Willard Cochrane And The American Family Farm

Author : Richard A. Levins
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 0803299796
Total Pages : 105 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm written by Richard A. Levins and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2016-07 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Willard Cochrane watched the dramatic decline in American family farming from a vantage point few can claim. He became one of the country's premier agricultural economists and carried the standard of liberalism for President Kennedy in the last serious fight to save the family farm. Then, for forty long years, he held to the principles while traditional agriculture faded into what he once called "family farms in form but not in spirit." This book is about the spirit of family farming: Thomas Jefferson's dream of an agrarian democracy. What should we do in the face of globalization, high technology, and corporate control of our food supply? Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm recounts how one man faced these issues and where he would wish us to go in the twenty-first century.

Author : Willard W. Cochrane
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 0816657319
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The City Man's Guide to the Farm Problem written by Willard W. Cochrane and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1965-09-10 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The City Man's Guide to the Farm Problem was first published in 1965. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Few domestic questions are so controversial as the farm problem, yet the average city man finds it difficult to understand the basic issues involved. In this book Professor Cochrane describes for the layman the nature and causes of the commercial farm problem and the rural poverty problem and provides the basis for making informed judgments about these problems and their possible solutions. He analyzes the economic and political forces which are at work in the farm economy, explains the organization of modern agriculture, showing the unique structure of farming, and draws a vivid picture of the revolutionary developments which have taken place in agriculture. He discusses behavior patterns of farmers and consumers as they relate to the farm economy, and the role of government in the farm industry and in the lives of farmers. The analysis and discussion make clear the reasons why the government is so deeply involved in farm issues and point up what will be needed in order to make some headway toward solutions of the problems. Professor Cochrane emphasizes that there is no perfect solution to the farm problem but he provides the information and analyses from which the reader can gain a better understanding of the issues. Sixteen photographic illustrations show old and new methods of farming and types of equipment. There are also a number of charts, graphs, and tables. Willard W. Cochrane is dean of international programs and a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota. He was director of agricultural economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and economic adviser to the Secretary of Agriculture from 1961 to 1964, and served as agricultural adviser to John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign. He is the author also of Farm Prices: Myth and Reality.

Author : Willard Wesley Cochrane
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 9780803215290
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Curse of American Agricultural Abundance written by Willard Wesley Cochrane and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advisor to President Kennedy, consultant for foreign governments, and spokesman for family farmers everywhere, Willard W. Cochrane has been a leading expert on agriculture and its problems in the United States since the 1940s. In his straightforward style Cochrane analyzes the propensity for American agriculture to produce too much and the inability of our social and economic system to make effective use of that unending abundance. He then offers his vision for American agriculture in the twenty-first century. Cochrane looks at two periods in agricultural history: 195366 and 19972002. Structurally, technologically, and organizationally the two periods are as different as night and day, but in terms of the big economic picture--too much production pressing on a limited commercial demand with resulting low farm prices and incomes--they are mirror images of each other. With this understanding, Cochrane argues that Americans no longer need to farm fragile ecosystems with intensive chemical methods, make huge payments that result in fewer farms and higher farming costs, nor bear the environmental consequences of all-out production. Instead, he outlines a bold new strategy in which we can enjoy our abundance and focus our efforts on quality of life and protecting the environment in our rural areas. Willard W. Cochrane is the author of numerous books, including The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis, and coauthor of Reforming Farm Policy: Toward a National Agenda. Richard A. Levins is a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota and the author of Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm (Nebraska 2003).

Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 9780803217485
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.8X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Family Farming written by and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans decry the decline of family farming but stand by helplessly as industrial agribusiness takes over. The prevailing sentiment is that family farms should survive for important social, ethical, and economic reasons. But will they? This timely book exposes the biases in American farm policies that irrationally encourage expansion, biases evident in federal commodity programs, income tax provisions, and subsidized credit services. Family Farming also exposes internal conflicts, particularly the conflict between the private interests of individual farmers and the public interest in family farming as a whole. It challenges the assumption that bigger is better, critiques the technological basis of modern agriculture, and calls for farming practices that are ethical, economical, and ecologically sound. The alternative policies discussed in this book could yet save the family farm, and the ways and means of saving it are argued here with special urgency. ø This Bison Books edition includes a new introduction by the author providing a more national perspective, underscoring the repetitive cycles of American agriculture over the decade, and assessing the major policy issues that have dominated agriculture in recent years.

Author : Paul K. Conkin
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 081313868X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Revolution Down on the Farm written by Paul K. Conkin and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

Author : Willard W. Cochrane
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 9781452900537
Total Pages : 524 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Development of American Agriculture written by Willard W. Cochrane and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Walter William Wilcox
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 616 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Economics of American Agriculture written by Walter William Wilcox and published by . This book was released on 1951 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Willard W. Cochrane
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 0816657327
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Farm Prices written by Willard W. Cochrane and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1958-01-01 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farm Prices was first published in 1958. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Few domestic questions are so controversial as the farm problem, yet the average city man finds it difficult to understand the basic issues involved. In this book Professor Cochrane describes for the layman the nature and causes of the commercial farm problem and the rural poverty problem and provides the basis for making informed judgments about these problems and their possible solutions. He analyzes the economic and political forces which are at work in the farm economy, explains the organization of modern agriculture, showing the unique structure of farming, and draws a vivid picture of the revolutionary developments which have taken place in agriculture. He discusses behavior patterns of farmers and consumers as they relate to the farm economy, and the role of government in the farm industry and in the lives of farmers. Farm prices are constantly fluctuating, and out of this price variability emerge such serious and continuing farm problems as variable incomes, low incomes over extended periods, and uncertainty in production planning. In this study Professor Cochrane seeks to get at the root of the trouble by, first, exploring and exposing what he considers a basic fallacy in our present day thinking and approach to the farm problem. This is the widely held myth of an automatically adjusting agriculture, an agriculture that is always out of balance because of an "emergency." This myth, he points out, beclouds the issues involved in the whole farm problem. The farm price myth splits two ways in the public mind, Mr. Cochrane explains, but these divergent attitudes represent differences only in mechanics, not in principle, and they are equally effective in obscuring the real picture. One segment of the public believes that agriculture, if left alone for a while, would gravitate toward and stabilize at some desirable level and pattern of prices, production, and incomes. The other segment believes that the same result would occur if agriculture were given a temporary, helping hand by the government. Mr. Cochrane shows the fallacies inherent in both of these convictions by presenting an integrated, overall picture of farm price behavior as it really exists. On a basis of this realistic view, he presents the two alternatives or hard policy choices that he believes the American farmer faces today. Willard W. Cochrane is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of a number of books, including The City Man's Guide to the Farm Problem and Farm Prices: Myth and Reality. He previously served as an economist with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is the co-author of Economics of American Agriculture and Economics of Consumption.

Author : Thomas A. Lyson
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262622157
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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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.

Author : Paul B. Thompson
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813125871
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Agrarian Vision written by Paul B. Thompson and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2010-07-07 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As industry and technology proliferate in modern society, sustainability has jumped to the forefront of contemporary political and environmental discussions. The balance between progress and the earth's ability to provide for its inhabitants grows increasingly precarious as we attempt to achieve sustainable development. In The Agrarian Vision: Sustainability and Environmental Ethics, Paul B. Thompson articulates a new agrarian philosophy, emphasizing the vital role of agrarianism in modern agricultural practices. Thompson, a highly regarded voice in environmental philosophy, unites concepts of agrarian philosophy, political theory, and environmental ethics to illustrate the importance of creating and maintaining environmentally conscious communities. Thompson describes the evolution of agrarian values in America, following the path blazed by Thomas Jefferson, John Steinbeck, and Wendell Berry. Providing a pragmatic approach to ecological responsibility and commitment, The Agrarian Vision is a significant, compelling argument for the practice of a reconfigured and expanded agrarianism in our efforts to support modern industrialized culture while also preserving the natural world.