Curt’s Comments:   It had to be tough for Elgin rancher, Garrett Dwyer, when he returned home after serving with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. It is quite a transition, going from an active war zone to the peaceful Sandhills pastures west of Elgin. Dwyer, like so many of his fellow war veterans, were searching to make their place in society when they returned home after bravely serving their country. And, as Dwyer noted when I visited with him at the family ranch last spring…

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Curt’s Comments:   Hog farms are not popular these days, especially for neighbors. Folks fight the construction of new pork facilities. Neighbors worry about odor and manure from the pig farms. But these folks haven’t been around Danny and Josie Kluthe’s hog farm near Dodge, Neb. When I first interviewed Danny several years ago, as I visited with him outside his swine barns, my nose didn’t know we were standing on a hog farm. As someone who grew up around…

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Joyce Rice has the energy and the attitude to do great things for Central City students.   Joyce Rice is a ball of energy. The food services director for Central City schools feeds 700 students each day, and she has enthusiasm to spare. She is a farmer at heart, and she thinks like farmers think. She was dissatisfied with the food students at Central City were being fed and she decided to start looking for locally raised, healthy food to place on the menu at school. Joyce contacted…

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