Farmers Arise!

Alrighty... best I could do is a links list(below). An op-ed in the new york times (google it, i guess)talks about yet another way corporations and "our" government are colluding against us. Gooberment is supressing any would-be competition to giant agribusiness.Your tax dollars at work!
Back home, in the '80's, we were the 1st in the houston area (or anywhere outside of California, as far as I know), to grow and market organic fancy lettuce. Mesclun. Field greens.
Sold it to high-end restaraunts.
Years later, when we moved to the Hill country, we built a 10x30 cold frame and ran a test market. Great success with cafe's and whatnot w/ in 60 miles of here. Started selling to the big corporate(still local,tho) grocers.Produce guys loved it , encouraged us to expand. Long story short, I built a 3000 sq.ft. greenhouse and went into production.in the 6 months it took me to do this, someone must have mentioned us to California. Suddenly, there were million $ insurance policies to get and the vendor # was increasingly elusive..(finally obtained one after I gave up on them)
Point is these corporate grocers, (both are international now), strung us along made promises then threw up roadblocks.... and went instead with an inferior, non-local product.The last straw was the change in "industry standards" to a special giant ziploc type of bag.The cost was prohibitive and(!) the only company I could find as a source for these bags shared a parent corporation with one of the big california growers.Amazing!

Now, in the face of Peak Everything, we need more than ever to shorten our supply lines. Yet we are prevented from doing so, or the bullshit we have to wade thru is so deep as to make it unprofitable and/or unpleasant.

Try to produce your own ethanol,legally, to run your lawn equipment.The federal and state requirements remove any savings you might glean.

These folks that I've linked to are revolutionaries, and there needs to be more of them if we are to get out from under corpgov controll and live as free, independant humans.I suspect that the ethanol regulations are less about keeping us sober ( their stated aim) and more about protecting exxon,et al's monopoly on liquid fuel.
Free market my ass!

The local ( small corp) grocery store will only accept local produce if you take it 350+ mile to their warehouse in Houston...so it can be put on a truck to follow you back home.
Hydraulic despotism doesn't have to be about water.