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The landscape of America’s heartland has changed drastically in the last two hundred years. From your car window, a monotonous scene blurs past: corn, soy, corn, soy, corn, soy... 158 million acres of cropland in the United States is now planted with corn and soybeans. The majority are genetically modified crops that are fed to livestock or are highly processed before reaching a person’s mouth. This story is familiar, but there is also another one to tell.following dreamSTurn off the highway outside Fairbury, Illinois, and you’ll find land that has been farmed for nearly two centuries, by eight successive generations of theSpence family. But this isn’t a story about the past; it’s about the future. Twenty years ago Marty and Kris Tra- vis, along with their son Will, took over Spence Farm to fulfill a promise to Mar- ty’s grandmother. She wanted the land to be rescued from the industrial agri- culture that had taken over during her lifetime. Marty recalls: “Looking at our family farm, we saw we were eroding di- versity too. For us to survive and for this farm to be sustainable, it was imperative that we increased diversity again.” Spence Farm soon attracted real food allies from the big city, Chicago. In 2013, Spence Farm was cultivating 217 different crops; raising poultry, pigs and cattle; harvesting wild foods from4499@ Slow Food USa