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Life Itself XVII: To All the Writers I’ve Loved Before – 25 Years of Stories About Writers and Writing

August 23, 2018 Leave a comment

Life Itself XVII:

 To All the Writers I’ve Loved Before – 25 Years of Stories About Writers and Writing

 

Noah Diaz making run for his dream at Yale School of Drama and theater companies nationwide

https://leoadambiga.com/2018/08/05/noah-diaz-making…anies-nationwide

Journalist-author Genoways takes micro and macro look at the U.S, food system

https://leoadambiga.com/2018/06/06/journalist-autho…u-s-food-syystem

Things coming full circle for Doug Marr, Phil’s Diner Series and Circle Theatre

https://leoadambiga.com/2018/04/24/things-coming-fu…d-circle-theatre/

 

 

Doug_Laura Marr

Doug Marr and wife Laura Marr

 

A book a day keeps the blues aways for avid reader and writer Ashley Xiques

https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/03/a-book-a-day-kee…er-ashley-xiques

Voyager Bud Shaw gives up scalpel for pen

https://leoadambiga.com/2017/04/20/voyager-bud-shaw…-scalpel-for-pen

Kevin Simonson on Interviewing Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut

https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/05/kevin-simonson-o…nd-kurt-vonnegut/

Literary star Ron Hansen revisits the Old West in new novel “The Kid”

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/08/25/literary-star-ro…ew-novel-the-kid/

 

Ron Hansen

 

 

Noah Diaz:

Metro theater’s man for all seasons and stages

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/19/noah-diaz-metro-…asons-and-stages

Old Hollywood hand living in Omaha comes out of the shadows: Screenwriter John Kaye scripted “American Hot Wax” and more

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/01/30/old-hollywood-ha…hot-wax-and-more

Bomb girl Zedeka Poindexter draws on family, food and angst for her poetry

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/11/zedeka-poindexte…t-for-her-poetry/

Playwright turned history detective Max Sparber turns identity search inward

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/02/07/playwright-turne…ty-search-inward/

Paul Johnsgard:

A birder’s road less traveled

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/24/paul-johnsgard-a…ad-less-traveled

Lew Hunter’s small town Nebraska boy made good in Hollywood story is a doozy

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/25/lew-hunters-smal…story-is-a-doozy

 

Hunter, Coppola B & W

Lew Hunter with Francis Ford Coppola

 

 

Alesia Lester: A Conversation in the Gossip Salon

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/09/alesia-lester-a-…the-gossip-salon/

Hardy’s one-man “A Christmas Carol” highlights Dickens-themed literary festival

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/03/hardys-one-man-a…iterary-festival/

Omaha World-Herald columnist Mike Kelly: 

A storyteller for all seasons

https://leoadambiga.com/2014/04/02/omaha-world-hera…-for-all-seasons/

 

 

Mike Kelly

Mike Kelly

 

 

Creative couple: Bob and Connie Spittler and their shared creative life 60 years in the making

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/12/23/bob-and-connie-s…rs-in-the-making/

A WASP’s racial tightrope resulted in enduring book partially set in 1960s Omaha

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/28/a-wasps-racial-t…t-in-1960s-omaha/

Alex Kava:

Bestselling mystery author still going strong

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/03/alex-kava-bestse…ill-going-strong/

Yolonda Ross adds writer-director to actress credits; In new movies by Mamet and Sayles as her own “Breaking Night” makes festival circuit

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/02/28/yolonda-ross-add…festival-circuit/

Omahans put spin on Stephen King’s “The Shining” – Jason Levering leads stage adaptation of horror classic to benefit Benson Theatre Project

https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/17/omahans-put-thei…-theatre-project

Omaha author Timothy Schaffert delivers again with his new novel, “The Swan Gondola”

https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/07/omaha-author-tim…the-swan-gondola/

Timothy Schaffert is seeking materials from the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition for an online archive.

Timothy Schaffert

 

The Omaha Star celebrates 75 years of black woman legacy

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/11/the-omaha-star-c…ack-woman-legacy/

Ex-reporter Eileen Wirth pens book on Nebraska women in journalism and their leap from society page to front page

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/03/22/ex-reporter-eile…ge-to-front-page/

Bob Hoig’s unintended entree into journalism leads to career six decades strong

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/25/bob-hoigs-uninte…cades-strong-now/

Wounded Knee still battleground for some per new book by journalist-author Stew Magnuson

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/20/wounded-knee-sti…or-stew-magnuson/

Omaha native Steve Marantz looks back at city’s ’68 racial divide through prism of hoops in new book, “The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/01/omaha-native-ste…of-omaha-central/

 

 

 

From the heart: Tunette Powell tells it like it is

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/10/from-the-heart-t…ls-it-like-it-is/

Finding her voice: Tunette Powell comes out of the dark and into the spotlight

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/24/finding-her-voic…to-the-spotlight/

Omowale Akintunde film “Wigger” deconstructs what race means in a faux post-racial world

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/21/deconstructing-w…ost-racial-world/

Beware the Singularity, singing the retribution blues: New works by Rick Dooling

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/beware-the-singu…-by-rick-dooling/

 

 

Richard Dooling's photo.

Richard Dooling

 

 

Lit Fest delves into what we fear, how we relate in extremis

https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/09/lit-fest-delves-…late-in-extremis/

Omaha Lit Fest puts focus on Women Writers and Women in Publishing

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/06/omaha-lit-fest-p…en-in-publishing

Omaha Lit Fest Offers a Written Word Feast

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/10/18/omaha-lit-fest-o…itten-word-feast

Writing close to her heart: Author Joy Castro

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/11/23/author-joy-castr…in-two-new-books/

Ron Hull reviews his remarkable life in public television in new memoir

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/06/8945/

Ferial Pearson, award-winning educator dedicated to inclusion and social justice, helps students publish the stories of their lives

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/25/ferial-pearson-a…s-of-their-lives

Lit Fest brings author Carleen Brice back home flush with success of first novel, “Orange Mint and Honey”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/lit-fest-brings-…e-mint-and-honey/

Novel’s mother-daughter thing makes it to the screen

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/26/novel’s-mother-d…it-to-the-screen

 

 

Carleen Brice

 

 

Sun reflection: Revisiting the Omaha Sun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of Boys Town

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/28/sun-reflection-r…ose-on-boys-town

Alexander Payne and Kaui Hart Hemmings on the symbiosis behind his film and her novel “The Descendants” and how she helped get Hawaii right

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/01/23/alexander-payne-…get-hawaii-right/

Thy kingdom come: Richard Dooling’s TV teaming with Stephen King

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/16/thy-kingdom-come…ith-stephen-king/

Buffalo Bill’s Coming Out Party Courtesy Author-Balladeer Bobby Bridger

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/06/buffalo-bills-co…er-bobby-bridger/

 

 

 

The Worth of Things Explored by Sean Doolittle in his New Crime Novel “The Cleanup”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/the-worth-of-thi…ovel-the-cleanup/

When Safe Isn’t Safe at All, Author Sean Doolittle Spins a Home Security Cautionary Tale

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/19/when-safe-isnt-s…-cautionary-tale/

Acclaimed Author and Nebraska New Wave Literary Leader Timothy Schaffert

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/nebraska-new-wav…imothy-schaffert/

A Man of His Words, Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/07/a-man-of-his-wor…illiam-kloefkorn/

 

Bill and Eloise KloefkornJACOB HANNAH / Lincoln Journal Star

 

Kurt Andersen’s new novel “True Believers” revisits 1960s through reformed radical breaking her silence

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/28/kurt-andersens-n…king-her-silence/

Dissecting Jesse James

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/dissecting-jesse-james

Ron Hansen’s masterful outlaw blues novel about Jesse James and Robert Ford faithfully interpreted on screen

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/27/ron-hansens-mast…preted-on-screen

Playwright Carlos Murillo’s work explores personal mythmaking

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/26/playwright-carlo…sonal-mythmaking

The Many Worlds of Science Fiction Author Robert Reed

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/22/the-many-worlds-…thor-robert-reed

He knows it when he sees it: Journalist-social critic Robert Jensen finds patriarchy and white supremacy in porn

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/17/i-know-it-when-i…upremacy-in-porn

Litniks Unite! The Downtown Omaha Lit Fest brings writers, artists and readers together in celebration of the written word

Litniks Unite! The Downtown Omaha Lit Fest brings writers, artists and readers together in celebration of the written word

 

photo

Omaha Lit Fest: In praise of writers and their words: Jami Attenberg and Will Clarke among featured authors

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/19/omaha-lit-fest-i…featured-authors/

Omaha playwright Beaufield Berry comes into her own with original comedy “Psycho Ex Girlfriend”

https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/20/omaha-playwright…iend-now-playing/

Omaha Lit Fest: “People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/07/omaha-lit-fest-p…-thing-they-like/

Martin Landau and Nik Fackler discuss working together on “Lovely, Still” and why they believe so strongly in each other and in their new film

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/23/martin-landau-an…-in-the-new-film/

Martin Landau and Nik Fackler

 

 

“Lovely, Still,” that rare film depicting seniors in all their humanity, earns writer-director Nik Fackler Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/03/lovely-still-tha…first-screenplay/

Filmmaker Nik Fackler’s magic realism reaches the big screen in “Lovely, Still”

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/when-dreams-that…neath-do-surface

Nik Fackler, the Film Dude Establishes Himself a Major New Cinema Figure with “Lovely, Still”

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/the-film-dude-es…ew-cinema-figure/

Writers Joy Castro and Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes explore being women of color who go from poverty to privilege

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/12/writers-joy-cast…rty-to-privilege/

Being Jack Moskovitz: Grizzled former civil servant and DJ, now actor and fiction author, still waiting to be discovered

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/being-jack-mosko…to-be-discovered/

 

With his new novel, “The Coffins of Little Hope,” Timothy Schaffert’s back delighting in the curiosities of American Gothic

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/13/with-his-new-nov…-american-gothic/

Timothy Schaffert Gets Down and Dirty with his New Novel “Devils in the Sugar Shop”

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/29/timothy-schaffer…n-the-sugar-shop/

Rachel Shukert’s anything but a travel agent’s recommended guide to a European grand tour

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/rachel-shukerts-…opean-grand-tour/

Author Rachel Shukert: A nice Jewish girl gone wild and other regrettable stories

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/author-rachel-sh…rettable-stories/

 

Rachel Shukert

 

 

After whirlwind tenure as Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser goes gently back to the prairie, to where the wild plums grow

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/after-a-whirlwin…-wild-plums-grow/

Keeper of the Flame: Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/keeper-of-the-fl…inner-ted-kooser

 

ted-kooser.jpg

Ted Kooser

 

 

Being Dick Cavett

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/04/being-dick-cavett-2/

Homecoming always sweet for Dick Cavett, the entertainment legend whose dreams of show biz Success were fired in Nebraska

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/04/homecoming-is-al…ed-in-nebraska-2/

 

Dick Cavett

 

 

Dream catcher Lew Hunter: Screenwriting guru of the Great Plains

http://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/dream-catcher-lew-hunter/

Q & A with playwright Caridad Svich, featured artist at Great Plains Theatre Conference

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/02/a-q-a-with-playw…eatre-conference/

Featured Great Plains Theatre Conference playwright Caridad Svich explores bicultural themes

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/featured-great-p…icultural-themes

Playwright-screenwriter John Guare talks shop on Omaha visit celebrating his acclaimed “Six Degrees of Separation”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/02/playwright-john-…es-of-separation/

Attention must be paid: Arthur Kopit invokes Arthur Miller to describe Great Plains Theatre Conference focus on the work of playwrights

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/attention-must-b…s-and-their-work/

Q & A with Edward Albee: His thoughts on the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Jo Ann McDowell, Omaha and preparing a new generation of playwrights

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/a-q-a-with-edwar…n-of-playwrights/

Great Plains Theatre Conference ushers in new era of Omaha theater

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/28/great-plains-the…of-omaha-theater/

 

John Guare

 

 

Hard times ring sweet in the soulful words of singer-songwriter-author Laura Love, daughter of the late jazz man, Preston Love Sr.

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/01/hard-times-ring-…uthor-laura-love

Gospel playwright Llana Smith enjoys her Big Mama’s time

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/07/gospel-playwrigh…r-big-mamas-time

Blizzard Voices:

Stories from the Great White Shroud

https://leoadambiga.com/2018/07/27/blizzard-voices-…eat-white-shroud

Click Westin, back in the screenwriting game again at age 83

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/11/click-westin-bac…-again-at-age-83/

“The Bagel: An Immigrant’s Story” – Joan Micklin Silver and Matthew Goodman team up for new documentary

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/16/the-bagel-an-imm…documentary-film

Actor Peter Riegert makes fine feature directorial debut with “King of the Corner”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/12/actor-peter-rieg…ng-of-the-corner/

Talking screenwriting with Hollywood heavyweight Hawk Ostby: Omaha Film Festival panelist counts “Children of Men” and “Iron Man” among credits

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/02/talking-screenwr…mong-his-credits/

 

Hawk Ostby

 

 

Tempting fate: Patrick Coyle film “Into Temptation” delivers gritty tale of working girl and idealistic priest in search of redemption

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/09/tempting-fate-pa…ch-of-redemption/

Otis Twelve’s Radio Days

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/otis-twelves-radio-days/

Three old wise men of journalism – Hlavacek, Michaels and Desfor – recall their foreign correspondent careers and reflect on the world today

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/three-old-wise-men-of-journalism/

John and Pegge Hlavacek’s globe-trotting adventures as foreign correspondents

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/02/john-and-pegge-h…n-correspondents/

 

 

John Hlavacek

 

 

Preston Love: His voice will not be stilled

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/03/preston-love-his…l-not-be-stilled/ 

 

Marguerita Washington: The woman behind the Star that never sets

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/marguerita-washi…-that-never-sets

“Walking Behind to Freedom” – A musical theater examination of race

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/21/walking-behind-t…mination-of-race

Sacred Trust, Author Ron Hansen’s Fiction Explores Moral Struggles

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/06/sacred-trust

Jim Taylor, the other half of Hollywood’s top screenwriting team, talks about his work with Alexander Payne

https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/30/jim-taylor-the-o…lexander-payne-2/

Author, humorist, folklorist Roger Welsch tells the stories of the American soul and soil

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/author-humorist-…he-american-soul/

 

From the Archives: Warren Francke – A passion for journalism, teaching and life

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/from-the-archive…eaching-and-life

Author Scott Muskin – What’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing writing about all this mishigas?

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/05/author-scott-mus…ll-this-mishigas/

Vincent Alston’s indie film debut, “For Love of Amy,” is black and white and love all over

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/29/vincent-alstons-…nd-love-all-over

Screenwriting adventures of Nebraska native Jon Bokenkamp, author of the scripts “Perfect Stranger” and “Taking Lives'”

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/28/screenwriting-ad…ve-jon-bokenkamp/

 Taking Lives

Murder He Wrote: Reporter-author David Krajicek finds niche as true crime storyteller

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/28/murder-he-wrote-…rime-storyteller/

Bobby Bridger’s Rendezvous

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/bobby-bridgers-rendezvous/

Nancy Duncan: Her final story

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/her-final-story/

Nancy Duncan: Storyteller

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/nancy-duncan-storyteller/

From the Archives:

Nancy Duncan’s journey to storytelling took circuitous route

https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/01/from-the-archive…circutious-route

Joan Micklin Silver: Maverick filmmaker helped shape American independent film scene and opened doors for women directors

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/joan-micklin-sil…-women-directors/

Joan Micklin Silver: Shattering cinema’s glass ceiling

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/shattering-cinemas-glass-ceiling/

Joan Micklin Silver

 

 

Doug Marr, Diner Theater and keeping the faith

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/doug-marr-keeping-the-faith/

Short story writer James Reed at work in the literary fields of the imagination

https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/03/short-story-writ…-the-imagination

Culturalist Kurt Andersen wryly observes the American scene as author, essayist, radio talk show host

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/culturalist-kurt-andersen/

Slaying dragons: Author Richard Dooling’s sharp satire cuts deep and quick

https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/slaying-dragons-rick-dooling/

 

K

Kurt Andersen

Ted Genoways Gives Voice to Rural Working Class

August 23, 2018 Leave a comment

 

Ted Genoways

Gives Voice to Rural Working Class

by Leo Adam Biga

Photography by Bill Sitzmann

Originally appeared in July-August 2018 issue of Omaha Magazine ( http://omahamagazine.com/articles/ted-genoways/)

 

Award-winning poet, journalist, editor, and author Ted Genoways of Lincoln, Nebraska, has long been recognized for his social justice writing as a contributor to Mother Jones, onEarth, Harper’s and other prestigious publications. While editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, the magazine won numerous national awards.

His recent nonfiction books—The Chain: Farm, Factory and the Fate of Our Food, and This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Farm—expand on his enterprise reporting about the land, the people who work it, and the food we consume from it. The themes of sustainability, big ag versus little ag, over-processing of food, and environmental threats are among many concerns he explores.

He often collaborates on projects with his wife, photographer Mary Anne Andrei.

His penchant for reporting goes back to his boyhood, when he put down stories people told him, even illustrating them, in a stapled “magazine” he produced. His adult work took root in the form of secondhand stories of his paternal grandfather toiling on Nebraska farms and in Omaha meatpacking plants.

His father noted this precociousness with words and made a pact that if young Ted read a book a week selected for him, he could escape chores.

“I thought that was a great deal,” Genoways says. “Reading John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was the first time I remember being completely hooked. After that, I tore through everything Steinbeck wrote, and it made a huge impact on me. I thought, there’s real power in this—if you can figure out how to do it this well.”

Reading classics by Hemingway, Faulkner, and other great authors followed. The work of muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair made an impression. “But those Steinbeck books,” he says, “have always really stuck with me, and I go back to them and they really hold up.”

Exposing injustice—just as Steinbeck did with migrants and Sinclair did with immigrants—is what Genoways does. Nebraska Wesleyan professors Jim Schaffer and the late state poet of Nebraska William Kloefkorn influenced his journalism and poetry, respectively. Genoways doesn’t make hard and fast distinctions between the two forms. Regardless of genre, he practices a form of advocacy journalism but always in service of the truth.

“I’m always starting with the facts and trying to understand how they fit together,” he says. “There’s no question I’ve got a point of view. But I don’t show up with preconceived notions of what the story is.”

He’s drawn to “stories of people at the mercy of the system,” he says, admitting, “I’m interested in the little guy and in how people fight back against the powers that be.”

While working at the Minnesota State Historical Society Press, Genoways released a book of poems,Bullroarer: A Sequence, about his grandfather, and edited Cheri Register’s book Daughter of a Meatpacker. At the Virginia Quarterly, he looked into worker illnesses at a Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota, and the glut of Latinos at a Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska. He found a correlation between unsafe conditions due to ever-faster production lines—where only immigrants are willing to do the job—and the pressures brought to bear on company towns with influxes of Spanish-speaking workers and their families, some of them undocumented.

That led to examining the impact “a corporate level decision to run the line faster in order to increase production has up and down the supply chain” and on entire communities.

“That’s become an ongoing fascination for me,” Genoways says. “I can’t seem to stop coming back to what’s happening in meatpacking towns, which really seem to be on the front line of a lot of change in this country.”

The heated controversy around TransCanada Corp.’s plans for the Keystone XL pipeline ended up as the backdrop for his book, This Blessed Earth. He found “the specter of a foreign corporation coming and taking land by eminent domain” from legacy farmers and ranchers “and telling them they had to take on this environmental risk with few or no guarantees” to be yet another challenge weighing on the backs of producers.

His focus became a fifth-generation Nebraska farm family, the Hammonds, who grow soybeans, and how their struggles mirror all family farmers in terms of “how big to get and how much risk to assume.”

“They were especially intriguing because they were building this solar and wind-powered barn right in the path KXL decided to cross their land, and that seemed like a pretty great metaphor for that kind of defiance,” he says.

Pipeline or not, small farmers have plenty to worry about.

“Right now, everything in ag is geared toward getting bigger,” Genoways says. “The question facing the entire industry is: How big is big enough? What do we lose when we force farmers off the land or make them into businessmen more than stewards of the land? To my eye, you lose agri-CULTURE and are left with agri-BUSINESS.”

Farming as a way of life is endangered.

“Nebraska lost a thousand farms in 2017,” he says. “Those properties will be absorbed by larger operations. The ground will still be farmed. The connection between farmer and farm will be further stretched and strained. That’s the way everything has gone, and it’s how everything is likely to continue. Agribusiness interests argue these trends move us toward maximum yield with improved sustainability. But it also means decisions are made by fewer and fewer people. Mistakes and misjudgments are magnified. So we not only lose the culture of independence and responsibility that built rural communities, but grow more dependent on a version of America run by corporations.”

Chronicling the Hammonds left indelible takeaways—one being the varied skills farming requires.

“We saw them harvest a field of soybeans while keeping an eye on the futures trading and calling around to elevators to check on prices; they were making market decisions as sophisticated as any commodities trader,” Genoways says. “This is one of the major pressures on family farms. To survive, you have to be able to repair your own center pivot or broken tractor, but also be a savvy business owner—adapting early to technological changes and diversifying to insulate your operation.”

The Hammonds weathered the storm.

“They are doing well. They got good news when the Public Service Commission only approved the alternate route for KXL,” he says.

Meanwhile, Genoways sees an American food system in need of reform.

“We would benefit mightily from a national food policy,” he says. “How can you explain subsidizing production of junk food and simultaneously spending on obesity education? How do we justify unsustainable volumes of meat while counseling people to eat less meat? If we really want people to improve their eating habits, we should provide economic incentives in that direction.”


Visit tedgenoways.com for more information.

This article was printed in the July/August 2018 edition of Omaha Magazine.

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