Joan Bybee of Mesteño Draw Ranch is indeed a modern farmer. Though the traditional image of a farmer is someone who grew up on a farm and continued to farm their entire life, this is not true for Joan. Rather, she had a long, successful career in linguistics, and upon retiring, decided she wanted to restore the natural areas on her small ranch. Naturally, as grazing cattle can help with this, she decided to get a small herd of cows, and now — after 40 years of a totally different profession — she’s a rancher. Despite the fact that the number of farmers is decreasing in the United States, it’s farmers and ranchers like Joan who remind us that plenty of people are going back to the land — to manage it, care for it, and cultivate food on it, in ways that are both healthy for the environment, and for people.