From the Farm to the Table
Yesterday, Kathy Draeger dropped off a just-published book, From the Farm to the Table, by Gary Holthaus. Kathy is Statewide Director of the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (about which I've written before in this space), and the book was published with the financial support of the Experiment in Rural Cooperation, which is the Regional Sustainable Development Partnership in southeastern Minnesota.
Over the past eight years, the Experiment "has been putting funds [provided by the State Legislature] into the hands of citizen leaders so they can use the resources of [the University of Minnesota] in projects that will lead to as sustainable society in this region."
The Experiment writes that it supported the publication of this book because it "believes that there is a story to tell about farming in Southeast Minnesota that is different from the story often told by mainstream media. The Experiment believes it is a story of success, at least some successes, even on small farms, and of people who are having satisfactory lives, making a living by adapting their farm practice to their particular landscape and nourishing it to bring health to the land, the animals, and the humans who live on it."
To quote from the description on the University Press of Kentucky web site,
In From the Farm to the Table, over forty farm families from America's heartland detail the practices and values that relate to their land, work, and communities. Their stories reveal that those who make their living in agriculture--despite stereotypes of provincialism perpetuated by the media--are savvy to the influence of world politics on local issues.
Gary Holthaus demonstrates how outside economic, governmental, legal, and business developments play an increasingly influential, if not controlling, role in every farmer's life. The swift approval of genetically modified crops by the federal government, the formation of huge agricultural conglomerates, and the devastating environmental effects of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are just a few issues buffeting family farms. From the Farm to the Table explores farmers' experiences to offer a deeper understanding of how we can create sustainable and vibrant land-based communities by adhering to fundamental agrarian values.
This is obviously an important story to tell, and it is interesting—in the context of public engagement—to recognize that in this case universities (in Minnesota and Kentucky) didn't take the lead but played a facilitating role in enabling members of the public to tell their own story.