The paper identifies the basic factors affecting rural development and the social consequences of rural policies and structural changes in agriculture; it also suggests research areas relating some of these factors to what is happening in America's rural communities. Data sources such as congressional hearings, rural sociologists' critiques, reports by public interest research groups, the National Academy of Science's review of land grant research, and journalists' comments were reviewed. Observations from workers, small and organic farmers, consumer groups, cooperatives, minority group rural enterprises, and scientists who have challenged the production orientation of land grant colleges and participated in a conference on redirecting the research priorities of thes colleges are discussed. Tenured and nontenured faculty in all departments of a college of agriculture were interviewed on the process of selecting research topics, reasons for the research, and implications for tackling the questions posed by representatives of publics currently not being served by land grant colleges. Some research topics suggested were: concentration of ownership and its relationship to poverty; corporate interlocks and their implications in rural development; farm policy and the general public welfare; unfair competition due to the Federal tax structure; vertical integration and its effect on the small farmer, market structure and pricing, and the consumer; and social implications and impact of land grant college research. (NQ)