While other northwest Kansas farmers were draining the Ogallala Aquifer to irrigate thirsty cornfields, Raile dry farmed. He likes to bet against the crowd.
Kansas is wheat country, and corn is king. This article doesn’t even touch upon this 800lb gorilla, it doesn’t mention corn subsidies that keep corn prices high while he author goes on for paragraphs lamenting how boosted production has dropped wheat prices.
The problems described are endemic to both crops.
Small towns were common 50 years ago in the rural Midwest. Farm sizes were much smaller on average then, and lots of people raised several children and made a decent living with 160 acres and some livestock. Now average farm size is somewhere north of 1000 acres, the kids move away for jobs more often than not, and the small towns are shrinking and dying. This is a loss for the country as a whole.
Is it? It seems like that’s the direct result of increased productivity. Even if it’s a loss for the people who would enjoy that life, it seems like tons of cheap food made available for everyone else is very much a gain.
tl;dr The losses of farmers in Kansas are large in Kansas terms, but small in United States terms. It seems a win for the country.
If the wind was blowing right we'd get hit with the smell of manure from the livestock research pens. Ever see a porthole installed on a living animal? Cool!
[1] https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.1325516,-106.6079861,14.25z