Growers and greens - Letters

Sierra, Sept-Oct, 2002

In "Growers and Greens Unite" (May/ June), you stated that Seaboard Corporation, one of the world's leading pork producers, is "still looking for a home, wandering the plains in vain." Oh, if only this were so. Unfortunately, Seaboard has not been vanquished. It hopes to establish a packing plant close to Dumas, Texas, and find contract growers in that area to supply the plant with 5 million pigs per year.

In addition, National Pig Development (a wholly owned subsidiary of Smithfield Foods) hopes to locate a 3,700-sow breeding operation just east of Pampa, Texas, with 50,000 animals. It is no exaggeration to say that the Texas panhandle is being literally covered up with pigs.

Edna L. Haydon
Pampa, Texas

I read with interest the recent articles about farmers and conservationists working together, "Growers and Greens Unite" and "For Love of the Land." I was surprised that neither mentioned community-supported agriculture. As a member of a CSA my family signs up each spring with a yearly fee and in return we receive produce grown on the farm of our CSA partner. Each week we go to the farm and pick up our allotment of organically grown produce harvested that morning. This practice connects us to the land we live on and enables small family farmers to practice stewardship with a guaranteed income from their members. To find out if there is a CSA near you, visit the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association's Web site at www.biodynamics.com. If we want to save our land, we must be willing to choose foods that are produced in an ecologically safe manner.

J. Slack
Longmont, Colorado

Regarding "For Love of the Land" in Sierra's May/June issue, I have only one thing to say: Wendell Berry for President.

Geoff Adams
Providence, Rhode Island