As megafarms take over, rural towns fight for survival.
Consolidation has created the most efficient industrialized agriculture in the world. But it also represents a leading factor behind the collapse of so many rural towns on the Plains. And the trend will continue, experts warn, unless the region can reverse its drive toward megafarms or find some other way to diversify its threadbare economy... For the frontier's towns to prosper again, the region will have to figure out what to do with its vast expanse of farmland.
Thanks to Chris Steins
FULL STORY: Little farms on the prairie bow to a Wal-Mart era

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