"To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves." (Gandhi)

"Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization." (Daniel Webster)

"When I was a kid, I had an aunt and uncle who had a dairy farm. I remember all the wondeful things about farm life...the richness of the food ....just the way the milk tasted when it came right from the cow. There was something really wonderful about that, to be able to grow up with more of nature around, more of an idea of what the whole cycle of the earth was about." (EmmyLou Harris)

"We eat every day, and if we do it in a way that doesn't recognize value, it's contributing to the destruction of our culture and agriculture. But if it's done with focus and care, it can be a wonderful thing. It changes the quality of your life....People have always foraged during the seasons for what was closeby. They picked it and brought it to the marketplaces, and they sold it to people in the neighborhood. People brought it home, cooked it, and ate it with their families. It's a....sacred ritual....around the world." (Alice Waters)

"If you get a tomato that's grown with care ~ the difference is profound." (Dave Matthews)
"The glory of the farmer is that, in the division of labors, it is his part to create. All trade rests at last on his primitive activity. He stands close to Nature; he obtains from the earth the bread and the meat. The food which was not, he causes to be." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Give me fresh corn and wheat, give me serene-moving animals teaching content...." (Walt Whitman)



~ selected excerpts from the book: "Farm Aid: A Song For America"