Civic Agriculture
Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community
Publication Year: 2012
Lyson describes how, in the course of a hundred years, a small-scale, diversified system of farming became an industrialized system of production and also how this industrialized system has gone global. He argues that farming in the United States was modernized by employing the same techniques and strategies that transformed the manufacturing sector from a system of craft production to one of mass production. Viewing agriculture as just another industrial sector led to transformations in both the production and the processing of food. As small farmers and food processors were forced to expand, merge with larger operations, or go out of business, they became increasingly disconnected from the surrounding communities. Lyson enumerates the shortcomings of the current agriculture and food systems as they relate to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. He then introduces the concept of community problem solving and offers empirical evidence and concrete examples to show that a re-localization of the food production system is underway.
Published by: Tufts University Press
Cover
Title Page, Copyright Page
Contents
Download PDF (36.7 KB)
pp. vii-x
Tables
Download PDF (24.6 KB)
pp. xi-xii
Acknowledgments
Download PDF (35.1 KB)
pp. xiii-xviii
The path to civic agriculture began in 1988 when I became the director of Cornell’s Farming Alternatives Program (FAP). Although the program was established during the farm crisis of the mid-1980s to help New York farmers “ease out” of dairying and into “alternative enterprises,” its mission...
1. Introduction: Community Agriculture and Local Food Systems
Download PDF (53.8 KB)
pp. 1-7
While the American food and agriculture system follows a decades-old path of industrialization and globalization, a counter trend toward localizing some agriculture and food production has appeared. I call this rebirth of locally based agriculture and food production civic agriculture, because...
2. From Subsistence to Production: How American Agriculture Was Made Modern
Download PDF (92.1 KB)
pp. 8-29
Less than one hundred years ago most rural households in the United States sustained themselves by farming. While some agricultural products were sold for money on the open market, others were produced solely for household consumption or for bartering with neighbors. All family members, including...
3. Going Global: The Industrialization and Consolidation of Agriculture and Food Production in the United States
Download PDF (79.9 KB)
pp. 30-47
Large-scale, factory-like farms account for the bulk of food and fiber produced in the United States today. The mass production of food has articulated with mass consumer markets to offer consumers relatively inexpensive, standardized products. The range of agricultural commodities produced in...
4. The Global Supply Chain
Download PDF (70.6 KB)
pp. 48-60
The contours of a truly global system of agriculture and food production are quickly coming into focus. From the biotechnology laboratories to the dinner table, large multinational corporations are taking control of where, when, and how food is produced, processed, and distributed. As Bill Heffernan, a rural sociologist at the University of Missouri, recently...
5. Toward a Civic Agriculture
Download PDF (93.4 KB)
pp. 61-83
Agriculture and food production is being restructured in the United States. On the one hand, large-scale, well-managed, capital-intensive, technologically sophisticated, industrial-like operations are becoming tightly tied into a network of national and global food producers. These farms will be producing large quantities of highly standardized bulk commodities...
6. Civic Agriculture and Community Agriculture Development
Download PDF (74.5 KB)
pp. 84-98
The industrial type of agriculture produces most of America’s food and fiber. However, a new form of civic agriculture that does not fit this conventional model of food production is emerging throughout the country and especially on the East and West Coasts. In this new civic agriculture, local agriculture...
7. From Commodity Agriculture to Civic Agriculture
Download PDF (55.5 KB)
pp. 99-106
As American agriculture turns down the path of a new century, we see that the independent, self-reliant farmer of the last century is rapidly disappearing from the rural landscape. Farmers, who were once the backbone of the rural economy, have been reduced to mere cogs in a well-oiled agribusiness...
Notes
Download PDF (68.3 KB)
pp. 107-120
Bibliography
Download PDF (66.5 KB)
pp. 121-132
Index
Download PDF (45.1 KB)
pp. 133-142
E-ISBN-13: 9781611683035
E-ISBN-10: 1611683033
Print-ISBN-13: 9781584654131
Page Count: 160
Publication Year: 2012
Series Title: Civil Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
