To the editor:

I am writing in response to “‘Finger-shaped’ growth pattern urged for city” (Journal-World, Saturday). I agree that it would be wise to plan developments to maintain green areas near new neighborhoods. In addition to preserving wild areas and animal habitat, it is vital that we preserve agricultural lands that surround our city.

The Kaw and Wakarusa valleys are blessed with areas of excellent soil; we are throwing away our most valuable possession when we allow development on good agricultural land. There will come a time in the not-too-distant future when fuel is too expensive for us to ship our food from California and other far-off production places as we do now. When this happens, we will all appreciate our local farmers a lot more as they will be our only hope for staying alive. We will struggle to grow enough food for Lawrence on what farmland we have left.

The system that currently supplies our food is frail and its collapse is inevitable. The E. coli scares we saw in 2006 were but a small reminder that we should eat food grown by people we know and trust. To prepare for the future, we can all help our local production systems expand by buying our food from Lawrence-area farmers. In addition to using our food money to shape our landscape, we must legislate the preservation of land that we will soon need for uses that are more important than new subdivisions.

Jesse Dutton Miller,

Lawrence