John Mellencamp took up political activism around the same time he dropped the goofy "Cougar" moniker. I remember when the first singles from his Scarecrow album hit, and was hooked. So I bought it. And really, really was captivated by the semi-title track, "Rain on the Scarecrow." I suppose it was because I grew up in rural Texas on and around farms, not to mention that my dad was an ag teacher in high school. Then Mellencamp teamed up with Willie Nelson for the first Farm Aid, which impressed me as well. The family farm was a dying breed back then, and is even moreso today, driven out of business by market forces--namely the big corporate operations that crush the little guy with economy of scale. Growing up, I always saw open-range cattle wherever I went, and even today I see dozens (if not hundreds) of cattle grazing on my commute to work. But in supermarkets, all a person can buy is grain-fed, feedlot-raised animals. The dissonance is tough for me to grasp.
I can't help but recall that the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire came when the citizen farmers left their lands and moved to the cities because they couldn't make a decent living otherwise. Is the same thing happening in the U.S.? I have to wonder.
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