Wow … what a day yesterday was for my Kickstarter campaign! I picked up a bunch of backers, now up to 30 and $1,267! That’s 23% of my funding goal!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176629437/muckville-a-memoir-of-the-public-policy-life-of-a-0

But, I’m now down to 19 days to go and Kickstarter is “all or nothing.” If I don’t make my goal then I get zero funding!

We can do this!

Why is this important?

In yesterday’s issue of Politico current Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was interviewed. In the article entitled “Tom Vilsack: Farming ‘under-appreciated'” It states in part:

As you look at your (hopefully) full plate this Thanksgiving, take a guess at what percentage of your annual income you spend on food. Whatever you guessed, you probably guessed too high.

“We pay as low as 6 percent,” Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, was telling me at a conference table in his office. “In most other industrialized countries it’s 20 to 25 percent.” And if you were spending that much on food in America, Vilsack asks, “How big a house would you have? How nice a car?” In addition to being a relatively small amount of our incomes, our supply of edibles is virtually guaranteed. “America does not really have to depend on the rest of the world for food,” Vilsack says….

Only 1 percent of the U.S. population actually farms. Though Vilsack and his wife own a farm in Iowa, nobody in their family has worked a farm since his great-great-grandfather. But, Vilsack says, one out of every 12 jobs in America is connected to agriculture….

“It’s tied to national security,” he says. “In 40 years, we will have to increase agriculture by 70 percent globally to feed the world.” But the amount of land devoted to agriculture is shrinking — think climate change and urban development — and because of that, farmers will have to produce more food with less land and less water.

“And if you think the world is unsafe today, wait until we have serious fights over food and water,” Vilsack says. Enter the American farmer. “Farming is under-appreciated and misunderstood,” Vilsack says. “It is a sophisticated business.” It is also a business whose practitioners are aging. The average age of a farmer on a commercial-size farm is probably close to 60, Vilsack says, and it’s hard work. “There are three times as many farmers over the age of 65 as under the age of 25,” he says.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/tom-vilsack-farming-roger-simon-100360.html

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That’s sort of the point I made yesterday when I talked about the woman who believed vegetables grow on trees. They don’t, but, I don’t think she is the only person out there so clueless about farming.

My memoir talks about what is involved in being a farmer. It also talks about how Eve and I have gone about the past 17 years to educate the public and elected officials about what we are experiencing and ways in which the situation can be improved. And what’s detailed can be a road map for you to improve your situation!

Once again I greatly appreciate the support and humbly you ask for your continued help to get this done!