“The only progress that matters is on the actual landscape of the back forty.” – Aldo Leopold
In contrast, the news from the Back Forty is very encouraging. In many places that I have visited, people are solving on-the-ground problems with in- novative ideas, cooperative e orts, and abundant enthusiasm. For example, during a recent tour of a farm in Texas, I was astonished to learn that the farmer had built a working hydrogen fuel cell battery in his barn from o - the-shelf parts. He looked like someone from a Norman Rockwell painting, proudly showing o his invention – a green energy gizmo!
It con rmed my feeling that American ingenuity and can-do spirit is alive and well – on the Back Forty. You just never hear about it in the Front Forty press.
In this issue of our Journal, we try to correct this imbalance a little bit by of- fering stories of actual progress from the Back Forty.
