Name: Pat Benedict Title: The New U.S. Farmer Age: 75 Location: Sabin, M.N. (pop. 441) Claim to Fame: Cover Model Highlights: Technology is moving us towards the future, but the media is taking us back in time.

Pat Benedict Listen to Pat's Story

Time Flies: Part 1 Time Flies: Part 2 Time Flies: Part 3 Time Flies: Part 4

To his friends and family, Pat Benedict is a soft-spoken farmer from a small town in Minnesota. Few are even aware Benedict is an icon of modern agriculture. In 1978, he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine for an article dubbed "The New U.S. Farmer."

At the time, American agriculture was undergoing major change, and the article sought to depict the industry's sweeping transformations in areas like technology, production, expansion, and federal farm policy.

It was a passing of the torch, and with it came new leadership: Pat Benedict. He was by definition the "new" American farmer, running an operation that was more efficient, more innovative, more technical, and more competitive than anything you'd find on Wall Street.

"I think there was a public perception that farmers were a little behind the times, just chewing on a wheat straw and waiting for their crop to grow," he laughed. "It's an ancient profession, but it's not an easy one, and the TIME article shed light on the fact that agriculture is a serious business."

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That’s what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In August 2005, the storm devastated areas along the Gulf Coast, with Louisiana bearing the brunt of her wrath. Like thousands of other homes and businesses, the Domino Sugar refinery in Arabi was ripped apart, submerged in water and dried out a broken, non-working version of its old self. Before the storm, the refinery produced 19 percent of America’s refined cane sugar. Immediately after, sugar stocks were gone. Equipment was gone. Most importantly, employees were gone, forced to evacuate across the country.

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