It's easy to feel overwhelmed by an issue as complex as sustainable agriculture, but each of us can take steps to help support small farmers. In doing do, we also help ourselves — by buying and eating healthier food, forming relationships that strengthen our communities and simply learning about agricultural issues, wherever that knowledge takes us.

1. Know where your food comes from and what's in it. Read the labels at the grocery store.
2. Buy food that's in season when possible. Why? It tastes better but it's also less likely to have traveled thousands of miles using up untold amounts of nonrenewable fuels.
3. Buy local. That means several things, such as: Shop at your local farmers market. Their numbers are increasing around the United States, and for good reason: the food is almost always fresher and locally grown, you can actually talk to the person who raised it about his or her farming practices, and you're helping small farmers succeed.
4. Consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group. You can buy a “share” in a member farm and then receive a regular, usually weekly, delivery of seasonal products. These products can include meat, egg and dairy items as well as vegetables and fruits. As at farmers markets, the food is fresher and you know who produced it and how.
5. Visit area “you-pick” farms, places where you can pick your own berries or melons, for example. You'll connect with nature, and if you bring the children, they'll learn that strawberries don't naturally come in plastic-wrapped containers.
6. Ask your local restaurants to feature locally grown foods, and then patronize those that do.
7. Educate yourself on the issues. Not all foods that are advertised as “organic” really are. Is it necessarily wrong to treat sick livestock with antibiotics, especially if farmers follow proper safety procedures? Some websites to check out include, in addition to http://www.heifer.org/, http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/, http://www.landinstitute.org/, http://www.foodfirst.org/, http://www.usda.gov/, http://www.fao.org/, http://www.ifpri.org/ (International Food Policy Research Institute). The issues aren't simple, and you'll find widely varying views on these sites, but they provide a starting point.
8. Once you decide where you stand on agricultural issues and government policies affecting them, find out where your elected representatives stand. Become involved. Contact your member of Congress.
9. Ask questions.
10. Vote.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2004 issue of World Ark magazine, a publication of Heifer International. Used with permission.