Minnesota gubernatorial candidates at the Minnesota FarmFest candidate forum Aug. 5, (L-R): Amy Klobuchar, Lisa Demuth, Mike Lindell, Kendall Qualls.
With all the contentiousness these days among issues involving politics, economics, and culture including religion, one area of finding common ground could be food. We all need to eat, which brings us eventually to agriculture.
Throughout all of human existence since the beginnings of agriculture, no matter how tumultuous the world becomes in wars, conflict, and famine, raising crops and livestock have persevered. And, so far anyway, digital technology has not replaced the soil, water, and sunlight necessary for that. Nor will it, except for providing useful tools to manage agriculture.
Among people living in cities today, fewer have direct ties to farms and agriculture than in the past. Growing up in a small city in farm country, I really didn’t know much about farming. That changed somewhat the day I learned as a young teenager the difference between the left and right brake on a tractor.
I was hired for a few days to help a local farmer bale hay. He told me to drive the tractor towing a fully laden hay rack over to a distant barn. When I told him that I had never driven a tractor before, he showed me how and sent me on my way.
An old tractor has two brake pedals, one for the left main wheel and one for the right. Slowing the tractor for a lefthand turn, I pressed the right brake. The tractor nearly tipped over and would have sent the load of hay bales into the ditch. Telling the farmer about that later, he said the little lever that connects the two brakes was not deployed. My short baling career ended, but I can at least say that I once worked on a farm.
Later in life we rented a small farmsite surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans. We raised a few sheep, had a big garden, and took care of some horses. We became part of the local community, although our neighbors lived a mile or more away.
Face-to-face at FarmFest
Once at a local farm show, as I was giving a presentation about environmental regulations involving agriculture, a man spoke up in criticism of ‘city people who don’t know anything’ about farming. In response, I reminded him that city people are your customers. Maybe farm and city people could become better acquainted.
One opportunity for doing that occurred this week at a large farm show in central Minnesota. In past attempts to describe Minnesota FarmFest, I have compared it with the state fair – it’s the state fair of agriculture. It attracts about 30,000 attendees and 400-500 vendors to a 50-acre site adjacent to the Gilfillan Estate near Redwood Falls.
During election years FarmFest puts on a big show at the candidates’ forum. With governor, U.S. Senate and congressional races underway, the large meeting pavilion was packed with mostly rural folk listening to candidates. Wednesday I covered the U.S. Senate candidate forum for a story in MinnPost.
For a number of years, I was among the vendors at Minnesota FarmFest. As a public information officer for the state’s environmental protection agency, I assembled an exhibit about water and air quality issues involving agriculture. While many farmers held negative views about the MPCA (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency), being there in person greatly reduced the antagonism and increased mutual understanding.
Farmers who stopped by the exhibit, sometimes with a complaint about the regulations, seemed to appreciate the opportunity to talk with someone from ‘the government’. We listened to their concerns, and at the same time, we learned more about agriculture and the challenges that farmers face. It’s less likely that one will demonize the other when you are meeting in person.
Stewardship
One theme that I endeavored to convey was the idea of stewardship. You use the natural resource in a manner that protects and conserves. The human responsibility to care for and cultivate the earth and all creation goes back to the Old Testament in Genesis, and probably farther back than that in earlier religious traditions.
Some farmers have the notion that environmentalists want to revert the land to prairie and grazing buffalo. That’s fine in some areas, but we still need crops. The middle ground is using conservation techniques that conserve and build soil and prevent excessive runoff. (See my July 31, 2025 post, “Down to earth – Living with healthy soil is a gut-level experience).
An interesting perspective on the urban-rural divide comes from academic research, stating that it occurs more among white people, and is less prevalent among non-whites. “Over the past 30 years, the American political landscape has been characterized by a growing divide between rural and urban voters,” states an article in the Cornell Chronicle. “But the divide is largely confined to white Americans.”
One reason for this could be the relatively large number of Latinos working in agricultural production and processing. Beginning with migrant workers in the mid-20th century, to the majority of workers at large dairies and slaughterhouses today, Latinos and now east Africans dominate the labor force.
The largest farm show in the U.S. could be Farm Progress, Sept. 1-3, 2026, in Boone, IA, with more than 600 exhibitors and well over 100,000 attendees. Not far to the west, the Dakota Fest Aug. 18-20 in Mitchell, SD, will draw about 400 exhibitors and 26,000-29,000 attendees. Either of these, or the Minnesota Farmfest next year, would make a very worthwhile day trip.
A bonus at the latter is a chance to visit the Gilfillan Farm historic site. After seeing all the exhibits, you can relax under large shade trees, listen to polka music, and enjoy a root beer float with homemade ice cream, all not much different than it was more than a century ago.
Furrher reading
At the local library doing some belated research, in the online card catalog under Topics, I entered ‘agriculture’. Not far down the list of books, the name of Wendell Berry caught my eye. I checked out his 1977 book, The Unsettling of America – Culture and Agriculture. I had heard of Berry, a very prolific author, from a former colleague, but knew little else.
About the book, ChatGPT says it “argues that the health of a nation depends on the health of its land, its farming communities, and its moral culture. Wendell Berry contends that modern industrial agriculture has separated people from the land, prioritizing efficiency, profit, and technology over stewardship, community, and ecological balance.” A PBS documentary, “Look and See – Wendell Berry’s Kentucky,” first aired in 2018 PBS.
In another recent discovery about rural America in the news, I learned from a colleague about The Daily Yonder. It “provides news, commentary, and analysis about and for rural America.” National in scope, it appears to offer high-quality reporting about the vast portion of the nation often missed by East and West Coast news media. I hope to read more about Berry and follow The Yonder, perhaps in time for another post around fall harvest. So far this year, the crops look really good.
