Tomorrow we'll visit with Zeb Baccelli. A member of the American Solidarity party, Zeb Baccelli has ongoing and first hand experience with American agriculture. We'll discuss the following questions. Feel free to send us some additional ones!

1. Besides the fact that it provides us food, why should be be concerned about agriculture? Do farming practices impact society outside the farm fields? If so, how? In other words, how does how we farm impact the common good?
2. One thinker (was it Wendell Berry?) noted that the word "culture" is cognate with "cultivation," and is thus rooted in that most primary sense of cultivation, agriculture. Is this only an accident of history, or is there a fundamental connection here between culture and agriculture?
3. We might think that people know what is meant by "organic farming," but that's an assumption that perhaps would be disproved if it were tested. Just what is organic farming? What elements distinguish it from conventional farming?
4. Does it really matter all that much whether we farm organically?
5. Some would claim that, if we stuck to organic methods, we could not feed the populations we have today -- that the "Green Revolution" was necessary to support the population base we have today. What is your response to that?
6. Organic food is often more expensive than what is produced by conventional farming, sometimes considerably more expensive. Is organic eating only for the elite? Or can we conceive of ways to make organic produce and meat more accessible to poorer folks, lower-middle class people with large families, and so forth?

Give us a listen! (March 13, 2020)