The 21st Century Family Farm

To make a living as a U.S. farmer today, you pretty much have two choices. Raise a crop or livestock and contract with a corporation to buy it. Or start a small, artisanal operation that caters to the locavore crowd eager to pay top dollar for garlic scapes and kohlrabi.

Matt and Anne Burkholder chose a different route. Fifteen years ago, the Dartmouth College sweethearts traded New Hampshire’s White Mountains for Nebraska’s Great Plains to take over land in Cozad, pop. 4,000, that’s been in Matt’s family for three generations. Their 5,000-acre spread barely resembles the alfalfa operation Matt’s grandfather began in 1948. The couple grows organic corn on some fields and genetically modified batches on others. Their feedlot, where young cattle are fattened up for slaughter, is industrial-size, yet the 2,700-head herd also has room to run and other creature comforts.