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>As do I. However, I have a difficult time respecting the mindset that because one comes from a familiy of farmers, they are magically protected from the reality of the economy and modern farming.

I never lived on a farm, Mike, but I did spend some summers in farming country and help my friends with their chores so that we could get out and about earlier. And I have been listening/watching as farms become conglomerates, using various techniques to squeeze out family farms.

Nothing that I've read or heard said that "the reality of the economy and modern farming" is any different for the farmer than it is for the conglomerate, other than some issues that can hardly be called farmer-related. A family owned farm can be and usually is as profitable as any conglomerate as far as crop value is concerned.

Where the conglomerates will always win is in expenses related to farming. This includes things like the conglomerate offers better security on loans for farm equipment and conglomerates have much wider latitude in tax write-offs than do family farms. This is especially onerous on the family farmer (as I understand things) because the conglomerates can value their farmland higher and pay higher local taxes, leading to higher taxes for the family farm and since the farmer doesn't have all the write-offs available to the conglomerate he has to give up his land because he can't pay the taxes. The conglomerate gets the land nice and cheap and repeats the cycle on the next neighbour down.

I'm sorry, but if this is the reality that you are talking about then it stinks and has no place at all in a healthy society!