Having just blogged about Netherlands agriculture and precision farming, I was struck this morning as I was skimming Twitter by a proposal to combine small farms with a small town (sorry but I didn't note the tweet and can't find it now). It seems to be that we can see the long time contest between the Enlightenment and the Romantic eras being reenacted today in farming.
On the one hand you have the increasing consolidation of farming in the US and elsewhere, consolidation being driven by investments in technology which increase the amount of commodities per acre and per hour of labor, with decreasing inputs per unit. It's the application of intelligence and human control to farming. On the other hand you have the less tangible byproducts and the emotions elicited by the process of organic and/or small farming.
I guess with that summary there's no hiding which side I basically favor.
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