In Defense of Farmers The Future of Agriculture in the Shadow of Corporate Power / edited by Jane W. Gibson and Sara E. Alexander ; foreword by John K. Hansen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Alexander, Sara E., editor.

Gibson, Jane W. (Jane Winslow), editor.

Series:

Our sustainable future.

Our sustainable future

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Farmers.

Agricultural industries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages).

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2019

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2019]

Summary:

Industrial agriculture is generally characterized as either the salvation of a growing, hungry, global population or as socially and environmentally irresponsible. Despite elements of truth in this polarization, it fails to focus on the particular vulnerabilities and potentials of industrial agriculture. Both representations obscure individual farmers, their families, their communities, and the risks they face from unpredictable local, national, and global conditions: fluctuating and often volatile production costs and crop prices; extreme weather exacerbated by climate change; complicated and changing farm policies; new production technologies and practices; water availability; inflation and debt; and rural community decline. Yet the future of industrial agriculture depends fundamentally on farmers' decisions. In Defense of Farmers illuminates anew the critical role that farmers play in the future of agriculture and examines the social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities of industrial agriculture, as well as its adaptations and evolution. Contextualizing the conversations about agriculture and rural societies within the disciplines of sociology, geography, economics, and anthropology, this volume addresses specific challenges farmers face in four countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. By concentrating on countries with the most sophisticated production technologies capable of producing the largest quantities of grains, soybeans, and animal proteins in the world, this volume focuses attention on the farmers whose labors, decision-making, and risk-taking throw into relief the implications and limitations of our global industrial food system. The case studies here acknowledge the agency of farmers and offer ways forward in the direction of sustainable agriculture.

Contents:

Power, food, and agriculture: implications for farmers, consumers, and communities / Mary K. Hendrickson, Philip H. Howard, and Douglas H. Constance

Chickenizing American farmers, or "Sometimes I feel like a galley slave" / Donald D. Stull

Industrial chicken meat and the good life in Bolivia / Sarah Kollnig

Automating agriculture: precision technologies, agbots, and the fourth Industrial Revolution / Jane W. Gibson

Water to wine: industrial agriculure and groundwater regulation in California / Casey Walsh

The challenges of climate change for West Texas wheat farmers / Sara E. Alexander

From partner to consumer: the changing role of farmers in the public agricultural research process on the Canadian prairies / Katherine Strand

Transmission of the Brazil model of industrial soybean production: a comparative study of two migrant farming communities in the Brazilian cerrado / Andrew Ofstehage

The price of success: population decline and community transformation in western Kansas / Jane W. Gibson and Benjamin J. Gray

An alternative future for food and farming / John Ikerd.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781496215918

1496215915

9781496215895

1496215893

OCLC:

1100588362