Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, actually there are many options for economic development in any rural area, but especially here in rural North Carolina. Agriculture, I think, tops the list. Agriculture traditionally has been a rural industry simply because you need a lot of land, you need a lot of space. And, I think the outlook is rather bright for agriculture. Export growth looks good, new product development, and of course, there's the aspect of fuel. Agriculture may be asked in the future to provide some of our fuel source. Manufacturing ... many people don't remember that the textile industry and apparel industry in North Carolina were really rural-based industries, so North Carolina has a history of having factories in rural areas, and I think they can continue to do that. Costs are often lower in rural areas, and as long as there's good infrastructure for shipping those manufactured products, this is a good fit for rural counties. Service jobs not requiring face-to-face contact, the so-called call center model, many of those jobs are moving to rural areas. And then I think finally we have to remember that one of the things that makes rural areas so great is they have great amenities ... natural amenities: mountains, beaches, lakes, rivers. And, this is attractive to tourism, it's attractive to second-home development and it's attractive to retirement development. I think all of these certainly have a future in rural North Carolina."