”Yet another sacrifice made at the altar of the extractive economy is the vitality of our local communities. Whether rural or urban, prior to World War II, our communities and their economies were, in many ways, inseparable. Our neighbors were not simply the people who lived next door. They were our partners in commerce, our local service providers, our local educators… With the American community compelled to always look outside of itself for its basic needs, it becomes merely a shared address on a map.”

-From Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes, upstate NY farmer, mother and author.