The annual meeting of the Land Trust on Friday night was a great big fun success. Farmer Colin overcame severe stage fright to give a small speech about the origins of the Kirsop Farm, and why farm land preservation matters. I am so impressed by him. We’ve been married and farming and all for eleven years or so, but I don’t often get the chance to hear him give a speech, so it’s new and different and I love it and I love him. He is so smart and funny and clever and good looking and to top it all off, modest. What a man! Colin spoke of his own origins in the Sacramento Valley of California just north of Los Angeles. He told of the large scale agriculture that was the history of the state, the land of plenty, the great garden of eden, and he told of the development and land rush that made so much farm land “too valuable to farm”. We see this happening everywhere; that the price of land for housing is skyrocketing, while the price that farmers can afford either for leasing or buying is always so small. Colin also talked about how California once had the greatest overland train system for public transportation and produce transportation, but in tandem with the housing boom was the demolition of this system in favor of the now infamous California highway system. He went on to describe his liberal arts education ending up at Evergreen and feeling non specifically angry about many social justice issues and learning that small scale farmers could supply quality food locally and be a part of the solution. So he started an organic vegetable farm. Then he cleverly tied that into the land situation in Thurston county today, with 75 percent of the farmland converted to other uses since 1960, and half of the bit that was left being converted to other uses in the past year alone. The point is that the speculative land market is not going to correct itself or make any natural provisions for best uses. Rather it provides that the best use of any land is that which generates the greatest profits. Farming is the best use of the land for the land itself, for the wildlife that claimed that land as home before we ever began to think of its best uses, best for people and planet. What else can I say? Support the Land Trust, buy local, keep the faith.