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American agriculture has long been the most productive agricultural center in the world, producing key food and fiber ingredients for the rest of the world. But agriculture has been attacked on many fronts as being a polluting, environmentally unfriendly, big multinational corporation–dominated industry. Over time, those charges have been repeated enough that they are believed by the American public. Like all industries, you can always find examples of abuses and mistakes. However, the truth is most often much different than what has been reported in the media.In this book, we wish to draw attention to the agriculture that we see on a daily basis. In particular, agriculture is family oriented, with families making up the clear preponderance of American agriculture. We will shed light on the diversity of production systems, business strategies, and roles of support industries through a series of personal stories and pictures. These stories reflect a microcosm of the broader world of farming, ranching, and agribusiness through the very personal stories of the families, businesses, and communities involved in feeding and clothing the world.We focus on the Texas High Plains because it is a diverse production area, with many crops and livestock operations, organic and conventional farming, conservation techniques, and broad array of business structures that can serve to inform and educate about the true American agriculture. And while we hope you learn something about where your food and fiber come from, we also hope that you can come to feel the love these people have for their way of life and appreciate their struggle. First, we want to lay the groundwork so the readers can appreciate the material in this book and dispel a few myths about agriculture along the way.

American agriculture has long been the most productive agricultural center in the world, producing key food and fiber ingredients for the rest of the world. But agriculture has been attacked on many fronts as being a polluting, environmentally unfriendly, big multinational corporation–dominated industry. Over time, those charges have been repeated enough that they are believed by the American public. Like all industries, you can always find examples of abuses and mistakes. However, the truth is most often much different than what has been reported in the media.In this book, we wish to draw attention to the agriculture that we see on a daily basis. In particular, agriculture is family oriented, with families making up the clear preponderance of American agriculture. We will shed light on the diversity of production systems, business strategies, and roles of support industries through a series of personal stories and pictures. These stories reflect a microcosm of the broader world of farming, ranching, and agribusiness through the very personal stories of the families, businesses, and communities involved in feeding and clothing the world.We focus on the Texas High Plains because it is a diverse production area, with many crops and livestock operations, organic and conventional farming, conservation techniques, and broad array of business structures that can serve to inform and educate about the true American agriculture. And while we hope you learn something about where your food and fiber come from, we also hope that you can come to feel the love these people have for their way of life and appreciate their struggle. First, we want to lay the groundwork so the readers can appreciate the material in this book and dispel a few myths about agriculture along the way.