resistance and how do I like them apples?

I have eaten so many apples yesterday and today, more than I ever have in my life. Like 15 a day (plus raw veggies). I have never been so happy for roasted veggies in my life. I ate loads at dinner. I love fruit but am very content being only half fruitarian or less ;)

I am seeing more and more problems with large-scale agriculture. Economically it makes great sense, economies of scale and all. But ecologically it is not very feasible. Long term, you need good crop rotations, or you're naturally selecting for the pests, weeds, and diseases that best target your crop. Soy and corn doesn't cut it--that's an alternation, not a rotation. You can't do good rotations with large-scale ag; the acreage of each crop is just so huge and farms specialize too much. Small scale veg farms, however, can be very good at this (don't have to be veg--that's just what I'm working with). The ag policymakers don't understand applied ecology, and applied ecology is where all the research is going, because it has to in order to stay useful and relevant. These are complex systems, and the old models are overly simplistic and just not cutting it (an example is glyphosate, "Round-up". They thought it was great, a silver bullet [it is less toxic than some others], and finally weeds are starting to become resistant to it like anything else).

I'm going to learn a lot about weeds in the upcoming year. Secretly I am excited because a) I actually really admire them and b) they are often super nutritious edibles (wild mustard, amaranth, purslane, dandelion, etc.--also not so edible is Jimson weed aka datura which is a wicked and poisonous Teacher Plant. Fascinating, and possibly deadly, and you can't tell the difference between the medicine and reality, don't take it though it is easy enough to find). But I have to keep my weed-admiration a secret from farmers ;)