Sometimes it seems to us that farming is a bit like the canary in the coal mine, a kind of early warning system.  It’s the farmer who first saw the dangers of modern, industrial agriculture.  He tried to tell us that not only was he being shoved off the land, but that the corporations replacing him were using industrial, mass production practices that were ultimately destructive to the land.  But because the  immediate result, as far as most consumers could tell, was lower prices, no one paid any attention to the warnings. Even when, like the canaries, millions of farmers keeled over and died. Only now are scientists beginning to worry, and…