Iowa farmland is locally owned

When you write that 62 percent of Iowa farmland is not owned by those presently farming it, what do you mean (“Non-farmers own most farmland,” June 11)?

It seems to me that you are contributing to the ignorance of many urban dwellers, namely that farming is some vast and impersonal enterprise, with much of this land owned by investors from other countries or corporations.

Those of us who deal with 21st Century farmers day after day know that the vast majority of land is locally owned. It is rented out after farmers retire to family, neighbors, or friends whom they trust.

It might be more interesting for those of us who are your readers from “out-state” to read about fact-based current events in agriculture rather than about a 5-year-old flood in Cedar Rapids.

Gene Hermeier

Decorah