Women and Sustainable Agriculture: Interviews with 14 Agents of Change

by Anna Anderson

This book looks deeply into the American food system and closely examines the need for change in the way food is grown and distributed in the United States. It is composed of twelve interviews with dynamic women who work on issues surrounding modern agriculture. These women are producers, academicians, advocates and activists. Some work in agricultural law and policy. All are devoted to changing the current system. Within a framework that offers brief overviews of the development of U.S. agriculture, the interviews allow the reader to hear firsthand what has gone wrong and what we can do about it. Part One focuses on concepts of traditional agriculture, organic growing and market viability. Part Two discusses pioneering agriculture and the process of restoring our farms to thriving habitats of biodiversity with clean water and healthy soil. Part Three considers the issues of industrial agriculture, exploring the controversy of genetically modified foods, farm foreclosures, and the 2002 Farm Bill. Part Four returns us to sustainable agriculture and how we can make sustainability work for us. It includes discussions of farmers’ markets, co-ops, and local food systems.

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand what's at stake for our country if we continue to mishandle farming, read this terrific book. Each narrative inquiry profile is educational and inspiring but never preachy. Anna Anderson captures the essence of these heroic, dynamic women devoted to sustainable agriculture. Want to make a compelling argument? Go directly to the source and let them talk. Here I go again, but hey, this is why narrative nonfiction Rocks!

Cornelia Butler Flora is the woman who created the first Organic Food Bill, which each year she fights to keep in place. It is really the only bill that convincingly monitors the way food is processed in our country.

La Rhea Pepper, a fifth generation farmer in Texas, is one of my favorites. When her farm almost fell to ruin, she singlehandedly changed the cotton industry as we know it. Cotton accounts for only 3 percent of our cropland worldwide, and yet it uses 25 percent of our pesticides. Pepper's company, Organic Essentials and Cotton Plus, sells organic fabric and now years later, her four-pronged conglomerate is never short for customers, people want to do what’s right, since currently, one pound of pesticides are used to grown three pounds of cotton need to make a t-shirt and one pair of jeans. This book will convince you that change is necessary, why we must support local farmers, and most importantly how anyone can participate.

There's no bitter shrill leveled against the uninitiated. Real stories about real women who made significant changes. When a man asks, "I live in Chicago? Why should I care about your small, local community of farmers?" A farmer's answer is simple, direct and practical: Because the country is already spending billions of dollars to subsidize people that produce things that are economically unsound, bad for you, and destroying economics in developing countries--and it doesn't have to be that way. Really.

[Rita]

recommended by Mary Louise