural Electrification Act.

Christopher McLean, assistant administrator of USDA Rural Development's Rural Utility Service, the successor agency to the Rural Electrification Administration created under the Rural Electrification Act.

“The need to bring electric services to rural areas through a program that made loans available to rural communities and the Rural Electrification Administration," McLean said.  "They went out around the country to tell farm families about electricity and about the ability to form rural electric cooperatives, which are consumer-owned businesses that make it possible for communities to take charge of their own destiny.”

McLean noted in 1935-1936, only about 10% of American farmers had access to Central Station power.

“That meant that they would read books or their kids would study their lessons by candlelight or kerosene lamps," McLean pointed out.  "They wouldn't have refrigeration.  They'd have to pump water by hand.  Moms in the household, if they wanted to cook, would have to lug some wood to have a wood-burning stove. Washing clothes would be done in a washboard and a tub. We wouldn't have electric washers and dryers.  And things like that.  It was a very tough time.  And if you put back your imagination to what life was like in 1930s rural America, it was the time of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl. It was an extraordinarily difficult time to be able to eke out a living in rural communities when you did not have all of the modern conveniences of electricity.”

McLean added electricity is one of the most important inputs that American farmers and ranchers have in order to run a modern agricultural operation.

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