At present, only 10% of the value added in agriculture is actually added on the farm. About 40% of the value is added in creating the inputs (fertilizer, machinery, seeds, hired labor, fuel, pesticides, etc.), and 50% is added in processing, transportation and exchange after the farm commodities leave the farm gate...
Tag - farming
In West Central Minnesota, local farmers have been opposing an electrical transmission line for over four years. The resistance dates back to the very first information meeting staged by the utilities. The public relations person for the utility company said at the meeting, "You should be proud to have the biggest...
With the breeding and marketing of new “improved” varieties, traditional varieties are being replaced. Farmers and gardeners stop growing them. Field after field is planted with one variety. Where thousands of varieties of wheat once grew, only a few can now be seen. When these traditional plant varieties are lost...
The two scenarios just developed were (1) science as it is – researchers engaged in basic and applied research aimed at the mechanization of the tomato harvest – and (2) science as it could be – researchers engaged in basic and applied research aimed at the improvement of farmworkers' jobs. The first is science in...
This essay is reproduced here as it appeared in the print edition of the original Science for the People magazine. These web-formatted archives are preserved complete with typographical errors and available for reference and educational and activist use. Scanned PDFs of the back issues can be browsed by headline at...
If you drive through the New River Valley region of southwestern Virginia -the Virginia Highland-you will see as beautiful a land as you could ever imagine. A rural land, surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains on one side the Alleghenies on another, you'll see rolling hills and gentle valleys, forests on the steep...
This paper is addressed to people interested in agriculture and agricultural policy in relation to food production problems in the world today. In our opinion, many articles which attempt to discuss food production problems fall into two disjoint categories:
This year I have been growing vegetables in my backyard, and when I can, baking my own bread. While a sense of back-to-the-earth may be a part of my motivations, my vegetable garden is also, in a way, my personal protest against capitalism. I have come to realize that foods are corporate products, not grown to feed...