Former Agri News editor reflects on small towns, agriculture

Michael Wilmes is well suited to reflect on small towns and the impact of agriculture on them.
The West Concord resident is a former editor of the Agri News who grew up in a small community similar to West Concord and spent his career writing about agriculture. He reminisced about his experiences last week at a discussion at the West Concord Library sponsored by the city’s Study Club.
“Really, ag is about community,” he said.
Years ago, he said, West Concord depended on agriculture for its very existence. Sometimes, people get caught up trying to hold on to what they had. He sees the farm crisis of the 1980s as a watershed moment in the life of many of these small towns.
Describing his life growing up, he said he always expected to be a farmer.
The farm wife was the one who held everything together. His mother, he said, kept all the farm records in a shoebox. “She believed in faith, hope and love.”
One of 12 children, his mother hoped he would become a clergyman so she wanted him to do well in school.
“I saw no need for spelling or words because I was going to be a farmer,” he recalled. “Mother thought I could be something different,” he said, adding that he tested her limits of love, hope and faith.
He did attend college, he said, but ultimately went back to the farm. Through a former classmate, the Post Bulletin called him and offered him a six month position. If he was good, they said, he would be hired full time.
So it was off to Rochester and the beginning of a career as a writer.
Fortunately, he said, he and wife Kathy “found West Concord.”
The 1980s, Wilmes said, were “pretty much a disaster for agriculture.”
Farmers were going through financial hardships, losing their farms in some cases. There were farmer hotlines, he said, for farmers who declared they were not leaving their farm alive. He covered sit-ins of farmers at credit unions and farmers who had to go to the food banks.
Agriculture survived, however, and despite the current problems it has great potential. There are programs to help young people get started in farming. “Opportunities do exist,” he said.
There is also a general yearning to get back to roots and a knowledge of where food comes from. People are questioning the way we raise food. “Most say chemicals are safe but, but we’ve been told that before,” he added.
Farming surely has changed, Wilmes said, but the community will decide the future, not government, not big business.
West Concord, he said, is a great caring community. “We have a great deal of pride in what we have,” he said.
“It’s imperative to tell our stories to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said. “Write them down or if you hate to write, tell them orally.  People who have pride in the world are less likely to be consumed by the evils of the world.”
In his retirement, Wilmes said, he still writes two columns a week.
“I’m blessed in the sense that people still want to read my column. I write for one imaginary person who wants to read me.”