I'm just posting to keep this thread alive another 24 hours, I find the topic a bit overwhelming and have nothing particularly cogent to add just at this moment.

I think the speed at which this topic descended the list here indicates the largest factor in the problem, people just don't know, and don't care, where their food comes from, or its true economic, social, and evironmental cost. Given factors like, for example, aquifer depletion and soil salinization in the San Joaquin valley, the sleeping American citizen may soon get a rude wake-up call. Should that happen, though, one is hard-pressed to imagine a rational response.

My thoughts are rather muddled right now, I've just read the "explaining the unexplained" topic and am a bit depressed at the hostility to rationality that goes disguised as "open-mindedness" -- in a culture where popular perception of science has been so degraded that, say, Monsanto represents "science", and Uri Geller "open-mindedness" -- well, it's hard to imagine such a culture coming to any good end.

Is this making sense, or a glimmer of sense, to anyone?