Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It is also an educational farm dedicated to promoting family farming as a community resource and reconnecting local food networks. His article Toward a less efficient and more robust food system is a version of an address delivered before the High Country Local Food Summit where he spoke about how to create a robust, diversified food system. Read the article here in http://www.grist.org/article/2009-toward-a-less-efficient-and-more-robust/

The comparisons between specialized "city of the future" Manchester and Birmingham with a lot of little organizations doing bits and pieces of work for other little organizations ie working together, forming networks, and loose informal cooperatives provide food for thought. Birmingham flourished, Manchester did not.

Where will our food come from in the future?