A good friend invited me to Hutchinson, Minnesota last weekend to celebrate a joyous life event.  Working in the Midwest most of my career, it is often easiest just to drive rather than fly to neighboring states.  Earlier in my career, I would have made the 10-hour trip in a day each way.  These days, it makes more sense for me to drive less on any given day.  So, a 2 to 3-day trip became a full 5-day trip.  It was perfect.

This year has been defined by economic and political uncertainty.  But in the Heartland of the US, it is just another day of doing great things.  I returned uplifted and hopeful.  Not for what might happen, but for decades of difficult success across rural communities.

Two things happened for me on this Looking for America Tour. First, each state has its own culture.  Undoubtably this differs at a more local level, but at the state level the cultural differences are notable.  The second observation is that the knowledge gained from the ten careers I claim has taken me on quite the journey.  This was evident by the colleagues I caught up with on the tour.

State Culture: Illinois, particularly Central Illinois, is defined by large farms, large farm infrastructure (giant grain bins and large service cooperatives).  Rail, highways, and rivers, and this year in June, EVERYTHING is green.  Iowa is not as flat as Illinois, with more industry that pops up in unexpected places.  Des Moines has more industry than I remember, but some of it is that every facility is larger today.  Thirty years ago, I was part of conservation workshops that were held in the Amana Colonies farms.  Those farms were centrally located for most of the nation.  Minnesota is like Iowa but different.  Farmers and landowners in Minnesota see the world in their own lens.  In Minnesota, I got off the main highways and it was Minnesota’s version of rural America.  Missouri is my second home, so it was very much déjà vu.

What leapt out at me on this tour was how locally self-reliant communities have become in these four states.  Renewable energy is less political and more local here.  I look forward to unpacking this further soon.  Utility-scale windmills, solar arrays, biofuels facilities, manure spreaders, and increasing biogas production.  On a national level, the debates are still political.  All the bumps and warts from these changes are real.  There are still challenges to work out.  But in 2025, Wow!  I went to a farmers market in Minneapolis.  Local access to food is a functional lifestyle today.  Local food and fuel are not taking over other retail options, but they provide a more durable infrastructure than we have had in these areas for decades.

The Journey Across Industries: The cool people in my journey across disciplines has been a gift.  In chronological order of connection leaving Greenville, IL can be characterized as:

• A life-long commercial ag, rural community developer, returned Peace Corp Volunteer friend, in Normal, Illinois (Such a great name for a community).
• A brilliant life-long entrepreneur, biomass developer, business operator, brother of a different mother in Goodfield, Illinois.
• In Des Moines, Iowa, I caught up with a returned Peace Corps Volunteer with whom I was in Nepal more than 40 years ago.  Over coffee, he shared is barely containable excitement of a protein separation success he has as he retired from a commercial life science company that could save the livestock industry millions of $.
• In Minneapolis, Minnesota, I reconnected with another returned Peace Corps Volunteer I was with in Nepal in the early 1980s.  Her career has been building sustainable ag systems in Minnesota.  Secretly I am thrilled that those formative lives of Peace Corps Volunteers are incredibly diverse and still rooted in a value foundation of making the world a better place.  Nepal cropping systems gave me my vision for manure as a viable resource in US agriculture.
• Peace Corps is not a requisite to changing the world.  The wedding in Hutchinson, Minnesota was a who’s-who of national and locally successful ruckus makers.  Most of those professionals I only met at the event, but all the languages and business models I had experienced provided a conduit of familiarity for new understanding.
• In Columbia, Missouri, I had breakfast with my older brother.  He is a gift.  As the little brother, I have lived in his big brother shadow my whole life.  But as mentors go, it is enough to be in the wake of a great leader.
• And last, but not least, my dear friend from my bachelors degree.  Her body does not allow her to be as active as she has been, but her eyes are as bright as they ever were when I met her nearly 50 years ago in college.  She has always innovated in agricultural research, academics, and rural communities.  Her life’s work has made the world smaller and more familiar.  The best part is she calls me friend.

The take home message is that as the news seems to be politically and economically more unsettling each month, communities and community leaders are still thriving.  Change is exhausting and nearly always thankless.  But we are all surrounded by brilliant agents of change that enhance local businesses and communities. Life keeps improving.