must have been 9th or 10th grade, early 50s, explaining to the eager upturned faces why American agriculture was so vastly superior to Soviet agriculture. According to her almost lyrical explanation, an American rancher will stay up all night to assist a cow if she is having a difficult time birthing her calf, and the farmer will work several extra hours to make sure the irrigation water gets to the farthest corner of his field, BECAUSE HE OWN THE COW AND THE FIELD. The collective farms in the Soviet Union, on the other hand, are cared for by workers who really don't care about anything except putting in their time. If the cow and her calf both die, or the crop fails, it doesn't matter to the worker one way or another.

Toggle forward half century, and I wonder how many American cows are nurtured by the actual owner, and how much sweat the owners of the corporate farms described in the article actually expend?

But according to our politicians, whenever they come across a stump, we need to support small businesses. Unfortunately that comes too late for the nation's family farms, which are now extinct because of deliberate national policy.

Long live the Empire!