Buying the Farm

Buying the Farm captures a newsworthy topic of the day: the fight for survival by America’s family farmers against the power and influence of corporate farming. While written as a novel, it is rooted in the truth of an actual lawsuit. The roles of environmental activist groups for good and bad are woven into the struggle, as are the voices of outdoor journalists, informed or uninformed, and the power of the U.S. Forest Service and the Justice Department, whether manipulated or fighting righteously. Passions run high, for good and for the nefarious.

Amidst the raging power and passion, Bell Marshall, a lone lawyer, battles conscience-less corporate greed and governmental corruption to save not only the land of eighty-five family farmers but a treasured way of life in America’s heartland.

In the nation’s heartland quiet prevails as farm families, in America’s finest tradition, stoically face the tribulations of the Life they have chosen and will never trade. Just as quietly an agricultural corporate giant conceives and launches a vicious campaign to steal their land, seducing a Forest Service director into using his environmental authority to accomplish their malicious agenda. Family farmers are unarmed while corporate agriculture arms to the teeth, journalists and environmental groups move to inflame public opinion and the government’s unmatchable firepower readies itself.

Bell Marshall is all that stands in the way of the conspirators, some knowing, some duped. It should be no contest.

Marshall fights hard, believing that American courts are the great equalizer between powerful interests and small voices. As he strives to get the farmers their day in court, his corporate/government adversary campaigns to poison the well of justice before the farmers arrive. It takes a monumental effort for Bell to prepare the case and a cat’s agility to stay the battle. And even with that, neither side is prepared for an eleventh hour revelation that ignites a searing conclusion that alters the lives of people, affects the humane treatment of animals and preserves the land in America’s heartland for every wise use.