Education of a city boy

This is part of the new car lot at our local Chevy dealer (There are no other auto dealers in town). To me, this picture speaks volumes about the nature of Nebraska. The car lot is not bordered by a fence or another business. It is backed right up to a cornfield and features a grain elevator in the background. You will notice, of course, that smog simply does not exist here.

People buy new vehicles because of income created by farming. People live in the area because of farming. All kinds of products are sold in the area because of farming. Colleges offer all kinds of degrees in various aspects of agriculture because of farming.

I thought I had an appreciation for the importance of the farmer when I lived in Los Angeles. How could those of us in the cities put food on the table without the existence of farmers? But I am almost overwhelmed here in Nebraska with what I don't know about farming and the people who put their lives into it. It's a lifestyle of hard work, long hours, expensive equipment and nerve-wracking risk.

Example: To the right is a picture of a "pivot", an irrigation device found on most farms these days. Water shortages make the days of flooding fields with water a thing of the past. A pivot is more efficient than flooding, can be longer than two football fields and costs upwards of $40,000.00. That's a big number for the average farmer, and the vagaries of weather can turn a harvest season into a time of plenty or a time of economic disaster. If you've flown across our country and looked down on farmland to see the round patterns of fields, that is the work of the pivots.

Nebraska is one of nine states that helps out the farming community by outlawing the ownership of farms by large corporations. Any farming corporation must be family controlled and can have no more than three stockholders, at least one of whom must live and work on the farm. And of course, there is huge pressure from the major agri-corporations to change all that. I hope their efforts fail. Farming families literally built America and we should never threaten their existence for the sake of larger profits for mammoth corporations.

This city boy is just beginning to learn, and it is a fascinating experience. Even at my age of 72 years, I continue to marvel at the world in which I live. I was born an information freak, and I will never live long enough to investigate all the things in this world I find interesting. Farming is just one of them.