America’s heartland. When anyone thinks of farming, they think of the Midwestern United States, where the majority of our food (and a lot of the world’s) is grown, harvested, and shipped off to markets far and wide. Billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and tons upon tons of wheat, corn, beef, pork, and soybeans, all of it found among the 12 states between the Northeast, and the Southwest. Farming wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for a Vermonter who moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in the 1830s, a blacksmith named John Deere. In 1837, Deere introduced a significant improvement to the cast-iron plows used by farmers in…