West Coast East Coast

In California many farmers at a regional conference on sustainable agriculture complained about difficulties finding a market for their goods. So far I have not seen this problem so pronounced in central coastal Maine. In fact, overwhelmingly artisans here seem unable to keep up with demand and in fact 3 out of the 4 I interviewed actually tried to recruit me to their trade… It was tempting… very tempting… on par with moving to Hawaii tempting.
People seem willing to pay a fair price for artisan foods if they are able, and right now supply has not increased enough to meet the current demand. (And the demand will increase so long as we as citizens continue to decide that all people are worthy of real food, including ourselves, the impoverished and the working poor.) So, at least for now the major issues seem to be:
1. Farmers losing their land due to property tax structures and land easement
2. Environmental contamination (from runoff, genetic flow and a general lack of holistic agricultural planning) And
3. Change in the environment, including urbanization, loss of habitat and changes in climate.
I went to this discussion at the town library and we talked about what five things would you do (given benevolent dictatorship)?
5 things to change US Ag
1. Some way to reward farmers for being good stewards of the land and make it more economically viable to farm a beautiful place than to subdivide and build track homes on it.
2. Nutrition and Agricultural education for the general public (through public schools, and community services) andPaying those (farmers and artisans) who already know about Food and Agriculture (soil systems, year round growing, how to preserve the harvest) to develop curriculum for re-training efforts as we continue to transform our economy.
3. Stimulus money directed to building local food systems infrastructure (such as cooperatively controlled processing facilities, coordinated transportation and marketing, and municipal composting)
4. Higher safety testing for new agricultural developments including Genetically Modified Organisms, Growth Hormones and Pesticides, from a whole systems approach including economic feasibility studies, long term soil and water systems health, and human health.
5. Greater enforcement of existing labor laws including minimum wage and anti-slavery laws.

What are yours?