One of the greatest assets of a farm is the sheer ecstasy of life.

A farm regulated to production of raw commodities is not a farm at all. It is a temporary blip until the land is used up, the water polluted, the neighbors nauseated, and the air unbreathable. The farmhouse, the concrete, the machinery, and outbuildings become relics of a bygone vibrancy when another family farm moves to the city financial centers for relief.

Just because we can ship organic lettuce from the Salinas Valley, or organic cut flowers from Peru, doesn't mean we should do it, not if we're really serious about energy and seasonality and bioregionalism.

Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?

I think it's one of the most important battles for consumers to fight: the right to know what's in their food, and how it was grown.

If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly first.

Land degradation did not start with chemical agriculture. But chemical agriculture offered new tools for annihilation.