The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.
—Thomas Jefferson
The distinction between urban and country lifestyles has been subject matter in the arts for centuries. Besides bucolic splendor, the outdoors—nature—supplies our food. Now that our 21ist century’s brave new digital world is rapidly summoning us to eat synthetic genetically engineered lab-fermented food, we thought it appropriate to pay homage to the land and our agrarian heritage. Common Ground is proud to showcase images and quotations celebrating our agrarian roots. Lest we forget, we owe a debt of gratitude to our rich land and the farmers who feed us, naturally. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
My grandfather used to say that once in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher but every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.
—Brenda Schoepp
Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
—Michael Pollan
The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.
—Joel Salatin
There seems to be three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war…this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way.
—Benjamin Franklin
A friend of mine has a theory that those who live closer to where food is grown are more religious. Because when you see how food is actually created, instead of just seeing it in a package in a store in a city, it gives you a real sense of awe.
—B.J. Novak
God made the country, and man made the town.
—William Cowper