Planting the Future: Developing an Agriculture That Sustains Land and Community - Softcover

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Few Americans give a second thought to the source of their food and fiber. Fewer still pause to consider how agricultural practices affect the natural environment, farm families, and rural communities. Yet, as a nation, we face critical choices today that will determine the future character of our rural landscape.

• Which approaches to farming hold the most promise of protecting the natural environment while maintaining opportunities for beginning farmers and revitalizing rural communities?


• What public action is needed to enable and encourage farmers to use more sustainable farming practices?

Written for a wide audience, and especially for those involved in policy-making, Planting the Future addresses these questions by

describing the character of "sustainable" and "conventional" farms in the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains;

Assessing the socioeconomic impacts of these different approaches to farming;

Highlighting the agricultural research alternatives needed to advance sustainable agriculture; and

Providing policy options.

Planting the Future offers a rare blend of scientific findings, reflection on the research experience, and analysis of policy implications. This mixture has grown from a diversity of cooperating investigators and authors: Social and agricultural scientists, farmers, and advocates.

Planting the Future is the final report of a multi-state cooperative research effort sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation of St. Paul, Minnesota.