# town and farming



## goatshows (Oct 5, 2007)

When I was a child 
I would walk through the streets of our little town 
Saying hi to all the old farmers sittin around 
On there porches or tractors 
Or feeding the cows in there fields 
Those were the good old days 
When everyone knew each other and had a common interest
Farming.

Now the farmers are getting old 
No children have an interest in farming anymore
Some farmers die and then there land plants a new type of seeds
Called condos, apartments, and houses

As I walk down the streets of my town 
Which is growing every day of both people and homes
I miss the farms which are disappearing everyday 
No children want to live up to there grand parents farming days
They have a life and friends and farming is so un-cool
Talk about dirty Iâ€™m not doing that. 
What will we do without a next generation of farmers?


tell me what you think of this poem i just wrote


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## Shelly (Oct 5, 2007)

Ok I only send this once what happened? Shelly


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## Shelly (Oct 5, 2007)

You did a good job. Unfortunately it sum up my town very well. The valley I live is one of the top farming and food suppliers to the nation. I believe we are 5 in the nation. But it seem like every week another field is be turned in to houses or shopping centers. It worries me what will we do for food once all the good farm land has house build on it? Shelly


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

did you write that for school or just "fun"

it certainly is true


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

It speaks very clearly


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## goatshows (Oct 5, 2007)

i did it for fun. i also did it beacause one of the old farmers up the street just died so we will have new neibors


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## Crissa (Oct 7, 2007)

I think it's good and true sadly enough. I'm only 17 and I was born and raised in cities but was never happy there, I dreamed of living in a small town and having land and well originally horses, but now add to that goats and sheep. I want to have a ranch/farm when I get the chance.


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## goatshows (Oct 5, 2007)

i have seen this happen in the past 10 years, im only 14


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

very insightful & well written Rebecca, sad but true. Its happening all over. Don't recall the stats but let me put it this way. When we first moved to this area 30yrs ago there are maybe half the farms now. There were two stoplights downtown. Now there are too many to count. The only feed mill went out of business a decade or so ago, the auction barn is gone. 
"a new type of seeds called condos houses & apartments.." wow


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## cute kids (Oct 5, 2007)

..."a new type of seeds called condos houses and apartments". you couldn't have been more eloquent. 
i have just moved from a county in penna with also some of the best farm land in the nation/world. i lived there for 35 years. same thing---i have cried as i watched magnificent old stone barns being hauled off in dump trucks; aged oak trees sold off for lumber before the condos came to pristine woods bordering former farm fields; and driven along once picturesque rolling hills in the 'countryside' now filled with look alike huge 'macmansions' with never a person to be seen all new in the last six months. i now live in a rural county in penna that still has farms. so many of the people here are not life-long natives, as i had expected to find, but others from my former area who have left because it was getting too built up. saw a huge brand new mall about twenty miles away the other day up here; didn't excite me at all for i know what it is a harbinger of............and it makes me sad.
i am now old so can know that most likely i won't see all the development here; but i know it will come. when i lamented the murdering of those old oak trees to a neighbor, she said, 'well, that's progress'. i think a lot of people see it that way, especially if they will make money from it. i don't see it that way; i see it as doom for the hopes of my own grandchildren pursuing the country lifestyle.
the taxes on the old family farms become exhorbitant; the heirs, even if some of them want to farm, are often forced to sell. the only people with the means to buy the farm acreage are the extremely weathy or the land 'developers'. and so it goes. 
i do feel your sadness and dismay and wish i had some comfort to offer you. frankly, i have no idea how to stop this snowball. perhaps you, with your insight and eloquence, can begin to help people see just what is happening; and it ISN'T 'progress'.
thank you for caring for what i feel is so valuable.


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