Urban sprawl is changing the face of America, as cities eat into our best farm land. Now some towns are turning around and buying farms to save them from developers. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the links between city and country. Farmland preservation, community-supported agriculture, and a look back at the grape boycott.

SEGMENT 1

Ralph Grossi, president of American Farmland Trust, a lobbying group based in Washington D.C., talks with Jim Fleming about the impact of urban sprawl on American agriculture and describes some innovative programs to preserve agriultural land while providing income for farmers.

SEGMENT 2:

Linda Halley and Richard DeWild farm fifty acres of vegetables in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Their operation - "Harmony Valley" is a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture farm. They tell Judith Strasser how the CSA system works: members pay an annual fee up front and receive deliveries of fresh produce all season; and why it's a satisfying arrangement for both farmers and consumers.

SEGMENT 3:

Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval (co-authors of "The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement") talk with Jim Fleming about the man who founded the United Farm Workers and his legacy. Also, Francois Dagenais, director of srategic thinking at the Interamerican Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, tells Judith Strasser that the global economy means that American consumers are affected by agricultural conditions in Central America from crop failures to impoverished farmworkers.

Distribution dates:

• week of 09/07/97 - hour 3