Afternoon Briefing: Ecuadorians celebrate Mass and community

Good afternoon, Chicago.

John Gilbert’s father spent years trying to convert a flood-prone patch of land on their nearly 800-acre farm in Hardin County, Iowa, to more cropland.

“We fought with that land for many years,” said Gilbert, now in his mid-70s. But it was always only a matter of time before heavy rain made it impossible to grow crops. “Some land just isn’t meant to be farmed.”

The Gilbert family stopped fighting nature in the 1990s, shortly after the introduction of the Wetland Conservation provisions in the 1985 Farm Bill. Known as Swampbuster, the federal program requires farmers to conserve wetlands to be eligible for federal farm subsidies, loans and insurance.

But a federal lawsuit brought before a district court in Iowa by a Chicago investor and two libertarian law firms based in Texas and California in April aims to abolish Swampbuster.

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Ecuadorians celebrate Mass and community at Albany Park church

Members of the Ecuadorian community held a procession for the Virgin Mary through the streets of the Albany Park neighborhood yesterday, commemorating a religious holiday and a cultural touchstone with special significance for immigrants. Read more here.

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