Hope Has Dried Up on Farms
A crippling drought in the nation's breadbasket brings home to growers their dependence on federal aid. Many despair at their plight.

The drought, as bad in spots as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, has broken spirits. And it has prompted reflection—unhappy reflection—about the future of farming in these vast, rich plains when the only money to be made comes from handouts.

Even in fine weather, grain farmers in the heartland rely on federal subsidies to make ends meet. Usually, they can point to the bursting bins of inexpensive food they produce as justification for the aid. This year, though, thousands have little to show for their government checks—just rubbery ears of corn pocked with five or eight desolate kernels, just stunted stands of soybeans with yellowing leaves.

The subsidies feel, more than ever, like welfare.

"How do you not feel embarrassed?" asks Robert Drees, a farmer here in western Kansas. [read more]