The Fate of Family Farming: Variations on an American Idea - Couverture rigide

Jager, Ronald

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1584650265 ISBN 13 : 9781584650263

Editeur : Nicolin Fields Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

The Fate of Family Farming employs a hands-on approach, with much local New England detail, in its exploration of the history and future of American family farming as an idea and as an ongoing way of life. Early chapters situate family farming within American history, beginning with Jamestown and Plymouth, continuing with Jefferson, Emerson and others, and including the technological transformations occuring in farming during the twentieth century. An extended chapter deals with the idea of "agrarianism," and considers in detail the work of Louis Bromfield, Victor Hanson, and Wendell Berry. The middle section of the book opens a window on present-day farming with detailed portraits of four farms devoted, respectively, to the production of maple syrup, eggs and corn, milk, and apples. The author takes the reader to the barns and fields of these farms, introduces the farm families, helps the reader taste the syrup and corn and smell the silage and, ultimately, enables others to see the economic and ecological challenges that farmers today face, and to consider their strategies for survival. In the last portion of the book the author provides a very accessible examination of the role of farm technology and global economics, including the many ironies of farming "success," followed by a chapter that balances the threat and promise of biotechnology, and a concluding analysis of the current struggle for "the soul of agriculture."

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Ronald Jager, formerly a professor of Philosophy at Yale University, grew up on a family farm in Michigan. He has written books on philosophy and history and numerous informal essays, and he is the author of the well-known Eighty Acres (1990) and Last House on the Road (1994). He lives with his wife in Washington, New Hampshire.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Nicolin Fields Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1584650265
• ISBN 13: 9781584650263
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible