Posted: 02.28.2008 / 10:48 PM EST
Iowa got the political game going, but it is far from over! Don King [no, not that Don King!] and Nick Lantinga will be blogging here soon.
Do you have any questions for them? Topics you hope they will address? Start the ball rolling and let them know how you’d like to begin.
( Read latest blogs )
Don King is a professor of political studies at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. He is particularly interested in what he sees as America's aimless foreign policy. He is an independent voter and supports electoral reform.
( Read latest blogs )
Nick Lantinga directs an international network of Christians in higher education based in Sioux Center, Iowa. He loves his wife, three children, and trying new foods while traveling.
Predominantly white, smaller towns and more remote counties outside of metropolitan areas; low level of manufacturing employment, high levels of self-employment, employment in agriculture, as well as small-town retail and wholesale trade; Lutheran, Reformed, and mainline Protestant adherents predominate in the upper Midwest.
More about Tractor Country...
"Alongside the Missouri River, northwestern Iowa unfolds as a landscape of flat farmland - barns, silos, and hay bales - punctuated by the occasional rural burg. Sioux Center is the place where US Highway 75 briefly becomes Main Street..."
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| Population, income, and education | |
| Population | (2006) 32,317 |
| Median household income | (per year) $40,834 |
| Median age | 36.9 |
| Families in poverty | (%) 4.6% |
| High school graduates | (%) 80.4% |
| Bachelors degree | (%) 19.8% |
| Ethnicity (percent listed for all below) | |
| White | 98.3% |
| Black | 0.4% |
| Latino | 4.1% |
| Native American | 0.1% |
| Bi-racial | 0.3% |
| Asian-Pacific | 0.8% |
| Employment (percent listed for all below) | |
| Military | 0.0% |
| Government | 9.2% |
| Agriculture | 9.7% |
| Professional | 3.9% |
| Trade and services | 31.6% |
(Colors on map represent unique voter communities)
April 19th, 2008 at 6:00 am
My husband, a fourth generation family farmer, and I live in a rural area south of Kansas City. We are relatively small farmers and, as such, feel left out of much of the analysis of agricultural policy as it typically tends to pertain to large agri-business.
I am hoping this blog will include analysis of how policies will effect those farmers who make less than $100,000 as opposed to large ag corporations.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:01 am
My husband, a fourth generation family farmer, and I live in a rural area south of Kansas City. We are relatively small farmers and, as such, feel left out of much of the analysis of agricultural policy as it typically tends to pertain to large agri-business.
I am hoping this blog will include analysis of how policies will effect those farmers who make less than $100,000 as opposed to large ag corporations.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I am a new resident in tractor country, having lived my first 50 years in Industrial Metropolis and Boom Towns. I’d like to see more blog entries! To that end, I have some questions.
What is the response of tractor country residents to plans to site nuclear power plants in “safer,” less populated areas? To siting more wind farms in tractor country?
Who is speaking to the family farmer, the smaller conventional or organic farmers, whose markets are mostly local and who represent the sustainable element in the future of agriculture?
How will agriculture that is dependent on cheap fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, transportation costs, and government subsidies fare as the price of these inputs skyrocket and the government is no longer able to afford subsidies?