Thinking has never been thought much of in Merka. In fact, it's usually denigrated as the purview of "pointy-headed intalekchals." The schools routinely suppress thinking as inimical to their job of turning out mindless drones for industry. AND, resisting agribusiness is probably treason to government by the rich, of the rich, and for the rich.

This is a crucial point, one I had not realized:

"Author Wendell Berry notes that "Agribusiness is immensely more profitable than agriculture". Any farmer knows that the corporate owners of seed, chemicals, fertilizer and the buyers of grain, livestock and milk always seem to make a profit; farmers do not."

It's very significant for the essence of agriculture, the farmer.

And it can be generalized to refer to laborers of all kinds. The US has for a long, long time essentially scorned those who work with their hands. We occasionally pay lip service to those who have good manual skills; then we retreat to our cubicles.

Without the people who build things, till the soil, pave the streets, haul the trash, this way of life would not be. No one can do it all, and that's why everyone has his place and deserves a fair shake. But the scale of the system has to change, and for that, thinking has to radically change.

The farmers are not afraid of Pollan. They're afraid of themselves after all the corporate battering and persecution that has been done to them over the years. All these "easy" farming methods I fear are done because farmers fear that life will look so difficult for them if they do it all hard but in ways so as to show true love for Mother Earth. It's always appears so easy to do the wrong thing for short term happiness followed by long term unhappiness than to do what's right with a short term grouchiness followed by long term happiness. It cannot hurt to plead with a farmer to open his heart, put down those chemicals, and show love for people's health and the health of Mother Earth.

I've gotten that kind of food from Costco, but its always sort of wierd and waxy looking, like some pumped up plastic vegetable only you can cut into it. There seems to be little flavor to it as well. Mostly I run out of there in a panic because its such a surreal "big store for big people", with all these zombied out shoppers looking overwhelmed by the size and sheer volume of crap they can buy for really cheap. I'd much rather go to a small store with wood floors and real fruits and vegetables with a few blemishes but lots of flavor, and maybe buy what I need for that day, and pay a little more to support my neighbor who owns the place.

food you've grown yourself tastes really yummy, and you know whether chemicals were used, and which, and how...

grow a tomato, pick it, slice it...fabulous!

the horror we're facing isn't a dying economy, but a dying planet due to our economy...

it really is time for everyone to start contributing to the food supply...

Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...acoustic, agrarian life...let's get those gardens growing!

For people who do not know who Michael Pollen is you should mention his book The Omnivore's Dilemma. This is a very interesting read. I was particularly struck by his experience working with one farmer who operates a truly organic farming operation and demonstrates how thinking and intelligence can make an organic farm almost self sufficient with almost no inputs of oil related products... from gasoline to fertilizers. His grass feeds his animals, his animals fertilize the land, his fertilized land and happy animals feeds people. His animals are happy whereas corporate agriculture literally tortures animals. It is really an eye opener to see what this farmer has done. Amazing.

Jim Goodman, the next time you run into any of your pals at Kelloggs please ask them about their Smart Choices label on cereals such as Fruit Loops and Cocoa Krispies. What's a Smart Choices label? Smart Choices, created by the nation’s largest food manufacturers, is “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices". Fruit Loops, 41% sugar, have a Smart Choice label indicating they are a wise nutritional choice for our children. No, I'm not just making this up. Just goes to show the importance of having scientists and medical professionals tell us what's good for our kids. But to claim that they are a good choice because they're better than giving the kids donuts for breakfast, just don't seem too scientific to me.

Article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/business/05smart.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=nutrition&adxnnlx=1253880799-s1+iV/FzAxw0KPI2DuEg6w

Also google Smart Choices for their website.

<"Most organic farmers til the heck out of their soils to get rid of weeds, but this also leaves the soil bare, and when it rains hard the soil washes away."

You keep saying this again and again, however there is no truth to it. If you want to keep saying it, please back it up with facts.

I am glad to hear that you are now starting to attempt to lessen your exposure to chemicals. They are now finding that even one's grandchildren can be genetically affected by the chemical exposures of their grandparents. We are also learning that while some tests have been done with some chemicals, tests on combinations of chemicals, which have not been done at all, pose a risk beyond anything we even imagined.

I am confused that a 'Dairy Farmer' is submitting an argument for what the 'rural Native Americans' (not many of us left) proved long ago.
"Dairy" in and of itself is counter to a 'balanced' diet in the natural venue, since in the mammalian line of animals none of the 'other mammals' consume milk after weaning; and they never consume the milk of another species.
Agriculture, since the advent of 'civilization' has and will remain a heavily subsidized and controlled industry.
In modern America, the Plutocratic Oligarchy has total control over the entire process including the very land that is required to produce the 'Agriculture' (on a large scale) and the manner in which it is managed and traded.
The other industries that are directly dependent upon modern agriculture, chemical,auto,support and supply etc. could not survive if the agriculture methods were changed and sustainable agriculture methods reintroduced even slowly.
That chemical free foods are available is a direct result of individuals taking control of their own lives and taking action.
For the city dwellers there is hope, but it is not in the 'PO', but in the individuals who are willing to make the choices and take the actions. Even if only on a small scale.
The best starting place is in the area of informatoin/knowledge and its applicatoin. Recently one of my oldest friends complained that her Grand children did not know much about what they 'liked to eat' or where it came from . After a few trips to some local libraries and 'day trips', one of the parents called her to complain that the child was commenting about the food advertised on the TV as 'junk food' 'poison food' and other comments. This was an indicator that she had 'planted the right seeds'-----and her grand children will reap the harvest.
As soon as enough people start demanding better food and a better system to produce it; the 'PO' will answer the demands. For most that means starting with the children, and let them educate the parents.

Money Talks in this Society, the consumers have the power to demand the market.

"Over the past 60 years farmers have seen competition in the market place steadily disappear as corporate mergers concentrated all aspects of agriculture into the hands of a few multinational corporations"

This is true in all areas of commerce. The end result is that you cannot do anything without spending and when you spend, anything between 10 and 50 per cent ends up in the coffers of a corporation.

Yes, but the children will be more 'well adjusted' if they are happy little consumers. Seriously, I think there is somewhat of a fine line teaching children to be discriminating without setting them totally at odds with other children's media controlled fascinations. One of my very young grand children has somehow, pretty much on her own, developed an intense love of fruits and vegetables. A 3 year old who would rather snack on a raw tomato than just about anything else! Perhaps my DNA was simply too warped by chemicals?

my teacher, the late japanese master, masanobu fukuoka, showed that it is possible to grow vegetables, and particularly grains, without tilling or pesticides and with little or no fertilizer, by understanding nature...he found also that rice could be grown without transplanting it, which made a shorter plant with a strong root system, that could resist pests because of its own natural strength, coming from the fact of not being weakened by being transplanted, and by using its own strength growing in untilled (but naturally soft, due to using a cover crop), soil... the straw of the rice and other grains was spread on the soil to compost naturally...
what was most interesting was the amount of free time his system left the farmer permitting cultural and emotional development for himself and his family...fukuoka sensei also found that growing vegetables in untilled soil gave them medicinal as well as nutritional value.... that is, the garden of eden has always been with us...

It was not so many years ago that most of the cropland was deeply plowed before planting, which was obviously not a good idea as it caused severe erosion. Now we are seeing the opposite extreme, no-till, which will have it`s own problems eventually with diseases from excess residue. Farming is a never ending battle to figure out the best methods to grow a good and safe product, and also make a satisfactory return. It may look like an easy way to make a living, but with the complex decisions required, it is a real challenge.

As for the corporation-bashing, farmers have the same chance to market their own crops that any large entity does, with access to real time quotes, and the ability to use options and various ways to price their crops and inputs. I do not see how the large companies are preventing anyone from farming organic or any other way they want as we still have a free country.

We have two nice grocery stores in our small town, but their fruits and veggies do not compare with the quality of what is available at the hated WalMart in the next larger town. They have a more desirable, fresher selection of produce. Of course, what comes out of our own garden is great also.

Jim,
You are most likely aware of the big controversy at UW Madison over Pollan's book being required reading for the student body. The Farm Bureau is furious, of course. I have come to believe that the Bureau is not correctly labeled as conservative. Rather they are the defenders of the status quo, whatever that may be. Right now it is the continuation of Agribusiness and their supporters and nothing else matters.

Our whole society has come to revile manual labor and the practioners thereof. Therefore, family farms are relegated to the dustbin of history and their owners should be grateful that they have been liberated from their struggle.

Corn and soybean production with Roundup Ready seed is now so easy a child with access to a credit line could do it. And that is what the remaining farmers will defend to the end. Corn and beans have turned rural America into an unpeopled desert, and its small towns into ghettos.

in fukuoka;s system, tilling was done by the natural root activity of (usually leguminous) cover crops, which also functioned as green manure....he also used the moroshima acacia to fertilize the soil at very deep levels...it is interesting that in his rice fields every kind of virus and insect pest could be found, but they had no effect on the quantity of harvested....

Freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. In the USA, we don't have the freedom to farm industrial hemp --

THE ONLY CROP THAT PRODUCES FOOD AND FUEL FROM THE SAME HARVEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE ONLY COMMON SEED WITH THREE ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
THE BEST AVAILABLE SOURCE OF ORGANIC VEGETABLE PROTEIN ON EARTH
THE MOST USEFUL AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE
THE MOST SAFELY THERAPEUTIC HERBAL REMEDY
THE MOST POTENTIALLY ABUNDANT AND GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED CROP
THE MOST AGRONOMICALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY BENEFICIAL ROTATIONAL CROP

How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?
Google "global broiling" to find out why Cannabis agriculture is our best bet for mitigating climate change.

Farmers are being forced to "play solitaire with a deck of 51." Without industrial hemp, organic agriculture can't produce enough protein. Round-up Ready Soy has monopolized that niche. With hemp added back into crop rotations, we may still be able to avoid the synergistic collapse we're headed for, but time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival.

from the article by robert jensen above: ...capitalism is not only inhuman and anti-democratic; it’s also unsustainable, and if we don’t come to terms with that one, not much else matters. Capitalism is an economic system based on the concept of unlimited growth, yet we live on a finite planet. Capitalism is, quite literally, crazy.

But on this question it’s not fair to focus only on capitalism. Industrial systems -- whether operating within capitalism, fascism, or communism -- are unsustainable. The problem is not just the particular organization of an economy but any economic model based on high-energy technology, endless extraction, and the generation of massive amounts of toxic waste. Extractive economies ignore the health of the underlying ecosystem, and a socialist industrial system would pose the same threat. The possibility of a decent future, of any future at all, requires that we renounce that model.

This reminds us that one of capitalism’s few legitimate claims -- that it is the most productive economic system in human history in terms of output -- is hardly a positive. The levels of production in capitalism, especially in the contemporary mass consumption era, are especially unsustainable. We are caught in a death spiral, in which growth is needed to pull out of a recession/depression, but such growth only brings us closer to the edge of the cliff, or sinks the ship faster, or speeds the unraveling of the fabric of life. Pick your metaphor, but the trajectory is clear. The only question is the timing and the nature of the collapse. No amount of propaganda can erase this logic: Unsustainable systems can’t be sustained.

To demand that we continue on this path is to embrace a kind of collective death wish...

The point that the article makes, agribusiness is the enemy, not the friend of farmers, is certainly valid. I do have one minor quibble, however.

"they conveniently forget that conventional agriculture has not fed the world either,"

But it has. The Green Revolution allowed production to almost quadruple while using about the same amount of land. The problem of hunger isn't that the food isn't there, or that it is going to feed animals instead of humans. The problem is that many people just don't have the income to buy the food that is on offer. Recently (last year or two) this is because of speculation by various traders at the financial houses that drove prices sky high within a few months, and has nothing to do with production. Conventional farmers cannot be blamed for that. So it isn't that conventional agriculture hasn't fed the world, but that the economic so-called "free market" system has put food outside the reach of the poor.