A program to make municipal composting of food and yard waste mandatory and then distributing the compost free to area farmers would shrink America's garbage heap, cut the need for irrigation and fossil-fuel fertilizers in agriculture, and improve the nutritional quality of the American diet.

Stripped of its plot, the 'Iliad' is a scattering of names and biographies of ordinary soldiers: men who trip over their shields, lose their courage or miss their wives. In addition to these, there is a cast of anonymous people: the farmers, walkers, mothers, neighbours who inhabit its similes.

Farmers' markets are one of my favourite sources for Christmas goodies.

Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.

California's drought affects everyone in the state, from farmers to fishermen, business owners to suburban residents, and everyone has a role to play in using precious water resources as wisely and efficiently as possible.

We have food deserts in our cities. We know that the distance you live from a supplier of fresh produce is one of the best predictors of your health. And in the inner city, people don't have grocery stores. So we have to figure out a way of getting supermarkets and farmers markets into the inner cities.

The mandarins of culture-what do they do to teach the common folk to read? It's no good writing down lists of books for farmers and compiling five-foot shelves; you've got to go out and visit the people yourself-take the books to them, talk to the teachers and bully the editors of country newspapers and farm magazines and tell the children stories-and then little by little you begin to get good books circulating in the veins of the nation. It's a great work, mind you!

They all know the truth, that there are only three subjects worth talking about. At least here in these parts," he says, "The weather, which, as they're farmers, affects everything else. Dying and birthing, of both people and animals. And what we eat - this last item comprising what we ate the day before and what we're planning to eat tomorrow. And all three of these major subjects encompass, in one way or another, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, the physical sciences, history, art, literature, and religion. We get around to sparring about all that counts in life but we usually do it while we're talking about food, it being a subject inseparable from every other subject. It's the table and the bed that count in life. And everything else we do, we do so we can get back to the table, back to the bed.

This is considered almost holy work by farmers and ranchers. Kill off everything you can't eat. Kill off anything that eats what you eat. Kill off anything that doesn't feed what you eat.

Nevertheless the number of farmers small as well as large who are adopting the new seeds and new technology is increasing very rapidly and the increase in numbers during the past three years has been phenomenal.

I have seen firsthand that agricultural science has enormous potential to increase the yields of small farmers and lift them out of hunger and poverty.

I don't know how the poor farmers deal with such situations in real life. It's really sad.

There is no gilding of setting sun or glamor of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmers' wives.

Most cooks try to learn by making dishes. Doesn't mean you can cook. It means you can make that dish. When you can cook is when you can go to a farmers market buy a bunch of stuff then go home and make something without looking at a recipe. Now you're cooking.

I stand before you as the governor of Texas but also stand before you the son of two tenant farmers. Ray Perry who came home after 35 bombing missions over Europe to work his little corner of land out there and Amelia who made sure that my sister Milla and I had everything that we needed included hand sewing my clothes until I went off to college.

Understanding where your food comes from trying to bolster local farmers and local economies and having a better connection to the food around you and the people around you only good can come of that. I love to be involved with things like that.

Cajun is country food by farmers and fisherman that arrived in Louisiana from Acadiana Canada.

Go to the grocery store and buy better things. Buy quality buy organic buy natural go to the farmers market. Immediately that's going to increase the quality of the food you make.

Never be a food snob. Learn from everyone you meet - the fish guy at your market the lady at the local diner farmers cheese makers. Ask questions try everything and eat up!

Global trade has advantages. For starters it allows those of us who live through winter to eat fresh produce year-round. And it provides economic benefits to farmers who grow that food.

Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers adapted to local circumstances and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future.

We'll be going to the fish market and a farmer's market this afternoon to get what we need to make and eat dinner as a family. I'm trying to expose my kids to going to a farmers market or the fish market and learning what that's all about.

In the past 40 years the United States lost more than a million farmers and ranchers. Many of our farmers are aging. Today only nine percent of family farm income comes from farming and more and more of our farmers are looking elsewhere for their primary source of income.

Prosperous farmers mean more employment more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.