My name is Dan Hanrahan.  Some one once told me if I could be clear as I could on why I write, it would be helpful going forward.   I have no doubt if I could be clear on it here, it would also be helpful to you, but truthfully each reason seems as good as the next.  I just do.

The few things I have come to know in life, I have typically found in an agricultural context.  Most of my writing takes place in the same sphere.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges agriculture faces in going forward is the growing disconnect between those in it and those outside of it.  A couple of generations ago, you and I could go to a fairly urban part of the country and find a connection to farming more real than that which exists today.  Perhaps they had grown up on a farm, perhaps their grandparents had one, or an aunt and uncle.  Today that connection is a few generations further removed and to a large extent it has been lost.

What was lost wasn’t a highly technical knowledge of agriculture but instead a familiarity with it.  A familiarity which had existed at Thanksgiving time, over Christmas dinner, or that summer reunion on the farm.  It existed in the context of the stories told on those occasions, and it served to let both rural and urban families know that their concerns and fears, hopes and desires, were more alike than they were different.

Despite whatever you’ve read, the agriculture I know isn’t a cold, industrialized thing.  It is about people, and people have stories, and stories have warmth.  It’s my hope in sharing a few of those stories, we can re-connect with that familiarity again.  Here’s to that.