
What is America?
Hi! I'm John, and this is "What is America?" podcast. For the next year, I'm gonna drive around the country and talk to people about their lives. The goal is to help rebuild our broken politics. Wanna come?
What is America?
Ep 3: Death by a thousand cuts + the future of the American small farmer (with Jim Sayle)
America's small farmers are a resilient bunch—but they're subject to powerful forces outside their control. In the words of Jim Sayle: "We can either do death by a thousand cuts of playing the game the way it was being played—or we can do something about it."
Jim runs a small farm in Northwest Mississippi. He's growing cotton, corn, and soybeans on 2500 acres that his family has been farming for the last seven generations. It's a beautiful way of life—but there are dark clouds gathering on the horizon.
During our conversation, Jim said the combination of extreme weather and government interference threaten to make the economics of what he does unworkable. So how do we protect our ecosystems without hobbling America's small farmers? How do we keep US agricultural products competitive on the world stage? Finally, how do we lower the temperature on our political discourse?