Market Farming

["MeLani" <mmaysen AT alltel.net>]

>Rick Williams wrote:
>Negative thinking, as you express, will claim things are dying when in fact,
>they are changing. The rural landscape has been changing for over 100 years.

 

While my research is limited in comparison to others on this list, I don't see how you can honestly evaluate these changes as  "positive" ?! 

 

Vacant storefronts on rural Main street, and in turn, crowded parking lots at massive super stores 30 miles away.

Farming less able to be a singular family-supporting enterprise.

Loss of rural culture (there is one).

Loss of rural opportunities for young adults.

Small farms trying to compete with high volume factory farms and/or foreign labor markets.

Food companies utilizing foreign sources, when quality, American sources exist.

Government restrictions impeding the ability of small farms to produce and sell their products.

Loss of locally owned farms which also lessens the attention to local soil health, water quality, and environmental conditions.

 

While not a native to this region, I came here for the rural lifestyle it provides, as is, with no desire to make demands or alterations.  Over the past years I have also witnessed large farms chopped into subdivisions with the speeding cars making the mass exodus at 8am.  Older farmers auctioning off all they own because, after all, it isn't profitable for anyone else to try and continue.  Main Street looking more like a ghost town. etc, etc ...

 

Shouldn't there be a means to "live" in a rural area, not just sleep there?

 

Perhaps you just forgot to take off those rose-colored glasses.

 

~MeLani

 

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