GREAT BEND, Kan. - It all started with Earl Butz, Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture, who had to resign due to a racial slur. In the early 70's grain and commodity prices were high, and the family farm was still intact. But the city people at the supermarket complained about high food prices, and that's when the New Deal farm programs started to come apart, and with it, the Great Plains.

It happened slowly. But looking back at Western Kansas over the last 30 years, it has been a steady and slow decay of "life as we knew it." I doubt we can reverse things, but we can know who did this to us and hold them accountable. And we can start to turn the ship around back toward pro-family farm policies.

Everybody on the Great Plains knows something horrible has happened over the last 30 years, but they really don't know what happened or why. They just see their downtown buildings boarded up, the abundance of thrift stores, and young people who turn to methamphetamines rather than working at McDonalds.

HAYS, Kan. - I admit I am asking a somewhat provocative question. And I will not name any particular farm reporters because perhaps the most prominent one in Kansas has family roots in Ellis County, which means I am probably related to him. However, I will say that he has given quite a bit of air time recently to Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

MCDOWELL CREEK, Kan. - All winter long a male Northern Harrier has been hunting in our crop fields. We see him gliding close to the ground, his slender body rising and falling with the contour of the land. Back in the pasture, a female Harrier is doing the same thing. As in most hawk species, she is larger than the male, but she too appears to float effortlessly just above the grass, sometimes rising above a ridge top only to disappear behind it as she follows a Flint Hills swale. Both the gray male and the brown female sport prominent white patches above the tail.

Northern Harriers used to be called Marsh Hawks, as they often hunt in open wetlands--but "harrier" is a more accurate term, for they are by no means limited to swampy ground. In fact, they are one of the characteristic birds of the tall grass prairie. My mentor, KSU ornithologist John Zimmerman, wrote in The Birds of Konza: The Avian Ecology of the Tallgrass Prairie that the grasslands of all continents have a similar array of birds: a chicken-like bird; a dryland shorebird; small, medium, and large insectivores; and a hawk that hunts on the wing.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Building on their successful run of independent films, the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice will show Dirt! The Movie for the November installation of their Monthly Film Series. The screening will take place at 6:30 pm on November 10th at the Manhattan Public Library Auditorium.

Dirt! The Movie is an insightful and timely film that tells the story of the glorious and unappreciated material beneath our feet. One teaspoon of dirt contains a billion organisms working in remarkable balance to maintain and sustain a series of complex, thriving communities that impact our daily lives.

Inspired by William Bryant Logan's acclaimed book, Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Dirt! The Movie takes a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we came from and will later return to. An eclectic group of participants ranging from biologists to prisoners incarcerated on Rikers Island, including Kansas' own Wes Jackson of the Land Institute in Salina, offer answers to problems and inspire the viewer to clean up the mess that humans have created.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Dare to imagine a world where people matter more than corporate profits; where economic development is planned and carried out with respect to the natural systems; and agriculture produces food that is consumed locally with a broad biodiversity of choices. Impossible? Dr. Vandana Shiva thinks it is within our reach.

On October 16th Shiva brilliantly lectured on the interconnectedness of humanity's most urgent crises - food security, peak oil and climate change in a public lecture entitled: Soil, Not Oil: Food Security in an Age of Climate Change. Approximately 800 people filled McCain Auditorium at Kansas State University to hear the lecture sponsored by K-State's Women's Studies and Agriculture programs along with numerous other campus and community organizations.

BASEHOR, Kan. - National Public Radio had a lengthy story yesterday about Wes Jackson and The Land Institute.

I used to have a getaway place in Chase County, and, because Wes was also involved in trying to resurrect a tiny unincorporated Chase County place called Matfield Green, he was a bit of a local fixture. From the radio story, it seems that Wes has literally gone back to his "roots," trying to encourage plant diversity through plant breeding programs aimed at natural sustainability.

I was pleased to hear that Wes and his crew are still kicking around. We need dreamers and long-term thinkers like Wes, whose goal is to work with the natural order of things and still provide for the food supplies needed by an ever-increasing population.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Women's Study Program at Kansas State University is bringing world-renowned environmental justice advocate, Dr. Vandana Shiva, to speak at KSU on Friday, October 16th, at 7:00 pm in the McCain Auditorium.

A native of India, Dr. Shiva is a trained physicist, ecofeminist, and founding member of Navdanya - "nine seeds" - a participatory research initiative on global environmental justice based in New Delhi.

Shireen Roshanravan, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Women's Studies at KSU, is hoping that this upcoming event will have lasting benefits for progressive dialogue. Dr. Roshanravan told us...

OSKALOOSA, Kan. - I want to run through some of the stuff that I have refreshed my mind about when it comes to campaigning for a local office. When it comes to city elections, I have found that one of the biggest things you can do is advertise your campaign in the local newspaper outlet.

Running for City Council in Oskaloosa, Kansas, I found that the folks that will more then likely vote in an off year election will be the ones that read the local paper. I don't know how many people that saw the ads that I ran, and stopped me on the street to ask questions about my campaign. They seem to be quite the conversation starter.

Welcome to the Kansas Free Press!

So, what is the Kansas Free Press? KFP is a brand new state-wide online newspaper, in blog format, written exclusively by citizen journalists. Our Kansan writers will write about people, politics, and policies that effect Kansans, the future of Kansas and our way of life.

Why citizen writers? Writing about the local politics and people of Kansas, our citizen journalists are chiefly moved to jump into a public conversation about the future of Kansas. Citizen writers desire to participate directly in democracy - by gathering information about what happens in school board meetings, community events, county commission meetings or in the state legislature.

Our writers want to examine what the people of Kansas value most and how our community and governments responds to those values. They want to be more informed about their governments - and they want to ensure other citizens have good information, too.