It is time to say to the voices of anger and fear and resistance that they either need to join the processor get off the mountain. Many economists tell us that this world of industrialization and globalization is not only inevitable, but that it is innovative, and stimulates new products that consumers crave. We should question whether rubbery factory-farm chickens and strawberries tasting like cardboard constitute a consumer's paradise. But even more is at stake. Another possibility is emerging all over the world, characterized by entrepreneurial, ecological, regional food systems.
People buy local food because they trust it.
Cattle and sheep are weaned from grain diets and put back to pasture, eating the grasses that their bodies were designed to digest. Manure is an asset instead of a liability, and it is applied to the soil in addition to crop rotation to undo the damage of industrial agriculture. Good farming practices increase the soil's capacity to retain water, which is greatly needed with the now long summer droughts associated with a shifting climate. Individuals become healthier and cancer rates decline as we eliminate the toxic load of pesticides from plant. We still eat bananas in Vermont.