Special - Downsized Dreams

In this issue Link to Wall Street Journal Article Links to KF News PDF files

The plight of small towns on the Great Plains is of particular interest at Knowledge Farm and I hope to devote newsletter and web site space to this topic in the future. Today, there is an especially inspiring, if somewhat poignant, article in the Wall Street Journal on this subject. It is the feature of this edition.

Wall Street Journal - March 25, 2005

In Bid to Hang On,
Miner County, S.D.,
Downsizes Dreams
As Farmers Dwindle, Towns
Make Best of What's Left;
Big Grant Helps Fight Odds
Windmills and Organic Beef

By JONATHAN EIG
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 25, 2005; Page A1

HOWARD, S.D. -- With farm jobs disappearing at a rapid clip, almost every small town on the American prairie dreams of getting bigger.

Some wait for Wal-Marts. Others push for new factories and jobs. Still others lobby for new roads, new highway exit ramps or new airports.

This town has a different plan, evident to anyone driving the two-lane blacktop that cuts east to west through Miner County. At the eastern edge of Howard, an old slaughterhouse that had been vacant for 30 years is up and running again, this time in the production of organic beef. Just south of the town's busiest intersection, where cattle once grazed, a new housing development is under construction, bringing seven low-cost homes. Two wind turbines tower over the western end of town. At their feet sits a small turbine-repair shop staffed by former farmers and tractor repairmen.

Use this link to read the entire article at the KnowledgeFarm web site
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