Telling the hidden stories of rural America.

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“An anthem to the family farm in America.” — AP News

“A beautiful book. You won’t want to put it down.” — Peter Slevin, contributing writer for The New Yorker

“Well worth reading for those who care about what we eat and where it comes from.”  — Mike Gousha, Emmy-award-winning journalist and PBS documentarian

Named “Book of the Year” by the nonpartisan Farm Foundation, and a C-SPAN Author Series pick.

The hidden history of an economic and cultural crisis that is threatening our very food supply—the disappearance of the American farmer. Critically acclaimed with praise from across the political spectrum, Land Rich, Cash Poor reveals the urgent, unflinching truth.

In this working-class story of heart and hardship, writer and rural policy expert Brian Reisinger weaves forgotten history with his family’s four-generation fight for survival on their small Midwestern farm. Readers learn the truth about America’s most urgent crisis: How the family farms that feed us went from cutting a middle-class path through the Great Depression to barely making ends meet in modern America. Along the way, they’ll see what it truly takes to feed our country: accidents that kill or maim; weather that blesses or threatens; resilience in the face of crushing economic crises, from depressions to COVID-19; and the tradition that presses down on each generation when you're not just fighting for your job, you're fighting for your heritage. With new analysis, talks with modern farming’s biggest champions and critics, honest debate on both sides of the aisle and everywhere in between, and personal storytelling, Land Rich, Cash Poor reveals how hollowing out rural America harms everyone’s dinner table. Food prices soaring far faster than inflation, concerns about the security and health of our food, environmental and national security dilemmas, a mental health crisis that includes farmer suicides and addictions, and a deepening urban-rural divide. These are becoming hallmarks of a food system that’s long been a modern miracle. Land Rich, Cash Poor reveals what we must do—before it’s too late.

available nationwide in Paperback, Hardcover and audiobook

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Praise for Land Rich, Cash Poor:

  • “This deeply personal tale of a family farm—and family—teetering on the brink succeeds by showing us this is not a rural crisis, this is an American crisis bound to touch city mice and country mice alike. The dramatic elements strike to the bone, the history and context establish a complexity not addressable by simplistic politics, and by avoiding sentimentality and caricature, Reisinger leaves us with a green shoot of hope.” —Michael Perry, New York Times bestselling author of Population: 485

  • “A call from rural America, Brian Reisinger's love of family, farming and Wisconsin shines through as he unspools a four-generation saga of hard work on a hard land set against the backdrop of relentless economic change.” —Bill Glauber, National Headliner Award-winning journalist

  • “In rich and lyrical prose, Brian Reisinger tells the engrossing story of his family’s 100-year quest to establish and preserve the Wisconsin dairy farm that has sustained four generations of Reisingers in body and soul. He shares the moments of joy, disappointment, and doubt that define modern farm life in America and he digs deep to discover his own place in that world. Land Rich, Cash Poor is a beautiful book. You won’t want to put it down.” —Peter Slevin, contributing writer for The New Yorker and author of Michelle Obama: A Life

  • “Only a farm boy could tell this story this well. Brian Reisinger’s Land Rich, Cash Poor is a remarkable portrait of how rural families live, work and struggle with issues that confront most families. A fascinating glimpse of American life.” —Lamar Alexander, author and former U.S. senator

  • “In a book that is both prodigiously researched and deeply personal, Brian Reisinger examines America's farming crisis through the lens of his own family's farm. The result is informative, highly readable, infuriating, and heartbreaking. His farming ancestors would be proud.” —Doug Moe, national award-winning journalist and author of Tommy: My Journey of a Lifetime (with Tommy G. Thompson), and The Right Thing to Do

  • “Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family’s Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer helps the reader, rural and urban alike, to appreciate what is going on in rural America as we see fewer and fewer family farms. Author Reisinger helps us understand the importance of this issue, in a compelling narrative.” —Jerry Apps, national award-winning historian and author of On Farms and Rural Communities

  • “As the number of family farms dwindles, author Brian Reisinger shares a poignant account of his family’s agricultural heritage in Wisconsin spanning four generations. He reflects on the joys and hardships that come with farming, and his deep attachment to land first chosen by his great-grandfather. Reisinger also sheds light on the challenges that threaten to erase this cherished legacy, and sincerely vows ‘I am here to share this with you because I will forever be a farmer’s son.’” —Sara Rath, author of About Cows, The Complete Cow, The Complete Pig