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...CULT OF THE SMALL FAMILY FARMER dates back to Thomas Jefferson, who hailed humble "cultivators of the earth" as America's "most valuable" and "most virtuous" citizens. Politicians still paint American Gothic portraits of the country folk who toil in the soil to grow our food and fiber. But at the Husker Harvest Days farm show in September in Grand Island, Neb., it was clear how far American agriculture had come from the days when Cornhuskers husked corn by hand...
Jefferson's "cultivators of the earth" didn't have genetically engineered seeds or 530-horsepower tractors. They had 1-horsepower horses. And they didn't have subsidies either. In fact, most antebellum farmers opposed all federal aid to private enterprise, assuming it would just enrich manufacturing élites. The lesson of Husker Harvest Days is that modern farmers--at least the ones with most of the land and subsidies--are a new manufacturing élite. They just happen to be manufacturing food and fiber. Production agriculture is a high-tech, globalized business with economies of scale...
...JEFFERSON'S DAY, 9 OUT OF 10 Americans cultivated the earth. When Abraham Lincoln created the U.S. Department of Agriculture, half the country still farmed. He once said farmers were "neither better nor worse than any other people," just "more numerous." (They also received inordinate political flattery, "the reason of which I cannot perceive, unless it be that they can cast more votes.") Under F.D.R., 1 in 5 Americans was still a farmer...
...dominating, and veteran Chris Pizzotti has looked sharp in replacing the injured Liam O’Hagan at quarterback. The Bulldogs’ record remains unblemished, but they have shown clear signs of weakness in their last two outings and stud tailback Mike McLeod has returned to planet Earth, i.e. closer to 150 yards per game than...
...band but rather the landscape and the audience. There are no huge arenas: the performances happen in obscure places like a gymnasium or sculpture garden. There are no long interviews: only short, awkward, and often-humorous reflections. The musicians come across as modest and down to earth, which is surprising considering only seven years have passed since they boasted on their Web site, “We are simply gonna change music forever, and the way people think about music. And don’t think we can’t do it, we will.â€Dean DeBlois?...