Wow! That's the kind of person I want growing what I put into my body. Food is Mother Earth's way of sustaining us. It's a sacred process. We are f**king it up by not understanding that and acting accordingly.

What changeseeker said.

They're working on replacing migrants with machines as we speak. (I got the article from The Borjas Blog)

Perhaps national food production is one of the last industries that hasn't been completely mechanized or outsourced in our post-industrialized global economy (although I'd say nursing - especially with aging baby boomers - can't be too far behind). That might be at least part of the reason why the "immigrant labor" issue has become such a focal point in our political discourse.

have you seen this post i did a while ago, NL? it's long, but tells of a scary story involving the corporate takeover of algricultural freedom, and the usurping of the nature-given ties that exist between those who work the land and the land—the last freedom that truly allows us not to be ruled by companies and their profit-starved brains.

No migrants available in Puerto Rico, thus, agriculture died here long ago. What is left is very marginal.

Thanks for that link Nezua. No, I hadn't read that one. Some day I need to go back and catch up on all the excellent writing you did before I made this a daily stop in my travels around the blogoshpere.

I don't know if this ever happens to anyone else, but this past week I think the universe has decided to assault my brain with issues of greed, capitalism and class. It feels like I'm on the verge of something, but right now I'm just being bombarded with the same message over and over in many different ways. I wrote a bit about it here.

The linked post I just read of yours Nezua, just continues the theme. Somethings up with me these days. Don't know where it will take me, but I thank you for helping me continue the journey.

you are welcome. yes, sometime you should go back at least a month or two...when i actually had time to research and write and edit long pieces. i hope to get back to more thorough writing after the move.

i look forward to reading your piece, thanks. and i hear you on this trajectory. i think many of us are learning with purpose.

I also greatly enjoyed the GMO post. Since I am about to launch yet another growing venture, {this one is heirloom organic vegetables, greens and fruits} I have been worried about the interaction of the GE genes. The only good thing here is that we are rather isolated and the winds come from Africa, thousands of miles away. However, pollen can travel on the jet stream along with the dust storms from the Sahara which come here to the Caribbean regularly now {at least ten a year, many are severe}and so I feel that the evil genii has already escaped, perhaps never to be recaptured.

thanks RC. i fear the same thing too. but i guess all we can do is live as if. as if hope and looking upward and moving forward is enough.

That GMO article is a good way to express it. I read an article claiming that GMO's were better because they used less pesticides thus proving organic farmers only wanted to make profits and didn't care about the environment. He neglected the fact (on purpose, I'm sure) that organic gardening uses NO pesticides. You don't need them.

It's all about making money to them. I agree that greed is what's killing this country and the rest of the world through our leaders.

the time has come when it is truly important to be able to think for yourself. nothing out there can be trusted. the agencies that have power in various areas are too often headed by weak or small-hearted people. they exploit trust and those who support them. they are greedy themselves and they seek to convince us of falsehoods to keep sucking up our fuel, cash, coin, energy. they are vampires. i don't take anything the Pundits or Experts or corporate frontmen say seriously. they all have far too much invested in this same game. but i must concede that sometimes poking holes in their flimsy talking points relieves the mad itch that their insufferable dishonesty instigates within me.

Oh we got lots of migrants rc, lots of Dominicans and Cuban exiles, then again there a lot of us migrating to Orlando as we speak.

And: NAFTA is causing yet more Mexicans to lose farms and come up here to grow plants for sale. I bought five excellent trees from one such this very day. A very odd situation when you are aware of the whole thing and what it means. But: super-strong plants. As the farmer says, there is a trick to growing things.

I just started reading the book "In the Time of Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez. Its the story of the four Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic under the Trujillo dictatorship. Last night I read a chapter about Patria falling in love with her soon-to-be husband. Here is the description of him:

His name was Pedrito Gonzalez, the son of an old farming family from the next town over. He had been working his father's land since he was a boy, so he had not had much formal schooling. But he could count to high numbers, launching himself first with his ten fingers. He read books, slowly, mouthing the words, holding them reverently like an alter boy the missal for the officiating priest. He was born to the soil, and there was something about his strong body, his thick hands, his shapely mouth that seemed akin to the roundness of the hills and the rich, rolling valley of El Cibao.

Nez:

I am late to the party as usual.

Living up here in Central New York I am struck by two things:

1.) How many farms there are.

2.) How few of them are growing crops at anywehere near their potential.

I took a drive yesterday afternoon from Palermo (where I live, at least until I'm spat out by the medical grinder) to Watertown and the thing I see growing the most is poor people. All this land and no good coming from a lot of it. The organic produce in the local gargantumart comes from 4-6 time zones or 30-40 degrees of latitude south of here.

The guy who owns the house I live in smokes way too much (not herb--just tobacco), drinks for oblivity and eats his weight in red meat every month. But, he put in a huge garden and he spends his evenings puttering, cigarette in the corner of his mouth, a drink at hand--happily. His soul is more intact than his body.

It's too bad these voices are rarely heard.