For those who wish to avoid the consequences of participating in hive-type
living with the rest of the teeming multitudes, there do exist plenty of
nooks and crannies, microniches that will support an "alternative" lifestyle
and approach to doing business. Organic agriculture has provided many such
niches for generations. Choosing to live outside the mainstream requires
innovative thinking, perceptive analysis and a willingness to almost
completely disregard common sense in a search for universal meanings and
values. You must also know what the opposition is up to.
As organic agriculture wins more acceptance in the marketplace, it will be
transformed from its current artisanal level of agronomic craftsmanship into
just another branch of multinational megabusiness. But I believe that
will still be an improvement over current agribusiness practices, which are
poisoning the whole planet, and it will also leave lots of room for farmers
to develop personal relationships with their customers that will lie outside
of the reach of the bureaucrats. Perhaps all we really need is a new,
unowned, word to describe what it is that we do!
Jeff Gold