I was also intrigued to read that modern farming has “liberated tens of millions from backbreaking manual labor” with no hint of the coinciding decline in rural American towns and communities as all those broken-backed souls either left or could no longer earn a living and are now on government support. Sure, most people don’t want to farm anymore, but let’s not kid ourselves about the cost to society and taxpayers of gutting rural America.

I don’t know how that actually quantifies, and whether a wide net of local producers with small walk-in coolers and pickup trucks is more efficient. But I wonder whether such calcuations are taking into account all the possible factors. Certainly the produce sold by folks like me spends far less time in climate-controlled conditions than far-shipped stuff; I just don’t know whether it matters or whether anyone’s accounting for that.