1996 also was the year Aaron proudly donned a farm cap and flannel shirt for a first-grade class project on careers. He told his parents he wanted to be a farmer when he grew up, just like Dad. This is a boy who sprints first for the farm-machinery displays at the Iowa State Fair. He has never stepped on the midway to ride the double Ferris wheel. He gets a charge out of climbing in every combine and peeking inside the huge grain wagons parked at the fairgrounds.
People keep talking about family farms and about saving the family farm.
It's gone already. It's just gone. The changes in agriculture are siphoning the traditional lifeblood from small towns - young farmers and their families. Rural experts predict the worst fate for Iowa towns that have relied on agriculture. In reality, a scarce few Iowa towns have died - four in the past decade, according to census figures.