Making the Arguement

Our task is difficult because we are looking at convincing several fundamentally different groups of the value of our shared and overlapping visions that are, at this point, largely idealistic. We must convince people who might contribute to building the ideas and resources. This includes various disciplines of academics, city leaders, producers and hopefully grant providers. Each of these discussions is as fundamentally different as are the people in the various groups.

Like term paper writers, we must collate information and indicate on our index cards, figuratively speaking, which group this information is relevant to. For many of us, the saliency of this argument is axiomatic. It would be a mistake for us to proceed beyond this point with only axioms. We must collect facts and figures on fuel consumption, nutrition, supply, demand, top soil depletion, water conservation, obesity, carbon emissions, revenue streams and much more.

I know that for me this represents a shift in the way that I approach the discussion. I do not need facts and figures to be convinced of the value of connecting more directly to the bounty of the earth and less directly to corporatization. No matter how fervent I may be, such idealism will not convince most people. Even for people most directly impacted such as producers, we must convince in dollars and cents terms that we can substantiate. I don’t know if we have an agricultural economist who works in local and sustainable markets, but this is information that we will need.

Please use this blog to post studies, books and other sources of information.