Terry Van Maanen bought Winding Meadows Dairy from his father in the '80s and has grown it to about 600 cows. He sells milk to Land O Lakes. (Photo by Kathleen Masterson/HPM)
Who is the farmer of the future? That’s the question being posed by Harvest Public Media in a weeklong series that explores how demographic, technological and cultural forces will shape America’s food producers into the next decade and beyond. We begin with a story from Kathleen Masterson. In part one of our series, we discover that while much of the rural Midwest is hollowing out -– some small regions are actually GROWING, largely due to immigration populations taking ag-related jobs that otherwise employers cannot fill. Melding cultures is never easy, but in communities like Sioux County, Iowa… there's a mutual reliance… and slowly members of the Latino community are changing the landscape of the rural Midwest.
This is the first report in a five-part series called "Farmer of the Future" on Kansas Public Radio. The series is part of a reporting project called Harvest Public Media. Learn more at HarvestPublicMedia.org.