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The family farm is largely gone, replaced by larger operations in an economy that has based itself on what is best to “make money” instead of what is best to survive.

Nobody is pining for a world where every family reverts back to 1890 and the technology of the day. But what if we all were more self-sustaining? What if families tried to raise most of their own food as naturally as possible and paid very close attention to the items they purchase from afar?

It seems as if us Americans in trying to get ahead have really taken a giant step in the wrong direction. While we’ve left our agrarian roots long ago, we’ve become more dependent on resources from far away. This has bred an economy based on trade that has boiled down to fewer and fewer producers selling to even fewer distributors who then sell to a dwindling number of merchants. The end result is that the average North American meal travels 1,500 miles to get from field to plate and contains ingredients from five countries, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

It seems like many of the issues we deal with today — high gasoline prices, pollution, economic inequity, increasingly higher costs of living and our health insurance nightmare, to name a few — are the result of a system of gathering wealth, whether corporate or personal.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Jean Feraca took on one of the issues in an interview with author and economist Colin Tudge on May 12. Tudge’s point was that small farmers can feed th world. In listening to the program, one could see how corporate interests drive added costs onto just about every food product.

The only way to escape the continuing circle of dependence is to work to create local communities of trade, such as the Viroqua Food Co-op, other local co-ops and by dealing with merchants who offer local products. Just about the easiest way to do that is to be aware of the pedigree of the food you purchase. However, Americans have been conditioned not to consider this as a factor, so it certainly is a cultural shift.

Everything has a price. We have just started to pay for the ignorance of decades of making money the last common denominator in everything. No, sitting together and singing kumbaya won’t solve this problem, but there was a time in this country, during World War I and World War II, when having a “Victory Garden” was noble endeavor. It would be prudent for the powers that be to again support such programs.

Do what you can to be more self-sufficient and buy locally.

And if you’re interested in getting the debt monkey off your back, check out www.feedthepig.org. It will describe a new national public service campaign from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and The Advertising Council. The goal of the campaign is to encourage the 40 million Americans age 25 to 34 to take control of their personal finances.