by Ted Genoways
To break this downtrend, the American Farm Bureau Federation had been counting on President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, which promised to open new markets for beef, pork, and grains. But the rural areas that were depending on this new deal, as well as standing agreements such as NAFTA, voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and his protectionist, antiglobalist policies. Now, Trump is threatening to cancel manufacturing trade deals with China, and China is responding by threatening to cancel its purchases of American grains. If such a thing were ever to happen, it would make the Farm Crisis seem like a minor economic ripple.
Still, Meghan and Kyle have taken over their share of the family land, and in February 2017, they welcomed the seventh generation—a girl, Logan Elena Galloway— to Centennial Hill Farm. “I don’t know where we’ll fit into the grand scheme of things,” Meghan told me one day in the shed at the farm. “I just know that we want to do the best that we can for the land, for our family, for the world. Whatever comes, we’ll find a way to get by.”
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I have to thank Rick Hammond, Meghan Hammond, and Kyle Galloway for allowing me to follow them for over a year of their lives. I was constantly in the way, parking in the wrong place, asking complex questions at the wrong time, but they handled it all with patience and grace. Thanks, too, to Jenni Harrington for helping me to sort out the history of the Centennial Hill Farm and to Rita Zoucha for generously allowing me into her home and sharing information with me about her son Brent. Thanks to my father, Hugh H. Genoways, for answering questions about our family history. And my gratitude to the countless people, unnamed and unquoted, who contributed to my understanding of modern farm life. This city kid appreciates the education.
Second, I would like to thank the many editors who believed that this story was worthy of telling. Most importantly, John Glusman at Norton saw a book here and helped in countless ways to make this project into one. Everyone at Norton was so supportive and engaged: Lydia Brents, Fred Wiemer, Alexa Pugh, and Will Scarlett. Thanks also to: Ted Ross at The New Republic, who was brave enough to publish a long piece on the history of corn hybridization; Ellen Rosenbush at Harper’s, who shepherded the story of a soybean harvest through trying times; Jennifer Sahn at Pacific Standard, who made immeasurable contributions to shaping the section on center-pivot irrigation. The Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN) provided much-needed funding to keep this project going; special thanks to Sam Fromartz, Brent Cunningham, and Tom Laskawy. Thanks to Don Fehr and everyone at Trident Media for standing behind this project and everything I do.
Last but not least, my endless gratitude to my family. My son, Jack, lived through nearly three years of trips to the farm and conversation about market prices, equipment failures, and water rights. My wife, Mary Anne Andrei, made the first contact with the Hammonds, conceived of a long project following them, and was frequently the glue that held it all together. The intimacy of her photographs is a testament to how much the family trusted her and an indication of the extent to which my access was granted because of her legwork. I’m grateful for every day that we’re allowed to work together, telling stories that matter to us.
Selected Bibliography
The majority of my research came from observation and conversations with the Hammond-Harrington family, as well as other sources directly quoted in the text. However, a few books were critical to shaping my thinking and informing the text.
Deborah J. Bathke et al. Understanding and Assessing Climate Change: Implications for Nebraska. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
Ann Bleed and Christina Hoffman Babbitt. Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts: An Assessment of a Large-Scale Locally Controlled Water Governance Framework. Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute. University of Nebraska, 2015.
Wayne G. Broehl, Jr. Cargill: Trading the World’s Grain. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College: University Press of New England, 1992.
Dan Charles. Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food. New York: Basic Books, 2001.
John C. Culver and John Hyde. American Dreamer: A Life of Henry A. Wallace. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Dan Morgan. Merchants of Grain: The Power and Profits of the Five Giant Companies at the Center of the World’s Food Supply. New York: Viking, 1979.
Ronald C. Naugle, John J. Montag, and James C. Olson. History of Nebraska. 4th ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015.
Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr. The Green Vision of Henry Ford and George Washington Carver: Two Collaborators in the Cause of Clean Industry. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2013.
Nancy Warner and David Stark. This Place, These People: Life and Shadow on the Great Plains. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Illustrations
Meghan Hammond closes up newborn chicks in the henhouse for the night.
Rick Hammond stands in the stippled light of his family barn.
Kyle Galloway steers the John Deere harvester by hand across a neighbor’s field of soybeans.
Meghan hands dinner off to Dave Tyson. Corn harvest runs late into the night, and meals are often eaten at the wheel.
Meghan reads while a load of soybeans fills a grain bin for later sale.
Jenni holds a photograph of her grandfather checking out his new Farmall tractor, shortly after he bought back Centennial Hill Farm in 1949.
Rick separates cow-calf pairs in the corrals near the old barn at Centennial Hill.
Kyle checks on an electric fence that shorted out when snow laid prairie grass across the wire.
Rick rests briefly while herding cows and calves on property near the new house he built in the early 2000s.
Kyle holds a calf’s tail out of the way as Jesse applies the R Diamond brand and the veterinarian prepares the inoculations.
Dave starts the motor on the soybean seed tender, while Rick directs the hose into the hopper at the back of the planter.
Kyle sprays a mix of herbicides and pesticides onto a field of newly emerged soybeans.
The search for a lost dog turns into a social gathering in the middle of a country road south of Central City.
Every summer on the anniversary of his death, Meghan returns to the home of her high school boyfriend who was killed in Iraq in 2006.
Rick makes out a check to the sale barn after entering winning bids on a pair of black Angus bulls.
In the late summer, when he comes to load up cattle in Curtis, Rick always visits the farmsteads where he grew up.
ALSO BY TED GENOWAYS
The Chain (2014)
Walt Whitman and the Civil War (2009)
Anna, Washing (2007)
Bullroarer: A Sequence (2001)
Photographs by Mary Anne Andrei
This Blessed Earth is a work of nonfiction. The Hammonds, Galloways, and
Harringtons are a real family in York and Hamilton counties, Nebraska. All
quotations derive from recorded conversations between July 2014 and October
2016. Whenever possible, conversations have been depicted just as they occurred
between the harvest of 2014 and the harvest of 2015; however, occasional
additions from follow- up interviews have been included for clarity and detail.
In some cases, names of individuals have been changed.
Copyright © 2017 by Ted Genoways
All rights reserved
First Edition
“Fear in a Handful of Dust” © 2015, Ted Genoways, first published
in The New Republic. “Corn Wars” © 2015, Ted Genoways, first published
in The New Republic. “The Great Abandonment” © 2016, Ted Genoways,
first published in The New Republic. “Irrigation Nation” © 2016,
Ted Genoways, first published in Pacific Standard. “This Blessed Earth”
© 2017, Ted Genoways, first published in Harper’s.
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JACKET DESIGN BY BRIAN BARTH
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Genoways, Ted, author.
Title: This blessed earth : a year in the life of an American family farm /
Ted Genoways.
Description: First edition. | New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017025062 | ISBN 9780393292572 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Family farms—Nebraska—Case studies.
Classification: LCC HD1476.U62 N25 2017 | DDC 630.9782/345—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017025062
ISBN 978-0-393-29258-9 (e-book)
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