"Rural life in North America has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Corporate-backed factory farms, mining interests, and large-scale tourist developments have replaced the family farm, and the small farmers who remain are strangled by debt, hounded by government, and harassed by regulations. Rural First Nations face a similar struggle, as do small-town businesses. However, those who seek to make rural life extinct are meeting with some fierce resistance." "In this book, a writer who is a farmer himself uses the microcosm of his own rural community to portray the groups involved and the battles they are fighting. The outcome of these clashes will decide not only the future of rural life but also the quality and sustainability of our food, our water, our soil, and our air."--BOOK JACKET.