SHOULD CONSUMERS BUY SMALL, ORGANIC FARM PRODUCTS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO AGRI-BUSINESS OFFERINGS?
October 19, 2007 The current state of America’s food industry reads like a litany of unmitigated disasters. Consider just a few of the most recent events: The discovery of contaminated food imports – chiefly from China – with the potential for sickening and, in some cases, killing, tens of thousands of unwary consumers. Congress once again bypassing sensible agricultural reforms and doling out billons of dollars in misguided subsidies to giant companies engaging in industrial-strength agriculture. A massive biofuels boondoggle enticing farmers to grow corn for ethanol rather than food and, thus, sending supermarket prices soaring. Widespread droughts and pest infestations fostered by an unstable climate threatening huge crop losses at harvest time. Degraded soils and contaminated waterways as more and more family farms succumb to Big Ag conglomerates. Spiraling epidemics of diet-related obesity, heart disease and cancer spawned by the food industry’s huckstering of fast food and junk s
