Much of the U.S. economy -- save the oil/oil services sector -- is in a consolidation and right-sizing mode, or something resembling it. Retail chains, home builders, auto manufacturers etc. are all thinning their employee and production ranks, in anticipation of a period ahead with lighter demand. And most investors and readers all familiar with the consolidation in the investment banking sector.

Add another sector to the list: the grocery store sector. After more than a decade of building bigger and bigger stores (and superstores) retailers are experimenting with considerably smaller grocery stores that feature prepared meals in gourmet delis, and fresh produce, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) has opened a smaller-format store in Southern California, Jewel-Osco is building one in Chicago and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NYSE: WFMI) is considering opening smaller stores, The Times reported.

One thing that can be said about the 2008 financial climate: this is not a halcyon time for investment banking professionals.

The credit market stress that has rocked U.S. and European markets this year has idled many investment bankers, syndicate and securities professionals and related financial specialists. Many have adjusted their career tracks, if they haven't already shifted to a new profession / line of work.

And what's one sector that may see an influx of displaced banking talent and/or represent a new, hot sector for dealmakers? Farming.

That's right: Farming. Two factors suggest farming may need, and attract, more talent: 1) the bullish trend for food given increased demand, and 2) the preference for locally-grown food, so says economist Glen Langan, whose specializations include agricultural economics.

"International food demand has improved food profit margins to the point where farming can compete for capital with other up-and-coming sectors," Langan said. "There's always a risk that food demand could pull back slightly on a global economic slowdown, but the long-term factors are and will remain bullish."

The TV commercials for the new line of organic cereals from Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) bring tears to my eyes. They're shot in a subdued color palette, evocative of the early 20th century, when every mama fed her children healthy, farm-fresh grains at a hand-hewn oak table in the family kitchen. Kellogg is trying to connect its products with the yearning to return to local, sustainable, homemade.

But Kellogg is nothing but not local. And the way big business is getting into organic food is, everyone seems to agree, perverting the very thing organics are meant to do. Not only that: if everyone had organic food, it wouldn't be organic any more. BusinessWeek calls it "The Organics Myth." And the reality is that you just can't mass-produce locality.

When Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) announced they'd be offering organic food this spring, everyone seemed to throw up their collective hands and say, well, there goes the organic farm! Lots of industry analysts wondered if the push into low-cost organics would only mean that smaller farmers got squeezed, more, and suppliers like Wal-Mart would end up knocking on the doors of the big commercial farm organizations for organic produce. (Or offering organics that wasn't "really" organic after all.)

But at the heart the argument seems ridiculous. No, we can't revert to an agrarian society. But the demand for organics so outstrips supply that (for instance) Stonyfield Farms has to vastly reduce the percentage of organic products it offers. (Meantime, more entrepreneurs are flooding into the healthy foods business. Check out all the franchise opportunities available). But why can't more commercial farms just adopt organic practices? Why is this so hard?

I think the answer can't be: buy organic Rice Krispies. The answer has to be something more complex, and it starts with educating consumers to eat differently, to buy produce in season from (real) local, organic farmers, instead of insisting on oranges and asparagus year-round. To be more flexible, to roll with the punches.

No, not everyone can have organic fresh green peas year round. But everyone can have some organics, some of the time, and I think that's what we should all be working toward.