Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community

Contents

contents List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii 1. Introduction: Community Agriculture and Local Food Systems 1 Civic Agriculture 1 Farming and Food Today 2 A Place for Civic Agriculture 6 Plan of the Book 7 2. From Subsistence to Production: How American Agriculture Was Made Modern 8 Agriculture and Rural Life 8 The Emergence of Modern Economic Forms 12 Early Agricultural Development 15 Three Agricultural Revolutions 19 The Social Construction of Modern Economic Categories 22 Civic Economy, Economic Embeddedness, and the Informal Economy 24 The Civic/Embedded Economy in the United States 25 3. Going Global: The Industrialization and Consolidation of Agriculture and Food Production in the United States 30 From Craft Production to Mass Production 30 The Trend toward Concentration and Consolidation 31 Changing Geography of Production 37 Distancing: Separating Production and Consumption 39 [vii] [vii] contents [viii] Control of Farmland 40 Labor Intensification 42 Supply Chains 45 4. The Global Supply Chain 48 The Global Food System 48 The Jolly Green Giant as a Corporate Migrant 50 Grocery Wars 52 Corporate Reach: The Men and Women behind the Food System 54 Whither the Poor Consumer? 57 5. Toward a Civic Agriculture 61 Moving toward Civic Agriculture 61 Theoretical Underpinnings of Civic Agriculture 64 Walter Goldschmidt’s Landmark Study 66 Production Districts 68 Two Models of Agricultural Development 70 Neoclassical Economics versus Pragmatism 71 Production versus Development Frameworks 73 Experimental Biology versus Ecological Biology 74 Corporate versus Community Orientation 75 Corporate Middle Class versus Independent Middle Class 76 Political Processes and Power 76 Motors for Change 77 Civic Agriculture and Sustainable Agriculture 78 Why Didn’t Small Business Flourish? 81 6. Civic Agriculture and Community Agriculture Development 84 Profiling Civic Agriculture 84 Community-Supported Agriculture 87 Restaurant Agriculture 91 Farmers’ Markets 91 Roadside Stands 93 Urban Agriculture, City Farming, Community Gardens 95 Measuring Civic Agriculture 97 7. From Commodity Agriculture to Civic Agriculture 99 Commodity Agriculture 99 Refashioning Farming to Fit the Marketplace 101 Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community: Tools for Change 103 Civic Agriculture: Moving from the Marketplace to the Community 105 Notes 107 Bibliography 121 Index 133 contents [ix] ...