In Defense of Farmers

The Future of Agriculture in the Shadow of Corporate Power

Jane Gibson, Sara Alexander (Herausgeber)

Buch | Softcover

444 Seiten

2022
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-3054-6 (ISBN)

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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.

Jane W. Gibson is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas. Sara E. Alexander is a professor of anthropology at Baylor University. John K. Hansen is president of the Nebraska Farmers Union and chairman of the Legislative Committee for the National Farmers Union. He serves on the National Farmers Union Executive Committee.

List of Illustrations

Foreword by John K. Hansen

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Food System Imperiled

Jane W. Gibson

1. Power, Food, and Agriculture: Implications for Farmers, Consumers, and Communities

Mary K. Hendrickson, Philip H. Howard, and Douglas H. Constance

2. Chickenizing American Farmers

Donald D. Stull

3. Industrial Chicken Meat and the Good Life in Bolivia

Sarah Kollnig

4. Automating Agriculture: Precision Technologies, Agbots, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Jane W. Gibson

5. Water to Wine: Industrial Agriculture and Groundwater Regulation in California

Casey Walsh

6. Forecasting the Challenges of Climate Change for West Texas Wheat Farmers

Sara E. Alexander

7. From Partner to Consumer: The Changing Role of Farmers in the Public Agricultural Research Process on the Canadian Prairies

Katherine Strand

8. Transmission of the Brazil Model of Industrial Soybean Production: A Comparative Study of Two Migrant Farming Communities in the Brazilian Cerrado

Andrew Ofstehage

9. The Price of Success: Population Decline and Community Transformation in Western Kansas

Jane W. Gibson and Benjamin J. Gray

10. An Alternative Future for Food and Farming

John Ikerd

List of Contributors

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	20.04.2022
Reihe/Serie	Our Sustainable Future
Vorwort	John K. Hansen
Zusatzinfo	16 photographs, 4 maps, 7 tables, 3 graphs, index
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
Themenwelt	Technik
ISBN-10	1-4962-3054-X / 149623054X
ISBN-13	978-1-4962-3054-6 / 9781496230546
Zustand	Neuware