"Industrial Agriculture has tended to look on the farmer as a 'worker'--a sort of obsolete but not yet disposable machine--acting on the advice of scientists and economists. We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist." -Wendell Berry

In our present day economy, the consumer is "educated", "informed", and "smart". Farmers, on the other hand, have been taught that their knowledge is inferior to that of agricultural "experts". Brian Halweil of WorldWatch Institute made the observation that farmers have extensive knowledge of their local ecology and how their soils, weather, pollinators and plants all work together. He asks the question, "If we have a world where the land is no longer managed by such professionals, but is instead managed by corporate bureaucracies interested in extracting maximum outputs at minimum cost, what kind of food will we have, and at what price?" Remember the scene in The Real Dirt on Farmer John when John Peterson tastes his soil? Not so extreme, really. A good farmer knows his farm that intimately. His methods may not fit within the guidelines of conventional science, but he is flexible, observant, and in touch. I do believe that you are better off putting your faith in someone like Farmer John than in all the experts at Monsanto. Like Wendell Berry says, "It is the good work of good farmers--nothing else--that ensures a sufficiency of food over the long term." -kp