Where We Live
I haven't had a chance to write the essay I'd like to write to go with this, but I've decided to start blogging more rural/farming/outside the cities and suburbs stuff because as I read more weblogs and more opinions on what we do and who we are and what's progressive, I'm seeing a great deal of misunderstanding and downright dismissal of those of us in 'flyover country'.
People in rural states can be conservative about some things and downright suspicious of 'big city' doings at times, but don't forget that Harkin is from Iowa, Wellstone was from Minnesota, Hilary Clinton got a lot of votes from rural upstate New York counties (no, she didn't 'win' a lot of those counties, but she gathered 40% of the vote in some places that have been staunchly conservative and Republican for many many years)
Totally unrelated to that, but the thing this blog entry was originally supposed to be about, the Sustainable Agriculture Network has a book onThe New American Farmer who is not surprise, surprise a corporate farmer.
Among the farmers described areDick and Sharon Thompson :
Looking at a 12-year average, Thompson says, his neighbors lose about $33 per acre — before taking government payments into account. By contrast, he generates a profit of $104 per acre. The Thompsons have not received government subsidies for years, yet their diverse farm still supports two families without off-farm employment and without organic premiums.