Free Republic

In October, Sonoma County family farm Mulas Dairy closed after 101 years. But the farm’s president, Mike Mulas, kept the news quiet until recently, when he spoke with the Press Democrat.

This is swirling in my brain and there seems to be no good answer: I am executor of my parents' estate. My mom passed away less than a month ago. In order to distribute the estate according to the will the farm property (and probably house) will have to be sold...or something. Problem 1: the property has been in the family over 150 years. No one in the family farms it. We are at the end of progeny who "might" want to farm it. The one possibility is in high school still. All of the adult children but one live...

Brian and Kim Criley operate their farm business Slow Grown in Virginia from the Spring Hill Farm in Caroline County, Va. The Crileys are on a mission to preserve Virginia’s historical small family farming practices, as they produce natural herbal products (including teas), organic seasonal produce, bath and body care products, homemade baked goods, and crafts and home décor products, as well as pasture-raised pork, poultry and eggs. They do not use any herbicides, pesticides, hormones, chemical growth enhancers or genetically modified organisms. They also operate a farm store, where they offer community-supported agriculture and co-op programs. Brian, a former...

Barack Obama is committed to killing off the family farm – an American tradition. For generations children and adults have worked together on the family farm. Those days are over. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today introduced the Preserving America’s Family Farm Act, to prevent the Department of Labor (DOL) from enacting its controversial proposed restrictions that would ban children from working on family farms. Senator Thune spoke out against the Obama Administration’s proposed labor rules for youth who work on farms and ranches on the Senate floor. The Obama Administration’s rules are so strict they would...

J'accuse! I hate to condemn a colleague this way, but our tax dollars are going to pay an indolent New York journalist for not growing wheat on the West Coast. Could there be a worse indictment of American agricultural policy, rendered even more scandalous by the new $180 billion farm bill signed by President Bush? Actually, there is a worse indictment. By inflating farm subsidies even more, Congress and the Bush administration are impoverishing and occasionally killing Africans whom we claim to be trying to help. Last week at the G-8 summit conference in Canada, Mr. Bush and other world...