[Vigilanteman]

Chinese garlic fertilized with human waste or California garlic fertilized with the ka-ka of illegal aliens? Some choice, eh? I’ll grow my own, thank you.

[fishhound]

I once drove from San Francisco to Monterry. It was great because I went through the Salinas valley and saw the places I had read about in Stienbecks books in High School. You could smell the cherries and I was surprised at the little trees they grew on. Then the smell of garlic seemd to come through the windshiled in Gilroy.

That was years ago and now I hear that most of that is built up with housing and communities.

I think I saw many fields with huge signage that matched the labels on cans of vegatables on grocery shelves.
What a loss.

[B-Chan]

Local food is the answer. By buying foods in season, foods raised by producers within 100 miles of one’s home, Americans are creating demand that allows family farms to be profitable.

We should not be dependent upon foreigners for our food. If we destroy the agribusiness industry, we destroy the ability of foreigners to control our food supply, and we obtain for ourselves the health and security that comes from eating what we grow for ourselves.

Food security is food safety! Help make America self-sufficient in food! Buy local!

[Rudder]

At first glance, Free Trade sounds reasonable and perfectly logical when given a superficial look. All we have to do is lower our standard of living to that of those with whom we trade---and that is happening now--- and get out of the farming business.

I favor sovereignty and protecting our resources and workers.

[fishhound]

Last year I made my first garden.
I grew a lot of butternut squash. I did it in part to prove I could keep it the basemment of this suburban house I live in now.

It kept well into March. It was not a lot...but I just wanted to know that I could do it. I have relatives who were farmers and I listened to what they had said about keeping things in cool places.

I think our country is overly wasteful and too willing for disposeable everything.

[dragnet2]

I realized that it will be up to the people to counter this depletion occurring under the international free market consensus in Washington, which has torn agriculture from its community roots. Only the people can support farmers by buying domestic products, shopping at farmers markets, and frequenting local stores. It will be up to them to pressure their elected representatives to support local agriculture by preserving farmland and supporting farm programs. Unless they do it, agriculture will become little more than another multinational enterprise that after depleting one area and community of people, moves on to deplete the next until nothing is left.

What a great article.

Globalism will kill off America.

[Altura Ct.]

Good post. Just part and parcel of the undermining of America.

[ronnie raygun]

These third worlders are also using chemicals banned in the US many years ago. Don’t here anyone screaming about this! At that time we were worried that Americans were poisoning Americans, now outsiders are poisoning Americans and we sit idly by and say and do nothing!

[P.O.E.]

That’s why small talk is weather-based.

I have to laugh at the limosine liberals talking about global warming when they probably haven’t picked a weed out of their garden in years. Phony environmentalists.

[snowsislander]

To combat the degrading conditions for growers, he said, the National Farmers Union is trying to develop direct channels to consumers, such as farmers markets and ties to smaller food retailers and restaurants, through which farmers can get better prices for their goods.

I think that this type of disintermediation, particularly using Internet technologies, will be critical to the small-scale agricultural industry.

[Old Professer]

The writer hijacked my attention altogether and asparagus went out the window as I went searching for Wendell Berry, his apparent muse that sent him on his international search for the happy peasant.

Here is an absolute must-read for anyone still unconvinced that our colleges are nothing more than breezeways to the wind-swept dunes of landfills the world over:

http://w3.uwyo.edu/~kipero7/wendell.html

Notice that this is co-authored by three college students and obviously worthy of its own website.

Berry was actually born on August 5th, 1934 which removes much of the confusion in the above link.

This link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry, has a less of a breathless tone to it.