thanks alice!!

i wish, i wish, i wish that we could provide lamb at a cost comparable to new zealand. of course, there is less fuel but the other factors are overwhelming:
-land prices
-labor prices
-processing charges
-economy of scale (new zealand produces SO much more lamb than us).
my response to this is that we have to look at the long term costs of outsourcing food production and understand that ranchers hold a value in california: they are open space place holders. lamb ranching is very gentle to the environment and keeps agricultural land plentiful and healthy.
in short, we live in this amazing, special strip of land and the value of that makes everything more expensive. but if all these ranches turn into pinot vineyards we are going to be in big trouble, environmentally and economically.