Back in September, one of our adjunct faculty and History alumni, Chase Fleece, offered a sobering historical perspective on today’s turmoil in agriculture in his public lecture at Carter Historic Farm. Set within this living history site operated by the Wood County Park District, Fleece linked modern financial stress for farmers to the infamous farm crisis of the 1980s. He described how farmers back then built their operations on massive debt, expanded recklessly, and ultimately suffered when land values collapsed, interest rates surged, and global conditions shifted.
Fleece warned that the problems of the ’80s were not just a moment in time, but the beginning of chronic instability in farming. He pointed out that many of the vulnerabilities of that era—debt reliance, volatile commodity prices, and shaky faith in government support—are resurfacing today. Although today’s farmers have more protective measures like loan programs and crop insurance, Fleece argues that the legacy of past crises still shapes present-day agricultural challenges.
His research, which stretches beyond U.S. borders to examine similar crises in Canada and Europe, underscores a critical lesson: agricultural instability isn’t isolated—it’s deeply interconnected across time and place. As Fleece continues to shed light on the patterns linking past and present, his work highlights not only the financial but also the human stakes in understanding how historic farm policies still echo through rural communities today.
Chase Fleece has presented research about the 1980’s Farm Crisis in other contexts, which has won him the George S. Sulzner Memorial Award. We would like to congratulate Chase on being offered a full-time position in Wood County Parks as a historical specialist/interpreter. You can read more about his talk in September at BG Independent News, and you can hear his next public lecture on November 23rd.
