Synthetic corn and plastic broccoli

I drove behind an SUV with this bumper sticker: “No Farms No Food.” It’s a simple message, and quite obvious, really, but on this day, it caught me. It wasn’t the irony of an SUV-driving eco-lover that caught my attention; I don’t know what it was. Perhaps it was driving in the heart of my city, in the concrete jungle, where my clients meet and talk and live and sleep and fight and there are very few green spaces. Perhaps it was just the silence.
If we don’t have farms, we don’t have food. I’m sorry, that might be very basic and you might say, “Sahara – duh.” But really, the more we develop, the more we build, the more we control our environment – the less food we’ll grow. Given that hunger is SUCH a problem all around the world, it seems counter-logical that we’ll pave over the easiest, cheapest, healthiest way we have to fix that problem. Or will we develop and grow synthetic corn and plastic broccoli?
Furthermore, having worked with plants for the past several seasons (a side job in a greenhouse) as well case managing urban farmers - my clients - I am aware, both personally and professionally, of the healing capability of nature and playing in the dirt. I was glad for this realization, for it was now I can do what I can to keep it from happening. "Cause this would suck.