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ROOTED in the LAND
edited
by William Vitek and Wes Jackson
also:New
Roots for Agriculture, by Wes Jackson
"This book is a collection of new and
previously published essays
that take as their central theme the importance of "placed"
human communities. Not all landscapes should be inhabited by human
beings, but each of us is enriched to the extent that we can belong
to, and participate in, a well-ordered human community integrated
into the natural landscape of a particular place. A long tradition of
philosophers and social activists describes human beings as communal
by nature and advocates a life of civic virtue. And it was Aldo
Leopold in A
Sand County Almanac who clearly
articulated the inclusive notion of citizenship, a relation to land
founded on awareness, respect, and restraint. Rooted
in the Land offers the philosophical
perspectives and personal commitments of life lived with others and
in place.
We believe that this book stands out in another way.
our contributors represent a rich cross-section of academic
disciplines and social activism. Some authors engage in theoretical
distinctions, but always with a certain sense of their practical
applications. Many use personal narratives and experiences to
describe or validate theories of community or ecology. There are
spirited defenses of community life, theoretical discussions of the
nature of community, and practical suggestions for becoming connected
to others and native to a place. The book is divided by themes, not
by disciplines, and our contributors were asked to write or a general
audience of reflective readers with a wide variety of educational
exneriences. Our book is itself a community of writers and activists,
speaking from widely different perspectives but sharing similar goals
and commitments.
Contents
PREFACE
(quoted above)
Rediscovering
the Landscape
WILLIAM VITEK
1.
STANDING FIRM
ROOTLESSNESS
Leave
if You Can
HARRY W. PAIGE
The
Rootless Professors
ERIC
ZENCEY
Pseudocommunities
DAVID
EHRENFELD
From
Monoculture to Polyculture
PAUL
CUSTODIAL BUBE
PERSPECTIVES, LOCAL AND GLOBAL
An
Amish Perspective
DAVID D KLINE
The
Common Life
SCOTT RUSSELL
SANDERS
Living with
the Land
HELENA
NORBERG-HODGE
VALUING COMMUNITY
Defending
Small Farms, Small Towns, and GoodWork
LYNN
R. MILLER
Addicted to
Work
LINDA M. HASSELSTROM
Conserving
Communities
WENDELL
BERRY
Does
Community Have Value?—A Reply
CARL
D. ESBJORNSON
II. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
PLACE
Matfield
Green
WES
JACKSON
Dwelling:
Making Peace with Space and Place
DEBORAH
TALL
Coming
In to the Foodshed
CK
KLOPPENBURG, JR., JOHN HENDRICKSON, AND G. W. STEVENSON
"Placed"
between Promise and Command
WALTER
BRUEGGEMANN
THE ECOLOGICAL CONNECTION
Other
Selves
JOHN A.
LIVINGSTON
Aldo
Leopold as Hunter and Communitarian
FRANKLIN
A. KALINOWSKI
Aldo
Leopold and theValues of the Native
GREGORY
COOPER
Biological
Explanations and Environmental Expectations
KRISTIN
SHRADER-FRECHETTE
COMMUNITY CRITERIA
Barn
Raising
DANIEL
KEMMIS
Community
and theVirtue of Necessity
WILLIAM
VITEK
Defining
Normative Community
JOHN
B. COBB, JR.
In
Search of Community
PHILIP
SELZNICK
III. BECOMING NATIVE
Redeeming the
Land
RICHARD CARTWRIGHT
AUSTIN
Creating
Social Capital
CORNELIA BUTLER FLORA
AND JAN L. FLORA
Re-Ruralizing
Education
DAVID W. ORR
A
Public Philosophy for Civic Culture
WILLIAM
M. SULLIVAN
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Land:
Challenge and Opportunity
SUSAN WITT
AND ROBERT SWANN
Community-Supported
Agriculture: Rediscovering Community
JACK
KITTREDGE
Comrnunity
Farming in Massachusetts
BRIAN
DONAHUE
WORKS CITED 273
LIST
OF CONTRIBUTORS 281
INDEX 283
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rooted in the land: essays on
community and place / edited byWilliamVitek andWes Jackson
p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
0-300-06541-8 (cloth: alk. paper
ISBN 0-300-06961-8 (paper: alk.
paper)
1. Community 2.Community life.
I.Vitek,William. 1957-
lI.Jacksoll, Wes.
H M 131. R697 1996
307—dc20 96-12670
A
catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
"The plowshare may well have destroyed
more options for future generations than the sword" - Wes
Jackson
New Roots for Agriculture
Foreword
to the New Edition:
by
Wendell
Berry
"WES JACKSON'S book, New Roots For
Agriculture is a landmark. For some time
before the book came out, I had been hearing of it and of its author
by way of highly complimentary rumor, and the book did not disappoint
me. It offers sound, thoroughly documented criticism of the
assumptions and the effects of industrial
agriculture; for that alone the book would be valuable. But it
goes beyond criticism. It proposes practical remedies, pre-eminent
among them the idea of developing perennial grain crops, or as he
calls them herbaceous perennial seed-producing polycultures."
What
he is proposing, in other words, is a grain field that would lie
under the same live vegetative cover year after year like a pasture.
And, like a good pasture, it would not be seeded to monoculture, but
to a mixture of plants, not only to in increase productivity, but to
increase the range of nutritive value, to reduce the dependence on
purchased nitrogen, to reduce vulnerability to pests and disease—in
short, to benefit in every possible way from the principle of
diversity.
One does not need to reflect long upon the worst
problem and weaknesses of our present agriculture in order to see the
significance of this possibility. Perennial grains, once the
plantings were established, would be an ideal remedy for soil
erosion. Not only would our currently disastrous soil losses be
prevented but the soil would build and heal under the continuous
cover, exactly as it does under well-managed pasture. The dependence
on irrigation would be reduced, for these crops would use water more
efficiently.... "
Contents
Foreword
to the New Edition, by Wendell Berry
Preface
1
The Earth in
Review 5
The Four Failures
1. The Failure of
Stewardship 11
2. The Failure of Success 14
3.
The Failure of History and Prophecy 38
4.
The Failure of Organizations 51
The Pivotal Question
5. Agriculture: Tragedy— Or Problem with a Solution?; 61
Dimensions of a Solution
6. The Religious Dimension 66
7.
The Earth as Hearth— Or the Farm as Food Factory
;75
8. New Roots for Agriculture 93
A Vision for the Future
9. Outside the Solar Village: —
One Utopian Farm 118
Afterword to the New
Edition 133
Acknowledgments 149
Library of Congress
Cataloging in Publication Data
Jackson, Wes.
New roots for
agriculture.
Reprint. Originally published: San Francisco, Calif.:
Friends of the Earth; Salina, Kan.: Land
Institute, c1980. With new afterword.
1. Agriculture—United
States. 2. Agricultural ecology—United States. I. Title.
S441.J25
1985 333.7'6'0973 84-25694
ISBN 0-8032-7562-5 (pbk.)