[Redbaron]

I am all for it personally. I figure the more people that get to taste how a veggie, and egg, milk etc.. is supposed to taste, even if they do have a garden, they will be more likely to buy later from another selling high quality.

But if they haven't ever tasted a real tomato before and see a "organic" or "mostly organic" or "local small farm raised" etc tomato with minor blemishes or slight cracks etc..., they may think it isn't as good as the grocery mass produced blemish free but also tasteless tomato.

So go for it! Raise the garden. Learn what a real tomato or whatever is. The market gardener or farmer will be happy to supply whatever you can't grow yourself.

Of course that is purely my own personal opinion. I don't have any knowlege of any census or opinion pole on the subject.

If you think about it though, Tomatoville is very much like this. We share varieties and tips for growing all the time. And even though free seeds get shared all the time, I venture to guess the seed sellers who are members here also actually do more business, not less. Because people who never even heard of these strange heirlooms try a few and eventually want to try even more. Or they go to a market or coop and see a paste they don't grow, but are happy to try out a sauce recipe instead of buying a jar of Ragu or Chef Boy R Dee.

I can certainly see where "big ag" might be worried. They are consistantly loosing market share each and every year. The big boys don't like that. They are NOT happy.