Grist's own Tom Philpott is apparently too humble to draw attention to the media adulation with which he is being showered. It's a task I'm happy to take up.

The Winston-Salem Journal has a fantastic long piece on Maverick Farms, the small organic farm Tom runs with his co-conspirators.

As the piece describes in detail, it's not just a farm -- it's a grand experiment in creating a local food economy and culture. At Maverick they host local-food dinners, teach cooking classes, run a CSA, allow visitors to work the farm in exchange for lodging, and teach interns about farming in their Farm Incubator and Grower Program, which encourages graduates to go on to start their own farms.

It's green food theory put into action. How did they do it?

"The truth is when we started, we knew more about cooking than we did about farming," Philpott said.

"We were all into sustainable food and questioning the industrial food system. We naively showed up and started doing stuff."

Want to make the world a better place? Naively show up and start doing stuff.