We all need to eat. But we don't all need to eat food produced by small farms. We all need to wear clothes, but we don't all need hand-stitched wool coats. We all need shelter, but we don't all need bespoke architecture and locally sourced organic timber framing.

I think I understand the sentiment, but I don't agree with it. I am not grateful to small farmers, at least, not especially. I suppose I'm glad that everyone is playing their part, but I feel this way about anyone contributing to our society. They sell nothing that I cannot get just as good and cheaper from large and industrial farms.

I work on something that I would argue many people "need" in their life. But I don't expect anyone to be grateful to me. Of course they shouldn't. I'm doing my work for my own benefit, mostly. I think very little about the end users whose lives are made slightly easier by my work. I am certainly not doing my work out of a sense of altruism toward their well-being. I suspect that most farmers are the same. The production is too far removed from the consumption. This is not therapy, massage, teaching, or housekeeping. This is business.

To the extent small farmers do think of me, I hope they realize that I would rather pay a dollar less for the same eggs, even if it means they don't get to keep working their ideal job. It's a little sad, but I have bills, and childcare, and rent to pay. Those things are no less important than the expenses of a farmer.