In his new book, Ted Genoways follows a family farm and the ways they’re impacted by geopolitics. Trade wars with China. Arguments over a border wall with Mexico. Strained relations with South Korea. They all might sound like issues for politicians and the CEOs of multinational corporations, but among the Americans who have a vested interest in foreign affairs are a more unlikely group: family farmers in rural Nebraska. Rick and Heidi Hammond and their daughter, Meghan, are one such Nebraskan family. The fifth and sixth generation of a miniature farming dynasty, they raise corn, soybeans and cattle while dealing with the uncertainties of the weather, farming machinery—and national and international politics. Along for ride is journalist Ted Genoways, who recounts the challenges the family has faced since they first arrived in the Cornhusker State in the 1860s in his new book, This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm.