Download or read book Food and the Mid level Farm written by Thomas A. Lyson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture in the United States today increasingly operates in two separate spheres: large, corporate-connected commodity production and distribution systems and small-scale farms that market directly to consumers. As a result, midsize family-operated farms find it increasingly difficult to find and reach markets for their products. They are too big to use the direct marketing techniques of small farms but too small to take advantage of corporate marketing and distribution systems. This crisis of the midsize farm results in a rural America with weakened municipal tax bases, job loss, and population flight. Food and the Mid-Level Farm discusses strategies for reviving an "agriculture of the middle" and creating a food system that works for midsize farms and ranches. Activists, practitioners, and scholars from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, political science, and economics, consider ways midsize farms can regain vitality by scaling up aspects of small farms' operations to connect with consumers, organizing together to develop markets for their products, developing food supply chains that preserve farmer identity and are based on fair business agreements, and promoting public policies (at international, federal, state, and community levels) that address agriculture-of-the-middle issues. Food and the Mid-Level Farm makes it clear that the demise of midsize farms and ranches is not a foregone conclusion and that the renewal of an agriculture of the middle will benefit all participants in the food system--from growers to consumers. Thomas A. Lyson was Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Development Sociology at Cornell University until his death in 2006. He was the author of Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community. G.W. Stevenson is Senior Scientist with the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin-- Madison. Rick Welsh is Associate Professor of Sociology at Clarkson University.
Download or read book Food Policy in the United States written by Parke Wilde and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a broad introduction to food policies in the United States. Real-world controversies and debates motivate the book's attention to economic principles, policy analysis, nutrition science and contemporary data sources. It assumes that the reader's concern is not just the economic interests of farmers, but also includes nutrition, sustainable agriculture, the environment and food security. The book's goal is to make US food policy more comprehensible to those inside and outside the agri-food sector whose interests and aspirations have been ignored. The chapters cover US agriculture, food production and the environment, international agricultural trade, food and beverage manufacturing, food retail and restaurants, food safety, dietary guidance, food labeling, advertising and federal food assistance programs for the poor. The author is an agricultural economist with many years of experience in the non-profit advocacy sector, the US Department of Agriculture and as a professor at Tufts University. The author's well-known blog on US food policy provides a forum for discussion and debate of the issues set out in the book.
Download or read book Farming for Us All written by Michael Mayerfeld Bell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming for Us All gives us the opportunity to explore the possibilities for social, environmental, and economic change that practical, dialogic agriculture presents.
Download or read book The Farm Bill written by Daniel Imhoff and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Daniel Imhoffs recently-published The Farm Bill: A Citizens Guide [is] a welcome and much-needed source for translating farm bill legalese ... [it is] a thorough and navigable history of the farm bill ... [that] hands readers the tools to take action." Foodprint "Dan Imhoff does an extraordinary job of explaining an impenetrable bill with such clarity that we can't ignore the facts: that our current Farm Bill profoundly damages our organic farms, our environment, and our health. Just as extraordinary are the practical solutions Imhoff proposes for fixing the bill--humane policies that would support regenerative agriculture and our local farmers instead of tearing them down." Alice Waters, Executive Chef, Founder, and Owner, Chez Panisse "Cuts to the core of dozens of issues Congress wrestles with every four years, and gives citizens sage advice for making their voices heard in a debate too often dominated by Big Ag, Big Food, and Big Money." Ken Cook, President and Cofounder, Environmental Working Group "A must-read for those who truly care about how they feed themselves and their families." Michel Nischan, Founder and CEO, Wholesome Wave "Readers will gain deep insight into the big barriers to Farm Bill reform, but also into the ripening opportunities for major change. Imhoff makes a strong case for why we should care and what it will take to transform policy." Ferd Hoefner, Strategic Senior Advisor, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition "Dan Imhoff is the go-to person if you want to know both details and the full sweep of the Farm Bill." Wes Jackson, President Emeritus, The Land Institute.
Download or read book The Changing Scale of American Agriculture written by John Fraser Hart and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few Americans know much about contemporary farming, which has evolved dramatically over the past few decades. In The Changing Scale of American Agriculture, the award-winning geographer and landscape historian John Fraser Hart describes the transformation of farming from the mid-twentieth century, when small family farms were still viable, to the present, when a farm must sell at least $250,000 of farm products each year to provide an acceptable level of living for a family. The increased scale of agriculture has outmoded the Jeffersonian ideal of small, self-sufficient farms. In the past farmers kept a variety of livestock and grew several crops, but modern family farms have become highly specialized in producing a single type of livestock or one or two crops. As farms have become larger and more specialized, their number has declined. Hart contends that modern family farms need to become integrated into tightly orchestrated food-supply chains in order to thrive, and these complex new organizations of large-scale production require managerial skills of the highest order. According to Hart, this trend is not only inevitable, but it is beneficial, because it produces the food American consumers want to buy at prices they can afford. Although Hart provides the statistics and clear analysis such a study requires, his book focuses on interviews with farmers: those who have shifted from mixed crop-and-livestock farming to cash-grain farming in the Midwest agricultural heartland; beef, dairy, chicken, egg, turkey, and hog producers around the periphery of the heartland; and specialty crop producers on the East and West Coasts. These invaluable case studies bring the reader into direct personal contact with the entrepreneurs who are changing American agriculture. Hart believes that modern large-scale farmers have been criticized unfairly, and The Changing Scale of American Agriculture, the result of decades of research, is his attempt to tell their side of the story.
Download or read book Bet the Farm written by Beth Hoffman and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eloquent and detailed...It's hard to have hope, but the organized observations and plans of Hoffman and people like her give me some. Read her book -- and listen." -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post In her late 40s, Beth Hoffman decided to upend her comfortable life as a professor and journalist to move to her husband's family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money. Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019, and many struggle just to stay afloat. Bet the Farm chronicles this struggle through Beth's eyes. She must contend with her father-in-law, who is reluctant to hand over control of the land. Growing oats is good for the environment but ends up being very bad for the wallet. And finding somewhere, in the midst of COVID-19, to slaughter grass finished beef is a nightmare. If Beth can't make it, how can farmers who confront racism, lack access to land, or don't have other jobs to fall back on hack it? Bet the Farm is a first-hand account of the perils of farming today and a personal exploration of more just and sustainable ways of producing food.
Download or read book How NAFTA Will Affect U S Agriculture written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.
Download or read book Priorities in Agricultural Research of the U S Department of Agriculture written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 1444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conquest of the Land Through Seven Thousand Years written by Walter Clay Lowdermilk and published by . This book was released on 1948 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Agroterrorism why we re not ready written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Federal Monetary Policy and Its Effect on Small Business Credit controls and availability of credit written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Small Business. Subcommittee on Access to Equity Capital and Business Opportunities and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hearing s Before the Committee on Agriculture House of Representatives Eighty third Congress First Session written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1955 with total page 874 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 1950 with total page 1434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture House of Representatives Eighty fifth Congress written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1957 with total page 1260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The State of American Agriculture written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Long Range Farm Program written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 1792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
