A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929University Press of Kentucky, 2008 M09 1 - 240 páginas 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. ConkinŐs lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores AmericaŐs 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. |
Contenido
1 | |
2 The Traditional Family Farm | 31 |
3 A New Deal for Agriculture 19301938 | 51 |
4 World War II and Its Aftermath | 77 |
5 Dimensions of an Agricultural Revolution | 97 |
6 Surpluses and Payments | 123 |
7 Farming in the Twentyfirst Century | 147 |
8 Alternatives | 175 |
Afterword | 201 |
Notes | 207 |
215 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture ... Paul K. Conkin Vista previa limitada - 2008 |
A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture ... Paul K. Conkin Vista de fragmentos - 2008 |
A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture ... Paul K. Conkin Sin vista previa disponible - 2009 |
Términos y frases comunes
acreage acres African American agricul Agricultural Adjustment Agricultural Adjustment Act agricultural revolution American agriculture American farms amount antibiotics areas average became beef chickens combines Congress conservation consumers cooperatives corn cost cotton cows crop loans cultivated Department of Agriculture domestic allotment early electricity erosion export farm bill Farm Board farm income farm operators farm policy farm prices farmers federal feed funds gain grain Greeneville growers growing growth harvest herbicides hogs horses Hutterites increased insecticides involved John Deere Kingsport labor land land-grant universities least livestock loan rate machines major manure meat milk million nitrates nonrecourse loans nutrients off-farm organic farming parity payments plant plow price supports problem revolution rural seed sharecroppers small farmers soil sold soybeans subsidies surpluses Sustainable Agriculture synthetic fertilizers threshing tion tobacco tractors vegetables wheat World World War ii