Hello, blog reader! In 2011, I resolved to make an entry every day on my blog at populist.com. At the end of the year, I had a book! Farming, Food and Politics in the Heartland, with recipes, has been adopted by one social justice organization as a reader for people interested in rural and food issues. After a year off, I've missed you and I'm ready to go at it again. My 2013 blog will be focused on day-to-day farm life as a no-chemical farmer in a big-pharma place. My farm raises food for the local community, restaurants and locavore buyers, but I'm surrounded by GMO farms using lots of weird chemicals and fertilizers. One of my closest neighbors has a Confined Animal Feeding Operation, where thousands of hogs are raised using antibiotics and hormones and lots of subsidized help from the USDA. Go figure! But, hey, he's my neighbor and I'll try to explain what he's thinking as well as help consumers learn about why we need small, no-chemical, locavore farms like mine. It'll be fun! See ya January 1! Margot McMillen in Missouri