The Curse of American Agricultural Abundance: A Sustainable Solution

by Willard Wesley Cochrane, Richard A. Levins (Foreword)

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 1953–66 and 1997–2002. 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, or bear the environmental consequences of all-out production. Instead, he outlines a bold new strategy for how we can enjoy our abundance and focus our efforts on quality of life and protecting the environment in our rural areas.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003