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Hogs and the Meaning of Life in Iowa

In the spring of 1995, the President of the United States visited Iowa. The occasion was a conference on rural life, the sort of event that might be used to wax quotably about the heartland, rugged individuals, and other pastoral pieties. Orators have done so since the days of Thomas Jefferson and have continued well after most Americans—among them, most Iowans—moved to town and took jobs behind a counter or a desk.

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