What's happening to America? Quietly for decades out of sight, out of mind the American family farm has been dying. Well no more out of sight, out of mind. With your help this photo diary can help change that, with your help we can show our fellow Americans what we're losing which is nothing less than the hope of the American dream for a nation whose backbone originally came from the family farm passed down from one generation to the next, as a wealth building engine and a source of working class pride for generations of Americans.
Family farm as I learned as a young MBA student is being replaced a wholesale corporate farming running factory farms. Gone are the days of the fable produced by the children's book Charlotte's Web, where free roaming animals surrounding by great looking crops are being raised with farm children whistling while they're doing their chores.
This interactive picture diary needs your help. Please post in the comments section pictures or videos of abandoned farm houses from your communities all across America. Let's work together and show the American people what we're losing, which is nothing less than the death of the American dream in rural America.
County Agent by Norman Rockwell - Rippey's Farm, Jay County, Indiana
With this picture Norman Rockwell caught the popular imagination of Americans from all across this great land with his depiction of life on an American family farm. This diary will explore how far we have fallen away from happier times on the rural American family farm which has been replaced by the modern day harsh reality displayed in this photo diary.
Should this picture be entitled "The death of the American family farm dream"?
Are we seeing the death of the American family farm dream? Ask yourself, where have the people gone? Who lived here? We can't say that they've all gone back to school because did you know that the Stafford student lifetime loan limit hasn't increased in 17 years. Are we witnessing the end of the American dream for working people?
Out of the mid west, a barn leans north pointing to the death of the American dream for one more American family farm.
A fallen barn on an abandoned American family farmstead.
This abandoned farmhouse a few miles North of Linton, ND, still has glass in most of its windows.
Often times weather and vandals break the glass out. According to local information, this house was built in 1913. Sadly, this house was torn down in September of 2007. Not a trace of it remains. Source: http://www.flickr.com/...
A view through the past.
A view across the prairie from a long abandoned farmhouse. I wonder who else stood in my vantage point and looked out that window? What did they see? Why did they have to leave? Source: http://www.flickr.com/...
If old abandoned farm house could speak, what would it tell us about the death of the American family farm?
While we're asking that question let's ask another one, where did the people go?
Again let me ask the question, if this old mid western abandoned family farm house could speak, what would it tell us about the hard working people who used to live here?
There's nothing wrong with the land. It looks like people were forced off blossoming land.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is this picture telling us about the American family farm?
What can we say about this disappearing barn and so many like it?
What does this picture tell us about the hope of American family farms for the future?
An abandoned little house on the prairie.
Where is the family that use to live here gone now that the banksters took the property?
Farmhouse still intact. Please note the huge TV antenna on the roof stands strong even after so many years.
Rural Towner County, North Dakota.
Abandoned Farm in the Midwest.
This is not the rustic family farm of Norman Rockwell's painting.