This letter, by Richard Hudak, to the editor of the St. Albans Messenger, was published on May 5, 2006.

"Is Mr. Lynn striving to make the Guinness Book of World Records as the lowest paid Wal-Mart lobbyist in creation? I'm at a loss to understand any other reason why he would choreograph such a bizarre tango of convoluted misconceptions and lackyspeak, especially in light of the fact that he never has attended a single hearing regarding the project. He relies on second- and third-hand information to make his authoritative pronouncements in this case.

In his editorial of May 2nd, Mr. Lynn goes to great lengths to elaborate upon the profound contrast between the Robinson farm in its current state of absentee cropping, and its potential future as a masterwork of parking lot engineering with its run-off wizardry.

But where is the contrast? Minimal analysis would illuminate the fact that the ill effects of current agricultural practices are yet another manifestation of fallout from the "Big Box" syndrome. That syndrome involves when extremely powerful large corporations get their stranglehold on the productions of goods and commodities.

In the case of agriculture, the value of farm products is established by a cabal of food processors, large supermarket chains, commodities traders, and chemical manufacturers, represented by an army of lobbyists. Their goal is to continually lower the value of farm products. The farmer, subjected to the perpetual necessity of minimizing cost of production, is forced to adopt these new technologies, often against his better judgement.

And what are the effects of this syndrome, pertaining to the food supply?

1.) The consumer has access to inexpensive, denatured food.

2.) The land, like the dairy cattle, subjected to these mounting pressures to produce ever more volume per acre, is exhausted and sick.

3.) The health of consumers in this food system reflects the same downward spiral in perfect step.

4.) The farmer, a craftsman indispensable in a sane and healthy society, a sacred link between the populous and the land which sustains them, also becomes a burned out slave to corporate greed. No time or energy is left to contemplate the larger reality of social and economic stability, of which he is the hub.

Really, it makes me wonder what it will take before we cease to rely upon our blind faith in "experts." In recent history we've been led into catastrophic wars on false pretenses by them. We have seen our "experts" convert a real economy into an illusion, containing little more than paper pushers and speculators. We've come to live in a way of life doomed by its addiction to petroleum, also upon the counsel of "experts." And now Franklin County is being induced to believe that the Wal-Mart project will have no adverse impact on water quality, based on the testimony of "experts." When will we believe in our own common sense?

The logical extension of Mr. Lynn's thesis on land use compels us to eagerly anticipate the day when all cropland in Vermont can be stripped of its topsoil, hermetically sealed in an envelope of asphalt, and the cattle replaced by pave-grazing breeds, Chevies, Fords, and Suburus.

With the advancing energy crisis and its inevitable curtailing of global transport, we'll certainly rue the day we have embarked upon a path of wanton sprawl development. Asphalt is a poor medium for food and biofuels production.

The Vermont farmer has more in common with the Bangladeshi factory worker than first glace would intimate. Their lives are both held in thrall by giant corporations who reap enormous profits from their labor, and actually dictate what they will be paid, which is reliably barely enough to maintain production. Perhaps we all should think more in terms of solidarity.

It seems increasingly obvious that our society is suffering from advanced depravity. It appears to emanate from decades of general striving toward self-interest, primarily instilled in our minds by the marketing industry. History bears witness to this condition as an element of the waning phase of a great and powerful society.

To circumvent this catastrophic course we seem to be looking under every rock that holds promise of hiding a spiritual reawaking. It leads me to wonder whether the first place we should look is in our relationship to the land which sustains us. The lack of regard for the agricultural potential of farmland in Franklin Country is a rejection of our material and social needs.

Richard Hudak
Hudak Farm"