There was a time when small communities throughout the Great Plains flourished. But now a host of powerful forces including farm consolidation and low prices are sparking an exodus from farm country. Critics say federal agricultural subsidies and other policies intended to bolster family farms and the communities they support may actually be hastening their decline. That's the backdrop for an intensifying debate in Washington and throughout the Great Plains .... over how to stem the decline. Minnesota Public Radio's Andrew Haeg has the first of two reports.