All of these farms all over this county used to supply Staunton with home-cured bacon and ham. That was the backbone of the rural economy 50 years ago, and nobody got sick. |
Certainly, it's not for everybody, and we're not picketing Wal-Mart or anybody else. But what I am saying is that we need the freedom to opt out of the system. |
If you want government food, go to the supermarket and buy government food. But for those who want to have a relationship with their food, and the accountability that inherently comes with voluntarily and informatively opting out of the supermarket to go ask around, smell around, sniff around, look around and opt out of the government food system, they ought to have that right. |
Our concern was that what has been a heritage occupation or hobby in this country would be destroyed in the paranoia of the avian flu story. |
The bigger issue here is, to me, that when we can't access our neighbors with food, then farming just dries up. The fact is that all these hurdles that prohibit local food commerce keep what would be millions of dollars circulating in the rural local economy are therefore denied to the local economy. So farmers go out of business and sell to developers. |