In that agricultural economy, island farmers certainly have no place. It's a social Darwinist model that drives small farmers and their communities out of the market. But Forster and the Lopez land trust see an alternative in which healthy food is produced locally for local or regional consumption. In this scenario, small farmers can dramatically cut their costs of production, processing and marketing by banding together and pooling their resources. But there's more than economic values at play here.
Farmers lie at the heart of any rural community worthy of the name.
And farmers have traditionally relied on each other to get by. A Norwegian farmer speaking to an international small farmers group during the recent World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle put it nicely. Everyday we are told by our politicians that we should 'eat' our neighbors to grow bigger and then be better in the competition. But a rural landscape without agriculture isn't rural at all. And as the pressure for development grows in the San Juan Islands, it will become harder to retain the county's open space.