Prairie Fire

The winter is unseasonably warm in Asia. The snowpack across the Himalayas is reduced by thirty percent. The spring is dry. The summer too hot. Drought conditions arise. Grain crops throughout the Far East suffer badly. The effects of the shortfall ripple around the globe like a twenty-dollar spike in the price of light sweet crude. In America’s heartland, retired Army war hero Colonel Nathaniel Cromwell farms eight hundred acres of wheat and corn. This winter, like most family farmers, he sold ninety percent of his crop cash advance to finance planting in the spring. Now as the price of wheat reaches twelve dollars a bushel, Cromwell curses the day he must harvest his fields at the four-twenty-five January price—while the big grain dealers and transnational distributors reap huge profits off Asia’s crisis. In early June, several Midwestern farmers burn their crops in protest of the market mechanism. Cromwell’s neighbor does the same, but he stays in his fields after he sets them aflame. At the funeral three days later, the National Grange President confronts Cromwell. Family farmers throughout the United States are talking about forming a union. They want Cromwell to lead a strike. On July 4th, the Nonpartisan Farmers’ Alliance collectively burns a million acres of wheat—seen vividly on nationwide TV—and threatens to steadily burn more until its strike demands are met. The Homeland Security Director immediately labels the striking farmers terrorists and issues a warrant for Cromwell’s arrest. A difficult cat and mouse game ensues with the National Guard trying to protect the grain fields from the disgruntled farmers and the federal authorities attempting to capture the Robin Hood-like Cromwell in his own backyard. Read more