>As is often the case, I see merit in both points of view as well as
>problems created by taking their central ideas to logical
>conclusions.
I agree with this. I'm not an advocate of business as usual, in agriculture or much of anything else. I do think, however, that there's a lot that's valuable in the technology and organization that capitalist society has achieved. I see a tendency on the broad left to dismiss it all as pure delusion or pure damage, and the thing to do is to dump it all and get back to the old ways. Instead, I'm all for a robust eclecticism, which would combine old techniques and new technology, taking the best of each and combining them in imaginative ways. I don't see it as an either/or thing, though there seems to be a great temptation to do so.
Doug