Ranty break

I know y'all are planning for Blogher (I wish I could go, too!) but thought I'd point you anyway to Charlotte Freeman's latest column, which is ranty and awesome. Here's the essence of it:

"Why should we try to buy local? Why does organic matter? Why should we care about the lives of farmers or ranchers or cows or genetically-modified wheat?

"Because feeding ourselves and our families (however we might construct them) is the most basic task we face and the entire force of corporate America is deeply invested in telling us we can’t do it. That it’s too hard. That it’s boring. That it’s a waste of time. Or conversely, that it’s elitist and only for rich people and annoying hipsters who live in cities and insist on being rude and photographing their food in restaurants and then blogging about it.

"Both messages are false. Cooking is creative. Cooking is individual. Cooking is one way we can thumb our noses at the forces . . . who try to control us by keeping us scared."