Home Gardens and Farmers Connected

Many of us have at least an initial interest in growing our own food. This article in the NY Times talks about the connections that Home Gardeners and Farmers share, by way of the Tomato Blight, in the Northeast U.S. Here is an excerpt acknowledging the need for diversity among and within the species of plants we grow:

Healthy, natural systems abhor uniformity — just as a healthy society does. We need, then, to look to a system of food and agriculture that values and mimics natural diversity. The five-acre monoculture of tomato plants next door might be local, but it’s really no different from the 200-acre one across the country: both have sacrificed the ecological insurance that comes with biodiversity.