The Curse Of American Agricultural Abundance

Author : Willard Wesley Cochrane
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2003-01-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0803215290

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The Curse of American Agricultural Abundance by Willard Wesley Cochrane Pdf

Advisor to President Kennedy, consultant for foreign governments, and spokesman for family farmers everywhere, Willard W. Cochrane has been a leading expert on agriculture and its problems in the United States since the 1940s. In his straightforward style Cochrane analyzes the propensity for American agriculture to produce too much and the inability of our social and economic system to make effective use of that unending abundance. He then offers his vision for American agriculture in the twenty-first century. Cochrane looks at two periods in agricultural history: 195366 and 19972002. Structurally, technologically, and organizationally the two periods are as different as night and day, but in terms of the big economic picture--too much production pressing on a limited commercial demand with resulting low farm prices and incomes--they are mirror images of each other. With this understanding, Cochrane argues that Americans no longer need to farm fragile ecosystems with intensive chemical methods, make huge payments that result in fewer farms and higher farming costs, nor bear the environmental consequences of all-out production. Instead, he outlines a bold new strategy in which we can enjoy our abundance and focus our efforts on quality of life and protecting the environment in our rural areas. Willard W. Cochrane is the author of numerous books, including The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis, and coauthor of Reforming Farm Policy: Toward a National Agenda. Richard A. Levins is a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota and the author of Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm (Nebraska 2003).

Author : Richard A. Levins
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 105 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2016-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780803299795

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Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm by Richard A. Levins Pdf

Willard Cochrane watched the dramatic decline in American family farming from a vantage point few can claim. He became one of the country's premier agricultural economists and carried the standard of liberalism for President Kennedy in the last serious fight to save the family farm. Then, for forty long years, he held to the principles while traditional agriculture faded into what he once called "family farms in form but not in spirit." This book is about the spirit of family farming: Thomas Jefferson's dream of an agrarian democracy. What should we do in the face of globalization, high technology, and corporate control of our food supply? Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm recounts how one man faced these issues and where he would wish us to go in the twenty-first century.

Author : Edward Raymond Wilson,Frances Elizabeth Neely
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 8 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1959
Category : Food relief
ISBN : OCLC:13446574

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The Paradox of American Agricultural Abundance in a Hungry World by Edward Raymond Wilson,Frances Elizabeth Neely Pdf

Author : Alan L. Olmstead,Paul W. Rhode
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2008-09-08
Category : History
ISBN : 0521673879

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Creating Abundance by Alan L. Olmstead,Paul W. Rhode Pdf

This book demonstrates that American agricultural development was far more dynamic than generally portrayed. In the two centuries before World War II, a stream of biological innovations revolutionized the crop and livestock sectors, increasing both land and labor productivity. Biological innovations were essential for the movement of agriculture onto new lands with more extreme climates, for maintaining production in the face of evolving threats from pests, and for the creation of the modern livestock sector. These innovations established the foundation for the subsequent Green and Genetic Revolutions. The book challenges the misconceptions that, before the advent of hybrid corn, American farmers single-mindedly invested in laborsaving mechanical technologies and that biological technologies were static.

Author : Charles Moss,Andrew Schmitz
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 439 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2008-02-28
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780470384770

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Government Policy and Farmland Markets by Charles Moss,Andrew Schmitz Pdf

Of immeasurable value to lenders, agricultural economists, and a host of agribusinesses this unique volume brings together leading farmland authorities in the United States and Canada to examine the economic determinants of land value and the consequences of change in land values. As the most basic factor of production in the agricultural enterprise, farmland dominates the agricultural balance sheet, accounting for an average of 70% of all agricultural assets. The authors of this timely book provide expert analysis and review of this subject.

Author : Tony Weis
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2008-02-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781848131415

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The Global Food Economy by Tony Weis Pdf

The Global Food Economy examines the human and ecological cost of what we eat. The current food economy is characterized by immense contradictions. Surplus 'food mountains', bountiful supermarkets, and rising levels of obesity stand in stark contrast to widespread hunger and malnutrition. Transnational companies dominate the market in food and benefit from subsidies, whilst farmers in developing countries remain impoverished. Food miles, mounting toxicity and the 'ecological hoofprint' of livestock mean that the global food economy rests on increasingly shaky environmental foundations. This book looks at how such a system came about, and how it is being enforced by the WTO. Ultimately, Weis considers how we can find a way of building socially just, ecologically rational and humane food economies.

Author : Anthony John Weis
Publisher : Zed Books
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2007-06
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1842777955

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The Global Food Economy by Anthony John Weis Pdf

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Author : Virgil W. Dean
Publisher : University of Missouri Press
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780826265197

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An Opportunity Lost by Virgil W. Dean Pdf

"Examines Charles Brannan's agricultural plan, the farm policy debate, and Harry S. Truman's quest for a long-range agricultural program. Assesses Truman's relationships with farmers and with politicians and the search for a workable peacetime program, especially as it related to the parity price foundation and price supports"--Provided by publisher.

Author : Richard A. Levins
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 112 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2003-12-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0803280262

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Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm by Richard A. Levins Pdf

Willard Cochrane watched the dramatic decline in American family farming from a vantage point few can claim. He became one of the country?s premier agricultural economists and carried the standard of liberalism for President Kennedy in the last serious fight to save the family farm. Then, for forty long years, he held to the principles while traditional agriculture faded into what he once called ?family farms in form but not in spirit.? This book is about the spirit of family farming: Thomas Jefferson?s dream of an agrarian democracy. What should we do in the face of globalization, high technology, and corporate control of our food supply? Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm recounts how one man faced these issues and where he would wish us to go in the twenty-first century.

Author : Monica Prasad
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2012-12-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780674071544

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The Land of Too Much by Monica Prasad Pdf

The Land of Too Much presents a simple but powerful hypothesis that addresses three questions: Why does the United States have more poverty than any other developed country? Why did it experience an attack on state intervention starting in the 1980s, known today as the neoliberal revolution? And why did it recently suffer the greatest economic meltdown in seventy-five years? Although the United States is often considered a liberal, laissez-faire state, Monica Prasad marshals convincing evidence to the contrary. Indeed, she argues that a strong tradition of government intervention undermined the development of a European-style welfare state. The demand-side theory of comparative political economy she develops here explains how and why this happened. Her argument begins in the late nineteenth century, when America’s explosive economic growth overwhelmed world markets, causing price declines everywhere. While European countries adopted protectionist policies in response, in the United States lower prices spurred an agrarian movement that rearranged the political landscape. The federal government instituted progressive taxation and a series of strict financial regulations that ironically resulted in more freely available credit. As European countries developed growth models focused on investment and exports, the United States developed a growth model based on consumption. These large-scale interventions led to economic growth that met citizen needs through private credit rather than through social welfare policies. Among the outcomes have been higher poverty, a backlash against taxation and regulation, and a housing bubble fueled by “mortgage Keynesianism.” This book will launch a thousand debates.

Author : Paul K. Conkin
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2008-09-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813138688

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A Revolution Down on the Farm by Paul K. Conkin Pdf

At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

Author : Mark Bittman
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781328974624

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Animal, Vegetable, Junk by Mark Bittman Pdf

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and pioneering journalist, an expansive look at how history has been shaped by humanity's appetite for food, farmland, and the money behind it all--and how a better future is within reach.

Author : Carolyn Merchant
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 505 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780231140355

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American Environmental History by Carolyn Merchant Pdf

By studying the many ways diverse peoples have changed, shaped, and conserved the natural world over time, environmental historians provide insight into humanity's unique relationship with nature and, more importantly, are better able to understand the origins of our current environmental crisis. Beginning with the precolonial land-use practice of Native Americans and concluding with our twenty-first century concerns over our global ecological crisis, American Environmental History addresses contentious issues such as the preservation of the wilderness, the expulsion of native peoples from national parks, and population growth, and considers the formative forces of gender, race, and class. Entries address a range of topics, from the impact of rice cultivation, slavery, and the growth of the automobile suburb to the effects of the Russian sea otter trade, Columbia River salmon fisheries, the environmental justice movement, and globalization. This illustrated reference is an essential companion for students interested in the ongoing transformation of the American landscape and the conflicts over its resources and conservation. It makes rich use of the tools and resources (climatic and geological data, court records, archaeological digs, and the writings of naturalists) that environmental historians rely on to conduct their research. The volume also includes a compendium of significant people, concepts, events, agencies, and legislation, and an extensive bibliography of critical films, books, and Web sites.

Author : C. Clare Hinrichs,Thomas A. Lyson
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780803215788

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Remaking the North American Food System by C. Clare Hinrichs,Thomas A. Lyson Pdf

Examines the resurgence of interest in rebuilding the links between agricultural production and food consumption. With examples from Puerto Rico to Oregon to Quebec, this work offers a North American perspective attuned to trends toward globalization at the level of markets and governance and shows how globalization affects specific localities.

Author : David C. Soule
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 606 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2007-11-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0803260156

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Remaking American Communities by David C. Soule Pdf

Urban sprawl has gained much national attention in recent years. Sprawl involves not only land-use issues but also legal, political, and social concerns. It affects our schools, the environment, and race relations. Comprehensive enough for high school students and also appropriate for college undergraduates, Remaking American Communities delves into the challenges of urban sprawl by turning to some of America's top thinkers on the problem, including Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association. Other cutting-edge essays include a foreword about the emergence of sprawl by nationally syndicated columnist Neal Peirce, views about race and class by former mayor of Albuquerque David Rusk, and a discussion of transportation dynamics by Curtis Johnson, president of the Citistates Group. ø The essays in this collection explore the core issues of sprawl and the agenda for dealing with it. Complete with a glossary, resources, and contact information for smart-growth alliances, this book is extremely user-friendly. David C. Soule offers an unbiased viewpoint of this national phenomenon in a way that will be accessible to students and those with little background in the issue.