The centralized economy doesn't work for most Americans, particularly rural Americans. Building the Agricultural City demonstrates the need for rural Americans to work cooperatively to create self-reliant, decentralized economies. It describes tools for self-reliance and sustainability that exist across the U.S. and can be assembled within any region to transform service economies into productive economies.

Here are a few of the tools that can effect the transformation: Community development banks, whose mandate is to serve the under-served, would focus on small...