Interesting article via The New York Times described by one of Iowa's two major news organizations..
Without giving too much away, the main jist of the article is concerning how Iowa is no longer the farming-centric state it once was. For those outside of Iowa, this may be a bit surprising, but for someone who was born and raised there, we have know this harsh truth for some time.
Small, family-owned/operated farms are now a fading reality (though some families, like my own, still hold on proudly to the farms they have lived on for many decades, some even older!). The population and lifestyle in Iowa has been shifting to the major metropolitan areas, especially around the capital city of Des Moines for many years now, even though the state's actual population growth has been fairly minor (causing Iowa to go from having five congressional districts prior to the last census to just four today).
On the other hand, Iowa is one of the nation's leading users of wind-power (the damn things are all over the state now, even in the rolling hills of my native southern Iowa) and has one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates.
And as more Iowans move to urban areas, the "traditional" element that drives politics there is bound to change as well and this all factors into making this years Senate race one of the most watched in the nation..
NY Times article documents urban shift in Iowa | Local News - KCCI Home
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