Something struck me this morning while talking to my friend Sam; we were talking about the dream of mine to have a hot sauce or gourmet condiment company that gets all (or most) of their materials from their company garden. He asked, hypothetically, if it got big then would I expand the garden/farm? Because I certainly do not want to compromise quality for quantity, I said no; that's when the idea struck me.
This is probably not a new concept to a lot of folks but to me it was a revelation: instead of more and bigger farms, there should be more smaller ones of higher caliber. With smaller farms, you not only offer more jobs to the community, who will also benefit from this venture but it would be infinitely better in terms of quality control.
The thing is, we've all gotten too lazy. It's far too easy to run out to the store now then to plant a garden but, we've ultimately given up all our control over the matter and put it in someone else's hands, who does not necessarily have our best interests in mind. As demand goes up, so must supply but instead of setting up separate farms as off-shoots, they push the huge ones they already have to the max and modify seeds in a laboratory to keep up with said demand.
My dream for our future is to ultimately see more small (of course organic), farms pop up that have a tighter grasp of what they're doing and keep corporations out of agriculture. We were a farming society long before we were an industrial one, which still has its merit but so long as it no longer takes its toll on the Earth and renders the land we live off unfit to use.
To go along with more small farms, it would be quite lovely to see communities come together, sharing their bounty with each other, like I imagine it used to be. What happened to us? We're connected more than ever but at the same time we've never been so disconnected from each other, and the ground we live on. We seem to have forgotten our roots and it's about time to brush up on our history before we become it.
There's a lot of good resources out there on homesteading and general self-sufficiency, as well as seed savers who refuse to let our true heritage go to waste. Here are a few:
My personal favorite seed company/village/philosophy/etc:
http://www.rareseeds.com/get-to-know-baker-creek/our-village/
Where are you getting your seed? See if it's safe!
http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=261
A good place to start with any questions you may have on any interests you can imagine:
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com
I also recommend this book: Robyn is an amazing and inspiring person and the book serves as, I feel, an indispensable guide to most of us who just have no idea where to start.
http://homesweet-homegrown.com/book
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