Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography, 11)
by Julie Guthman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Julie GuthmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-08-04
ISBN: 0520240952
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: University of California Press
Book Reviews of Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography, 11)
Book Review: Original, Intellectually Engaging: It Rips Stale Myths Apart
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, everything you think you know about organic agriculture gets brilliantly demolished and reformulated in this innovative and ground breaking book. Think you know about small family farmers in California? Well, get ready to learn about the real corporate farming tradition, especially in the Central Valley. Think a new generation of organic farms makes for some sort of new utopia? Well, you're living in an "agrarian dream" if you think conditions for agricultural workers get transformed automatically in a more "organic" world.
I eat organic food all the time and myth after myth that I have accepted gets exposed in this book. Think the regulators are always on the side of the little guy? Think eating organic food automatically creates a more sustainable food system? Think you're "going back to nature" if you eat organic? Well, Guthman lays out how all of us have to think critically and take concerted action if we really want to change the power relations of today's industrial agriculture.
And yet I finished this book more exhilirated and inspired to
think about and work toward a new world of sustainable agriculture. And with my eyes now wide open that when I'm eating an organic apple that doesn't transform the world or ease the exploitation of those working the land. I see this as a seminal work in showing us clearly how to tear off our blinders and move from our agrarian "dreams' to a new agrarian reality.
Summary of Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography, 11)
In an era of escalating food politics, many believe organic farming to be the agrarian answer. In this first comprehensive study of organic farming in California, Julie Guthman casts doubt on the current wisdom about organic food and agriculture, at least as it has evolved in the Golden State. Refuting popular portrayals of organic agriculture as a small-scale family farm endeavor in opposition to "industrial" agriculture, Guthman explains how organic farming has replicated what it set out to oppose.General Books
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