An economist

talks commonsensically about our food supply.

This is not a "sight bite." It's a fairly long article by a guy who thinks about this stuff a lot. You may wish to read some of the other articles on his site.

http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/Sowing.html

The more thoughtful of youse guys must be busy.

It's an excellent article, Joseph. Thanks for linking it.

He brings validates the ideas and processes long espoused by Organic Gardening and Mother Earth News, to name a couple of magizines that I have frequently read over the years, and practiced in a small way by many rural folk. Unfortunately, not enough people heed the message, which is why our food chain has become slaved to Big Business.

I don't have time to read it in complete detail, but the line of reasoning and arguments presented remind me a lot of two books: Collapse, by Jared Diamond (author of Guns, Germs and Steel) and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Specifically, your article touches on Diamond's analysis of the factors needed for societal sustainability, among which were soil, water and timber conservation and Pollan's visit to Polyface Farms in Virginia to see a sustainable farming operation that relies on the interplay between grass, cattle and chicken to improve soil quality while simultaneously providing enough food to sustain the business.

Mark Lipton

The guy's writing really struck me because it's where my head is right now. There seems to be a strange confluence in my universe.

I just finished reading Trust Us, We're Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. Some the biggest villains in the spin game seem to be companies like Monsanto (seems like they are on every other page in the book), DuPont, Dow, WR Grace etc., the multinational "food" companies.

And then I ran across his web site. What a sane man.

And to top it off this morning I watched a Bill Hicks routine where he enjoined all marketing people to kill themselves.

I am hearing the music of the spheres.