I've lived the American dream. I was born and raised on the farm, first in my family to graduate from college. I spent 13 years working in our family business.
When I was three years old I was taken with my family to a little town in Western Minnesota, where I lived a more or less vapid and ordinary life until I was ten.
My family is a Jewish Iranian family, but I was born in Turkey and raised in Italy. So it's a very mixed background.
I do think that there is a big difference between family farms and agri-business, and one of the distressing things that I think has occurred is with consolidation of farm lands. You've seen large agri-businesses benefit from enormous profits from existing farm programs, and I think we should be focusing most of those programs on those family farmers.
With the permanent elimination of this tax, farmers and business owners will have the sense of security they need to plan for the financial future of their business or farm and their family.
I was raised in a beautiful Black two-parent family that has given me amazing morals to go out to make a better life for myself and others. That is who I truly am. And this show allows me to display the true essence of who I am and why I'm in this business.
The family farm is the foundation for who we are as a Commonwealth. And for over a century, the family farm in Kentucky has centered around one crop: tobacco.
My family and I reside on a non-working farm, although we have a couple of horses and the usual stuff like pigs, cows, and chickens. We really don't have an honest-to-goodness farm, more of a hobby farm.
The most insistent and formidable concern of agriculture, wherever it is taken seriously, is the distinct individuality of every farm, every field on every farm, every farm family, and every creature on every farm.
Growing up on a farm taught me a reverence for all forms of life. We were a large and poor farm family, so that meant that we had to kill and eat our animal friends. When you do that you are aware of the sacrifice that someone is making so that you may live. My mother always made sure we were thankful for those precious gifts.
I married a university professor, raised a son, and worked as an academic librarian. My husband and I moved to the Ozarks, bought a farm, and started a commercial beekeeping business. And divorced.
I was raised in a deeply Catholic family. There was a sense that everything we were doing was to prepare ourselves for an afterlife in heaven. In my teenage years, that became less important to me. Eventually, that turned into agnosticism, which became atheism.
I was raised in farm and ranch communities, and my dad wanted me to be a cowboy like him, but I saw how he struggled in life and wanted more than that.
I've always wanted to partner with a family business because their stories inspire me. One of my biggest hopes is that the family will invest in me, educating me about their business, and imparting many other valuable lessons. This process of helping an owner transition her business to trusted hands really excites me.
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
I was born in Burnsville, Minnesota, and raised in Eagan, which is right by Burnsville. I've been in that area my whole life.