I go to the Farm Market and see the (relatively) local produce and honey and baked goods and sausage and flowers and think what a marvelous thing it is that we have such dedicated people willing to spend their lives growing and producing the best stuff we could ever hope for. We have CSAs and Farm Markets and…well, all sorts of opportunities for those of us who want to participate in some small way in making things better. Not just on our own tables, but for the environment and our communities in general.

It makes me feel good. Maybe a little proud. Maybe even a little smug.

But just now, something dawned on me. Most of the world doesn’t live on high fructose corn syrup drenched crap. Most countries in this world don’t subsidize the greed of massive corporations that erode not only our indibidual health, but our overall sense of community.

In most of the world, the thing we call organic sustainable farming (as we pat ourselves on the back) is just called dinner.

Maybe I’m late to the game. Maybe you all figured it out a long time ago. Maybe I did too. But this afternoon I had one of those brief lucid moments as I was looking at the Website of the CSA we’ve participated in for many years – we invest so much of ourselves into cleaning up our act, just to get to a level that is more or less in line with the bulk of the nations on this planet that we, as Americans, scoff at and belittle.

Hmmmm.