Now that I think for myself, I don't see the rationality, and I don't admire the process. The market makes food look cheap only by not counting all the costs. The answer to the second question, why farmers keep at it, has got to be, at bottom, because they love it. I don't stay on this farm because brome grass swishes. That's a fringe benefit.
Massive cabbage leaves gradually hug themselves into a big ball.
Enormous heirloom tomatoes hang voluptuously on avenues of trellising. To gaze at the lush display of textures, forms, colors, to notice the daily changes, is a privilege of being a farmer. Peterson is not farming a monocrop straight to the horizon by tractor at night. Fresh food, straight from farm to kitchen. Payment direct from consumer to farmer, no middlemen, a decent living for the farmer.