It is true that the farming industry is seeing a boom, as the Star Tribune has documented in recent reports. But those of us who came of age in the 1980s can remember, even though we were just kids at the time, a very different picture.

We remember the fear that our family farms would be the next to fold or that state and federal governments would turn a neighboring field into a chemical dump. We remember our fathers commuting to their "day jobs" 60 hours a week and coming home to manage the family farm -- work that is consumed with long, hard hours, often with dangerous machinery.

Yes, some farmers are seeing a boom today. But the article failed to note that, prior to that boom, they scrimped and saved and worked to protect their land -- and the family name that is upon it. The price of land fell before it rose, and it will fall again.

In the game of capitalism, can we fault farmers for investing and protecting for the generations to come?


MARGRET MCCUE-ENSER, St. Paul