"The Lord sends His grace in all manner and form. One of those forms is fresh vegetables from the garden." -- Garrison Keilor, Prairie Home Companion

Destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."
-- William Jennings Bryan

The degradation associated with chemically intensive farming such as soil erosion, ground water contamination, cancer clusters and rural impoverishment generate costs for our society as a whole. These "costs" are not paid at the grocery check-out.

Often, the "inefficiencies" of small farms are just a thrifty use of resources. They help provide year-round employment or make us better parents or neighbors. Family-owned businesses and farms are the mortar of our communities - urban and rural. Vote with your food dollar to support the kind of farming and retailing that you want to prevail.

"Those who look to the soulless legal instrument of the corporation as a source of leadership toward restoring the life of the planet and community, look in the wrong place. The corporation is a creature of money, not life, and as such it will always put money's interests ahead of life's interests." -- David Korten,
"Corporate Future," YES! Summer 1999, PO box 10818, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, (206) 842-0216.

Generally, we know that conventionally raised food is artificially inexpensive. This is accomplished by a tax structure that benefits large, capital-intensive operations while penalizing labor-intensive businesses and through an economic structure that externalizes environmental and social costs.