According to a new book, it’s time to update our misconceptions about the depopulation of rural America as something natural or inevitable.

In “Reviving Rural America: Toward Policies of Resilience,” Annie Eisenberg takes issue with the idea that small towns are hollowing out because of entrenched market trends. To the contrary, she said, urban wealth is tied directly to rural poverty because natural resources are funneled out.

She said that’s why urban consumers should recognize their responsibility to prioritize rural wellbeing. But that will require overcoming some old stereotypes.

Eisenberg’s book analyzes the many myths about rural communities, that they’re unsustainable and to blame for their own depopulation.

“If rural America holistically is a valuable resource in and of itself, which I think it really is, then we as a society have an obligation to steward it and do a better job of sort of governing it at these multiple levels of stakeholder and involvement,” Eisenberg said.

She said both sides need to conceive of rural places as a national commons.

“I think the whole us-versus-them thing needs to go, because our fates are really interconnected no matter how you look at it,” she said.

Eisenberg said an example is when hedge funds buy up vast swaths of agricultural lands, hurting smaller ranchers. She said local, state and federal governments should join forces to protect such resources.