food

As the 21st century unfolds, it's becoming clear that we need more family farmers and ranchers on the land, not fewer. We need them not only for the food they provide, but also for a lesson in how to live on the land. It's an ironic turn of events. For decades, livestock grazing in the arid West was attacked by environmentalists -- vilified as an "irredeemable" activity that had to be ended on public lands, pronto.

Last Saturday I found myself in the local supermarket browsing for dinner. In the seafood section I spied a slim package with two pieces of plaice in it, a kind of flatfish rather like flounder. Each was little bigger than a dollar bill and weighed just four and a half ounces. What struck me about this package was a label that proclaimed they were ‘large' fish. The fillets in the packet could not have come from an animal more than 10 inches long. Moreover, these fish were certainly immature and had never had a chance to breed. But they were legal to sell.

Last weekend I spent two days in Ohio's Amish country checking out an event called Horse Progress Days. It's an annual celebration of animal power - draft horses, mules, and oxen - that draws over 10,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Amish farmers.

Yesterday, the front page of The New York Times business section ran an article headlined: "Dow Chemical Raises Prices For Second Time in a Month." Citing energy and feedstock costs, Dow raised prices for its products some 25 percent, following an increase last month of 20 percent, the largest such raises in the company's history.