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Farming for us all : practical agriculture & the cultivation of sustainability
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Farming for us all : practical agriculture & the cultivation of sustainability

Author: Michael Bell; et al
Publisher: University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004.
Series: Rural studies series (University Park, Pa.)
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Based on interviews and years of close interaction with over 60 Iowa farm families, Bell answers two critical questions concerning sustainable agriculture: why some farmers are becoming sustainable farmers and why, as yet, most are not. The first part of the book describes how the structure of agriculture has created a situation in which farmers are paid to undermine their own economic and social security, as well as  Read more...
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Farming for us all.
University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004
(OCoLC)607466034
Online version:
Farming for us all.
University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004
(OCoLC)608628716
Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Michael Bell; et al
ISBN: 0271023864 9780271023861 0271023872 9780271023878
OCLC Number: 54778472
Description: 299 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Contents: Overture: Cultivating sustainability. --
pt. I. The uncertain landscape of industrial agriculture. Economy and security ; Community and environment ; Home and family. --
pt. II. The culture of cultivation. Farming the self ; Farming knowledge. --
pt. III. The sustainable landscape of practical agriculture. Rolling a new cob ; Farming with practice ; New farms, new selves. --
Coda: Sustaining cultivation.
Series Title: Rural studies series (University Park, Pa.)
Responsibility: Michael Mayerfeld Bell ... [et al.] ; photography by Helen D. Gunderson.
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Abstract:

Based on interviews and years of close interaction with over 60 Iowa farm families, Bell answers two critical questions concerning sustainable agriculture: why some farmers are becoming sustainable farmers and why, as yet, most are not. The first part of the book describes how the structure of agriculture has created a situation in which farmers are paid to undermine their own economic and social security, as well as the security of the land. The second part explores why, nevertheless, most farmers carry on with these practices. And yet some farmers resist the tide of big agriculture. In the third part of the book, Bell examines Iowa's largest sustainable agriculture group, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), and finds a new model of social relations at work. Members of PFI seek to create an agriculture that engages others--farmers, university researchers, government officials, and consumers alike--in a common conversation about what agriculture might look like, but without insisting that a common conversation requires a common vision. Through dialogue, PFI members seek to cross-breed knowledge, to create pragmatic knowledge that gets the crops to grow in ways that sustain families, communities, societies, economies, and environments.

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