One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture

Stephanie Anderson grew up on a conventional ranch outside of Bison, South Dakota, where her parents still grow wheat, corn, and hay and raise cattle. Right out of college, Anderson worked for Tri-State Neighbor, a small farm-and-ranch newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She notes that, “I felt a sense of honor in protecting the farmer and rancher, my heroes, from slander” (x). Anderson believed that her sources, which included farmers, ranchers, land-grant university professors, scientists, country extension service specialists, and state agriculture officials, told her unbiased facts when it came to conventional agricultural practices in the US. However, as Anderson continued to interview so-called “family farmers,” watch fields being doused with chemicals, and toured concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where cattle are kept and raised in confined areas, she began to feel “shame and confusion” (xi). Her time at the newspaper revealed that the notion that farmers and ranchers are stewards of the land and acted differently than industrial farmers was a myth. This revelation even changed how she viewed her own family’s ranch. Anderson eventually enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program to study creative fiction at Florida Atlantic University. Her MFA thesis, which serves as the basis of this book, examines five farms and ranches to determine whether there is a better version of agriculture than what many farmers and ranchers, including her own family, practice.