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Gary Holthaus - From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Clark Lectures) - 9780813124193 - V9780813124193
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From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Clark Lectures)

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Description for From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Clark Lectures) Hardcover. Demonstrates how outside economic, governmental, legal, and business developments play an increasingly influential, if not controlling, role in every farmer's life. This book offers an understanding of how we can create sustainable and vibrant land-based communities by adhering to fundamental agrarian values. Series: Culture of the Land. Num Pages: 408 pages, 15 photographs. BIC Classification: 1KBB; KNAC; RN; TV. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 34. Weight in Grams: 757.
As with other areas of human industry, it has been assumed that technological progress would improve all aspects of agriculture. Technology would increase both efficiency and yield, or so we thought. The directions taken by technology may have worked for a while, but the same technologies that give us an advantage also create disadvantages. It's now a common story in rural America: pesticides, fertilizers, "big iron" combines, and other costly advancements may increase speed but also reduce efficiency, while farmers endure debt, dangerous working conditions, and long hours to pay for the technology. Land, livelihood, and lives are lost in an effort to keep up and break even. There is more to this story that affects both the food we eat and our provisions for the future. Too many Americans eat the food on their plates with little thought to its origin and in blind faith that government regulations will protect them from danger. While many Americans might have grown up in farming families, there are fewer family-owned farms with each passing generation. Americans are becoming disconnected from understanding the sources and content of their food. The farmers interviewed in From the Farm to the Table can help reestablish that connection. Gary Holthaus illuminates the state of American agriculture today, particularly the impact of globalization, through the stories of farmers who balance traditional practices with innovative methods to meet market demands. Holthaus demonstrates how the vitality of America's communities is bound to the successes and failures of its farmers.

In From the Farm to the Table, farmers explain how their lives and communities have changed as they work to create healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy food in a context of often inappropriate federal policy, growing competition from abroad, public misconceptions regarding government subsidies, the dangers of environmental damage and genetically modified crops, and the myths of modern economics. Rather than predicting doom and despair for small American growers, Holthaus shows their hope and the practical solutions they utilize. As these farmers tell their stories, "organic" and "sustainable" farming become real and meaningful. As they share their work and their lives, they reveal how those concepts affect the food we eat and the land on which it's grown, and how vital farming is to the American economy.

Product Details

Format
Hardback
Publication date
2007
Publisher
University Press of Kentucky
Condition
New
Series
Culture of the Land
Number of Pages
384
Place of Publication
Lexington, United States
ISBN
9780813124193
SKU
V9780813124193
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-2

About Gary Holthaus
Gary Holthaus is the author of several books, including Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West.

Reviews for From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Clark Lectures)
Farmers all over the world have begun to choose a new path. Holthaus has taken the time to listen to, and share with us, the stories of such new farmers. - Fred Kirschenmann, Iowa State University

Goodreads reviews for From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Clark Lectures)


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