Author Description

At no time in this century has there been such global uncertainty concerning the future stability of food and farm. While many Third World countries are unable to produce an adequate food supply for their inhabitants, the future of family farms in industrialized countries is jeopardized because food is overly abundant there. This book summarizes debates concerning the causes and solutions to these problems as seen by academics and policy planners in the fields of economic anthropology, economic development, and agricultural economics. Each section of the book presents important contributions concerning: (1) whether Third World governments should choose a unimodal or bimodal development strategy, (2) lessons from agricultural history, (3) agricultural sustainability, and (4) the persistence of mid-size family farms in industrial agricultures.