from nytimes: Across much of the Midwest the sharp increase in farm earnings has driven the price of farmland to previously unimaginable – and, some say, unsustainable – levels. But in the process, to much less fanfare, the financial rewards have also encouraged farmers to put ever more land into production, including parcels that until recently were too small or too poor in quality to warrant a second glance. As Iowa marches toward the Republican caucuses, much of the politicking has been set against the timeless backdrop of open farmland. These agricultural vistas are expanding across the Corn Belt, where the fertile and increasingly profitable soil has helped this state weather the nation’s economic storms.