Description
Originally published in 1994, this book examines the importance of family agricultural systems in both the developed and the developing worlds. Throughout the world, and throughout history, the family unit has been at the heart of agricultural systems. Working together, families not only furnish their own needs, but form the basis for society itself: they provide the labour, population, resources and the market to maintain much of the world’s economic and social development. But the global race for financial prosperity, with its large-scale intensive farming techniques, is increasingly undermining the family’s role in food production and social cohesion. This book explores both traditional and modern farming techniques and looks at their different consequences for national agricultural resources and for rural societies. Finally, it suggests ways in which technology can be harnessed to meet the needs of the family rather than undermine it, in order to achieve a viable and sustainable agriculture for the future.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2 Family Agriculture Around the World 3. The Social Role of Family Agriculture 4. Ecology and Agriculture 5. Sustainable Agriculture 6. Family Agriculture and Family Values 7. Food Security 8. Land Consolidation, for Production or Power? 9. Agricultural Policy: Shell and Pea Games 10. An Enemy Within 11. Information Systems and Survival Techniques 12. Earth Husbandry, an International Soil Building Program for the Next Century 13. The Future of Family Agriculture in the Developing Nations 14. The Future of Family Agriculture in the Developed Nations.
