The land out here shifts. It’s caught between the farm that was and the farm that will someday be. It grows food and fuel for the richest nation in the world. The people who farm near Macon, Mo. grew up on it. They will grow old on it. They are making a living, providing for their families and innovating and embracing the future.

Danny Smithson eases the John Deere over a slight rise in a field his grandfather bought back in the 1940’s, after he got home from the war. Dust spits from behind the combine. Dusk closes in and soon the dew will force an end to his daily labor. He doesn't know why his grandfather, Raymond Stull, chose to settle here, but he can find no reason to leave. "People used to move around a lot back then," Danny explains over the monotonous hum of the combine. But Stull stopped moving and because of that, Danny farms here today.