Food and the Mid-Level Farm
Food, Health, and the Environment Series Editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College Keith Douglass Warner, Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture through Social Networks Christopher M. Bacon, V. Ernesto Me´ndez, Stephen R. Gliessman, David Goodman, and Jonathan A. Fox, eds., Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Sustaining Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America Thomas A. Lyson, G. W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh, eds., Food and the Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle
Food and the Mid-Level Farm Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle
edited by Thomas A. Lyson, G. W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
( 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email
[email protected] mitpress.mit.edui This book was set in Sabon on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed on recycled paper and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Food and the mid-level farm : renewing an agriculture of the middle / edited by Thomas A. Lyson, G. W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh. p. cm.—(Food, health, and the environment) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-12299-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-62215-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Family farms—United States. 2. Farm produce—United States—Marketing. I. Lyson, Thomas A. II. Stevenson, G. W. III. Welsh, Rick. IV. Series. HD1476.U6F66 2008 338.10973—dc22 2007031164 10
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To Fred Buttel and Tom Lyson, friends, colleagues, and scholars
Contents
Series Foreword Preface xi
ix
I
Agriculture of the Middle: Why Farm Structure Matters
1
Why Worry about the Agriculture of the Middle? 3 Fred Kirschenmann, G. W. Stevenson, Frederick Buttel, Thomas A. Lyson, and Mike Duffy
2
Pursuing Long-Term Food and Agricultural Security in the United States: Decentralization, Diversification, and Reduction of Resource Intensity 23 Kenneth A. Dalhberg
II Organizational Structures That Could Support an Agriculture of the Middle 3
Cooperative Structure for the Middle: Mobilizing for Power and Identity 37 Thomas W. Gray and G. W. Stevenson
4
Is Relationship Marketing an Alternative to the Corporatization of Organics? A Case Study of OFARM 55 Amy Guptill and Rick Welsh
5
Contractual Integration in Agriculture: Is There a Bright Side for Agriculture of the Middle? 79 Mary Hendrickson, William Heffernan, David Lind, and Elizabeth Barham
III Bringing Mid-Level Supply Chains and Consumers Together 6
Consumer Considerations and the Agriculture of the Middle Eileen Brady and Caitlin O’Brady
103
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Contents
Values-Based Supply Chains: Strategies for Agrifood Enterprises of the Middle 119 G. W. Stevenson and Rich Pirog
IV Policies That Could Support the Agriculture of the Middle 8
Toward a Pro-Middle Farm Policy: What Will It Take to Ensure a Promising Future for Family Farming? 147 Daryll E. Ray and Harwood D. Schaffer
9
Agriculture of the Middle: Lessons Learned from Civic Agriculture 165 Thomas A. Lyson
10 The Effect of Laws That Foster Agricultural Bargaining: Apple Growers in Mic