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agriculture 20

Socialism, Localism, and the Future of Industrial Agriculture

If I’m honest, I am skeptical that the localist approach I advocate will bring about a quasi-utopian future of widespread flourishing, at least within my lifetime. But at least localism…

Fear and Hope in the Hay Field

We need to love smaller, more energy-efficient houses and cars in order to love people more. We need to give up much of our casual oil consumption for leisure. We…

Does Food Policy Matter? A Review of Small Farm Republic

Folks reading this site might, and there is a minority of the public that spends the time and money to grow produce or seek out good, local farms. But most…

What’s the Beef with Cows?

Cows do not kill people; people kill people. Especially people who claim cows are the problem. Cows are key players in solving the problems created by industrial agriculture.

A Twenty-First Century Agronomic University: The Maurin Academy

We use the experience of the JPII farm not only to learn and improve over time but to inform our audience of the realities and pitfalls of attempting this way…

The Coming Cow Wars: Why Raising Cows is a Revolutionary Act

To nurture small-scale local agriculture is to oppose the Maoist, Stalinesque, Hitlerian, Huxlian, Schwabian, Gatesian push to monopolize global food production. My cows plod the Underground. And I plod along…

Hillbilly Grace on a Five-Acre Farm in Lincoln, Arkansas: A Review of Minari

Minari is haunted by O’Connor, as Chung explores the theme of misfits and “hard to find” good men (and women) that jolt our senses toward who we truly are, including…

Bees’ Wings & Zerks

Supportive efforts can steer this ingenious workforce toward better stewardship and environmental integrity by reclaiming that awe that life on the land should inspire.

The Consumer: Time to Wake the Sleeping Giant

In my first essay here at Front Porch Republic, I wrote about the idea that creation-friendly agriculture is not about going back to old fashioned ways, but is actually quite…

Feeding the World from the Bottom Up

It is natural and normal, when looking at big problems, to look for big answers. Problems do not come much bigger than the subject of Eric Holt-Giménez’s new book, whose driving…

The Names of Things

An old painting by John Miles of Northleach imagines Adam in the midst of naming all the animals in the Garden of Eden. Adam stands in the middle of the…

The Mother of All Arts

“Whoever it was who said that agriculture is the mother and nurse of all other arts was right, because when agriculture is faring well, all the other arts are strengthened…

Fathers and Sons, and Gardens

“The land provides the greatest abundance of good things, but doesn’t allow them to be taken without effort.” “Furthermore, the land also freely teaches justice to those who are capable…

Why We Consent to the Wholesale Destruction of Good Land

Harrison County, Ohio. After I first moved to Harrison County, my smaller children used to beg that we drive home after excursions via a little-used road that passes through a…

Which Came First, the Chicken or the McNugget?

In many ways, the Los Angeles County Fair is not so different from county fairs all over the country ... except for its agricultural exhibit.

Technique and Food: Why our Local Food System does not Feed Us

Here are the local puzzle pieces that we somehow need to fit together: great farms; committed, hard working farmers; a university of world class researchers; a highly participatory local political…

Community & Language

Their language is hopeful and would be recognizable to any tobacco farmer of the last hundred years. But now they are talking about food.

The Book You Should Read This Year

Claremont, CA. They call it the “Superman Syndrome.” People who use methamphetamine often believe that they are capable of doing impossible things. Like flying. Or walking through walls. Or earning…

Against Monoculture

In plant or animal life, a single virus or bacteria, a single destructive fungus or disease, a single hostile predator or pest would wipe out an entire monoculture without the…

The Rediscovery of Agriculture?

RINGOES, NJ. Recently, a friend and I visited Polyface Farm outside Staunton, Virginia. Polyface is owned and operated by Joel Salatin, whose parents started farming these verdant five-hundred acres in…
Mark T. Mitchell
March 25, 2009