Amish Imagination

The truth is, the Amish have had to adapt and innovate and negotiate the changing world. The truth is, the Amish are a people of imagination. Perhaps not “imagination” as popularly conceived but imagination nevertheless.

The County Meeting

We will speak to gatherings of farmers in seventeen different counties throughout southern Georgia. Along the way we will travel 1750 miles.

On Latimer, Localism, Liberalism, and Democracy

Wichita, KS. Trevor Latimer’s Small Isn’t Beautiful: The Case Against Localism deeply engaged me, but not in a positive way, at least not initially....

Localism as a Form of Government, or Localism as a Way of Life?

Consider that here at FPR we are at least as concerned with cultural issues as with political ones. If we are being honest, many of us are probably more concerned with the former than with the latter.

Local Stories, National Character

We always have been an unruly people, from the very beginning. It is a fact that gives us hope that our current disagreements and fights are not signs of our democracy’s weakness but its enduring strength.

Learning through Language: Education and Electronic Media

The best educators (and the best educational institutions) will neither embrace nor eschew the electronic technologies that commercial forces wish to prevail in higher education; rather they will assess each one, in light of both its assets and its liabilities, employing those that are superior to other tools, while not employing those that are not.

Cornmeal and Butter: On the Significance of Temperature

At all hours of the day and night in the Mannon house, you’ll find butter in its designated dish on the dinner table and cornmeal in the fridge. I hold strong beliefs about these two points of culinary geography.

Postcards from the Edge: the State of Education in the State of Florida

We do not need crusades for or against “wokeness”—we need people to read actual legislation and weigh in on it. We do not need centralized authorities to make sweeping, political decisions about classrooms and curriculum. We need engaged communities and parents and subject matter experts.

What Passes and What Remains: A Review of Pappyland

While we can’t forever capture in amber all that passes through time, what we can do is hope for the Resurrection and leave mementos of ourselves for those that follow.

Old Times There are Not Forgotten

Old times there are not forgotten—a trait that cuts both ways. It is good to hang on to good traditions, bad to hang on to bad.

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From the Archives

Farmers, Physiologists, and Daylight Saving

That advocates of year-round DST persist says something about the evolution of American agriculture and how out of touch we collectively have become with the intractable pulse of nature.

Where Is Our Freedom to Exercise Sympathy?

The same things that happened to the family farms, and to farmers like my father, are now happening to the colleges, and to faculty like me.

Reading Seed Catalogs for Pleasure and Profit

Gardeners are a modest and sober breed, not much given to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride...