KEARNEY, Neb. -- As Americans anticipate a new era of government, they are thinking more about what the Democrats, who will be in control, are likely to do than what the minority party Republicans might be up to.
Indeed, it is easier to imagine what our new Democratic president, Barack Obama, will do with his four years -- possibly eight -- in the White House, because he and his party have both been elected into power.
Even we in Kearney, Neb., are wondering what to expect from the party in power. Obama has appointed an ex-farm state governor, Tom Vilsack of Iowa, as his secretary of agriculture, but that appointment, alone, cannot predict Obama's course.
The appointment yields a sense of comfort since we view Iowans as people familiar with production agriculture as we know it in the Cornhusker State. But we cannot relax entirely because with change comes new attitudes and ideas. On the campaign trail, Obama appeared to be a politician filled with new perspectives and strategies who might very well be bold enough to pursue some of them.
If that thought isn't enough to inspire anxiety in the farming and ranching crowd, then consider what history has taught us. Leaders of our nation have long regarded ag commodities as diplomatic bargaining chips. When they're used as such, the price of wheat or corn can swing wildly.
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We in farm country comprise just 2 percent of our nation's population, but what happens in our pastures, on our cropland and in our processing plants touches every American. We in farm country might seem like a small force, but we feed a large segment of the world and now supply a tiny fraction of its energy needs.
We remain a force to be reckoned with.
