R.I.P. small town america

it's the oldest refrain of the new millenium-we americans are spoiled, helpless and impatient. just take a walk around the super walmart that went up where that farm used to be. you know the one. if you live in or near an expanding suburb, you drive by it on your way to work in the morning, and have noticed that traffic is way worse than it used to be. when you peruse the isles you can find some astounding products-a week's worth of chicken salad canned in seven seperate little containers, with seven sets of crackers beside them. now instead of listening to records while chopping up fresh chicken and adding your secret ingredient that makes the whole thing come together, you just pop the can and bob's your uncle-lunch. call me cynical, but i'm f@#%ing sick of it. sick of knowing nothing about the food i eat, where it came from, who prepared it or how it was made. sick of pushing a few buttons on the microwave and waiting impatiently for the alloted 2 1/2 minutes till dinner to pass by. sick of putting my hard earned dollar into the pockets of already too rich corporations like target and walmart, instead of local farmers and small businesses. sick of meat that is full of chemicals, vegetables wrought with pesticides and meals packaged for maximum wastefullness. wake up america and smell the starbucks. we are not invincible. we are not "safe." we have erected our own gallows here and we will reap the consequences of our growing laziness. like ancient rome we have become smug in our power, and it won't be long before we are humbled. we will soon have to learn all over again the things we abandoned for quicker results. we will soon have to take stock of what we still have.
sure, not everyone can move to the country and live off the land. people have jobs and responsibilities. however, there are some small adjustments we could make as communities that would start the cycle of change. one of these things is your local CSA organization. CSA, or community supported agriculture, helps to link the small farmer with the local consumer. i just recently joined up with this group and have been enjoying organic free range chicken, eggs and fresh veggies. i pick up my order weekly and it costs me about $20/wk for 2 people. the beauty of this is that for a flat fee you get more or less produce in a week, depending on what nature provides. there are no pesticides or hormones, and the trade off is that sometimes the bounty is smaller. this allows the small farmer to stay in business the old fashioned way. you can make up for the lesser weeks by freezing or canning in the more plentiful weeks. this can be in addition to your backyard garden, as the array of produce is different each week.
all of this to say lets think folks, lets think about where we are going as a culture. what do we value? what do we produce? how do we communicate? the i want it now mentality can only lead downhill. at least as far as these eyes can see......................