Driftless - Stories from Iowa.

[Swede]

I think this is a universal story.


Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation's economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity.





http://mediastorm.org/0025.htm

[SoCalDem]

1. Farmers succeeded too well. They educated their kids "in the world"

and those kids chose to NOT farm.. It's a common thread all throughout the farmbelt.. Even when I was a teen, there were little towns all over kansas that were OLD..not based on how long they had been there..but driving through town or shopping there, you would rarely see young people.. a few even consolidated their junior high and high school because there were so few young families with kids:(

[DURHAM D]

2. Also happening in the reverse.

I own 220 acres in the midwest. My tenant farmer returned home two years ago to work with his mom, dad, and grandfather growing wheat, hay and milo and running a herd of black angus on my land and his family land.

He is a 6th generation farmer in the county/township and absolutely loves what he is doing now. He is an attorney, a CPA, and a securities broker but he didn't like being away from the excitement of farming. He could not be a better, more dedicated, and excited farmer. He is pressing me hard to buy the land.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Well done stories

The k and the r for the Heartland.