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The Visible Hands That Feed approaches the food sector against the backdrop of its pivotal role for social and ecological relations to trace the potentials and limitations for sustainable change from within.

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.

Explores some of the most pressing and compelling aspects of contemporary urban governance in the United States. Serin Houston uses a case study of Seattle to shed light on how ideas about environmentalism, privilege, oppression, and economic growth have become entwined in contemporary discourse and practice in American cities.

The Great Plains were once characterized by vast expanses of grass, complex interdependence among species, and dynamic annual changes due to weather, waterways, and fire. It is now generally accepted that less than one percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains. Daniel Licht offers here a bold new approach to restoring and conserving the grassland ecosystem.

In Defense of Farmers illuminates anew the critical role 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.

Analyzes the potential and the limits of various research approaches associated with alternative agriculture. This title proposes reforms in institutional aspects of agricultural research - the organization of academic departments, evaluation of professional achievement, functioning of grant programs, and the education of agricultural researchers.

Conventional agriculture has attempted to exploit arable land by applying chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water. This volume argues that instead of changing the environment, we can change the adaptation of the plants that we grow in it.

Addresses issues previously viewed as primarily technical concerning the germplasm debate: that is, how, what, and where to store the range of genetic materials necessary to reproduce plants. By examining Brazil, Chile, France, and the United States, tis book shows how different cultures respond to the decline in genetic diversity.

Provides an environmental history and historical geography that tells the story of human defiance and human commitment within the Ogallala region. It describes the Great Plains' natural resources, the history of settlement and dryland farming, and the remarkable irrigation technologies that have industrialized farming in the region.

Uses previously untapped sources to discover and explore various low-carbon locations. In Washington DC, Chicago suburbs, lower Manhattan, and Amish settlements in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Susan Subak examines the built and social environment to discern the characteristics that contribute to lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

Urban sprawl involves not only land-use issues but also legal, political, and social concerns. It affects our schools, the environment, and race relations. This book delves into the challenges of urban sprawl by turning to some of America's top thinkers on the problem. It explores the core issues of urban sprawl and the agenda for dealing with it.

Confronted with the dual mandate of production and preservation, the US Forest Service decided it could achieve both goals through more intensive management. This title explains the controversy raging over the US Forest Service's management of America's national forests.

Examines the lower to middle-income family farmers and the rural rehabilitation program designed to help them.

Traces the manner in which alternative farmers have developed and exchanged their own personal, local knowledge as a basis for moving toward an agricultural system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. This book studies the patterns of local and regional networks in Wisconsin that disseminate agricultural methods.

Examines the resurgence of interest in rebuilding the links between agricultural production and food consumption as a way to overcome some of the negative implications of industrial and globalizing trends in the food and agricultural system. This work describes the many efforts throughout North America that can improve social and health outcomes.

Examines the history of Missouri River water development projects in general and describes the struggle over one of the largest of those projects, South Dakota's Oahe irrigation project, in detail.

When the author first lived in sustainable housing, he was young, idealistic, and not much susceptible to compromise - until rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, and loneliness drove him out of the utilities-free yurt he'd built in New Mexico. This book chronicles these two remarkable attempts to live simply in two disparate American eras.

We don't have an energy crisis. We have a consumption crisis.

Draws on interviews, archival material, and the author's own extensive experience as a journalist to present a timely, informative account of the complicated and troubling agricultural practice in Nebraska - and to put a human face on its causes and consequences. The result is the story of a struggle for the heart and soul of rural America.

A provocative and fascinating look at the benefits of organic farming; essential for farmers, consumers, and policymakers.

Green plans are strategies developed for moving from industrial environmental deterioration to postindustrial sustainability. This overview of green plans provides an examination of their theory, implementation, and performance across the globe, highlighting the challenges and successes of green plans in different countries.

With the decline of family farms and rural communities and the rise of corporate farming and the resulting environmental degradation, American agriculture is in crisis. But this crisis offers the opportunity to rethink agriculture in sustainable terms. This collection describes what sustainable agriculture is, why it began, and how it can succeed.