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Advisor to President Kennedy, consultant for foreign governments, and spokesman for family farmers everywhere, Willard W. Cochrane has been a leading expert on agriculture and its problems in the United States since the 1940s. In his straightforward style Cochrane analyzes the propensity for ...

Advisor to President Kennedy, consultant for foreign governments, and spokesman for family farmers everywhere, Willard W. Cochrane has been a leading expert on agriculture and its problems in the United States since the 1940s. In his straightforward style Cochrane analyzes the propensity for American agriculture to produce too much and the inability of our social and economic system to make effective use of that unending abundance. He then offers his vision for American agriculture in the twenty-first century. Cochrane looks at two periods in agricultural history: 1953-66 and 1997-2002. Structurally, technologically, and organizationally the two periods are as different as night and day, but in terms of the big economic picture--too much production pressing on a limited commercial demand with resulting low farm prices and incomes--they are mirror images of each other. With this understanding, Cochrane argues that Americans no longer need to farm fragile ecosystems with intensive chemical methods,make huge payments that result in fewer farms and higher farming costs, nor bear the environmental consequences of all-out production. Instead, he outlines a bold new strategy in which we can enjoy our abundance and focus our efforts on quality of life and protecting the environment in our rural areas.

The question that drives the ten case studies of highland East Africa and Nigeria commissioned for this volume is whether population growth in densely settled areas of rural Africa has led to the intensification of agriculture. Using a "natural experiments" methodology, the authors explore changes ...

The question that drives the ten case studies of highland East Africa and Nigeria commissioned for this volume is whether population growth in densely settled areas of rural Africa has led to the intensification of agriculture. Using a "natural experiments" methodology, the authors explore changes in agricultural inputs and outputs, analyze the role that external productive forces have played in these changes, note the consequences of the changes (especially for the environment and standard of living), and speculate on the changes' implications. The volume is framed by chapters on theory, one that presents traditional thought on the relationship between population and agriculture and one that offers a synthesis that, while controversial, holds out real hope for African agriculture.