I just read The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer over the past week, having heard about Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms through a random decision to watch Food, Inc. two years ago. He makes an incredible array of assertions, which I am inclined to trust from the outset, though I wish he did footnote something and cite some sources. High school research papers come back to haunt, it would seem! That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed his book and his thoughts. Maybe I'll start farming some day.
Regardless, I am excited to start taking deliberate steps to eat better food from local farms. It's frustrating to know that many choices I make as a consumer can aid injustice in some form - clothes I buy may be sewn by faraway peoples receiving less pay than they ought, food I eat may be farmed in a way that destroys the land and imprisons farmers into indentured servitude for a large agribusiness company. I'd love to be sure that the workers making the clothes I wear, tending the crops I eat, building the mechanical devices I use are justly compensated. The more I learn, the more I'll have to change habits, I suppose. If we Christians believe we're part of God's mission in healing the earth, restoring people to right relationship with Him, rescuing the captives, breaking every chain - everything comes under scrutiny. How then shall we live? I will constantly be re-answering this question as I grow older.
Right now? I'll buy some more of my food locally, from farms that are taking deliberate steps to heal the land and do agriculture in holistic ways. I'll take the time to cook most of my meals (this I have been doing fairly consistently over the last two years). And hopefully a few friends will make some small decisions along the way and things will snowball.
There's enough disjointed rambling for now. In the meantime, Howard County folks, check out some neat sites: