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Revisiting the Hillsdale, Wisconsin, site of "The Long Winter of Rural America" we again meet Larry and Rachel Ecklor, whose painful farm auction MOSAIC recorded 10 years ago (MOSAIC, March 1989). A strong faith helps the Ecklors continue on — seemingly against all odds — even as it drives the hope that dairy farmers Roy and Gina Grewe have that they can beat those same odd. Meanwhile, we meet those who forecast, lament, and struggle against an agribusiness takeover of a once-foundational American institution.

Discussion Questions and Ideas
1.	If Larry and Rachel Ecklor were members of your congregation, how would you minister to them? What might you say and do? In what way would you try to help?
2.	About 50 percent of all ELCA congregations are located in what is labeled "rural America." Sandra LaBlanc notes that demographers predicted that the 1990s would record a loss of 600,000 family farmers. What does this mean for ministry? How does it impact community and the future of mission?
3.	Roy Grewe says that in rural Wisconsin there is an attitude that "farms should be around ... as opposed to being a nuisance." How do government incentives, real estate values, and predominant community attitudes affect agriculture? What can be some results of these? Ask if there are those who remember what your own area looked like 30 years ago, or consider the housing developments springing up around you. Perhaps your congregation sits in one of these. Do these affect or are they the effects of a change in U.S. agriculture?
4.	Pastor Landstrom believes that the only beneficiaries of corporate farming will be the corporations, saying, "Of course we will have milk, but then at a price they want." Gina and Roy Grewe think that "[family] farming is important. It is ... the basis of our entire country." Do you agree with them? Why/why not? Does how agriculture "works" make a difference for rural communities? For urban communities? For you?

Mosaic Television shows Christ's love at work in the world. They do this through a documentary video series distributed nationally on DVD or VHS to subscribers on a quarterly basis.