But there's no future in it, really. In western Pennington County, Michelle and Mark Naplin have one of only three surviving operations in all of Black River Township on a farm started by his great-grandfather. They farm 2,700 acres, trying to buffer the markets by diversifying their crops. They do all the work with one hired man and two teenage kids. The Christensens and the Naplins were among a dozen farmers from northwestern Minnesota who spent a recent morning detailing their operations.
None are confident they'll be in business next year.
Same Conclusions Farm auction announcements hang in an antique store front window in the North Dakota town of Velva. But the track record of the past 60 years shows that changing the way life is lived in the region is far easier said than done. Twenty-one years later, another presidential commission reached virtually the same conclusion. So far, none of the recommendations have been implemented. We're not falling into the trap of saying this is the federal government's problem.