Keeping ag dollars close to home

Area farmers diversify, add value, to offerings

For most consumers, the next meal is just as close as the nearest supermarket.
But the journey from field to table is a long series of out-of-state processing steps that add value to crops and livestock, and some farmers and agronomists would keep that money, and those jobs, a little closer to home.
“If you go over to the bakery, you can see bread that sells for three or four dollars a loaf, and a loaf is about 90 percent wheat. We’re getting about 20 cents for that wheat,´ said Jean Hediger, a…