Market Farming

["Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>]

Rainbow's End Farms and Orchards wrote:

> Poison is POISON and the growers are
> merely profiteering from selling death!

The tobacco issue has taken down at least one person who I used to respect
and who basically sold their soul to tobacco because they were so ingrained
in its production that they did not care about any responsibility for the
end user. That person was a leading spokesman for alternative agriculture
over 30 years ago and is still with us and apparently still promoting it. He
could not conceive of any alternative for Appalachian farmers to grow as a
crop and still eke out a living. But I never had the same respect for
Wendell Berry again. He had an editorial comment in TMEN many years ago.
Even John Shuttleworth, the owner/editor, distanced himself from Wendell
because of his philosophy.

I do support the right of the individual to kill themselves with any drug as
long as they are aware of the consequences. And I bet many here feel the
same way. The difficulty is that after the decision is made, the rest of us
are forced to pay for the medical care and disability that may result. That
is where there is a conflict between the individual and the state. But
seeing the other side of it, the truth is that smoker's, who, on average,
die much younger than the non-smokers, is not such a drain on the resources
as one might think because they collect less or no social security,
medicare, and elderly nursing home care.

Probably there are a number of folks here who do not like it that the U.S.
(or any particular country) produces and sells arms, including land mines,
to other nations and are sometimes profiteering from selling death. But the
same logic applies. If we did not do it, someone else would anyway. So why
shouldn't we get the money as Wendell would say.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams