b'Similarly, the cotton gin, ammonium nitrate and shopping malls were not invented to destroy small farms and local food systems. Their demise occurred one Big Mac at a time, one brand at a time, one artificial preservative at a time, one mouthfeel texturant at a time, one pesticide at a time, one genetic modification at a time, one food mile at a time, one big-box store at a time. We have all contributed to this process. Some of us were never given a choice. Most of us enlisted enthusiastically. It all seemed inevitable. That Wall Street should come first, Main Street a distant second. That the only way to solve big problems is with big solutions. That realism, financially speaking, mandates putting our money to work in abstract securities, whence, at some point in the future, we might decide to take some of it back and put it to work in our neighborhoods, communities, cities, valleys, watersheds, regions.Now and again, weve heard countervailing voices, but theyve proven awfully hard to heed: A MAN IS WEALTHY TO THE EXTENT HE CANAFFORD TO LEAVE THINGS ALONE.Thoreaus words may ring a tad utopian, but if we restate a similar sensibility in terms of local food systems, it takes on a considerably more pragmatic hue: A COMMUNITY IS WEALTHY TO THE EXTENTIT CAN AFFORD TO FEED ITSELF.21'