New Roots for Agriculture

"New Roots for Agriculture is a landmark...It offers a sound, thoroughly documented criticism of the assumptions and the effects of industrial agriculture; for that alone the book would be valuable. But it goes beyond criticism to propose practical remedies."--Wendell Berry "An excellent addition to a growing list of books and articles documenting some alarming trends in our ability to produce food...This short but well-documented book deserves broad circulation and public discussion. Its warnings may well be prophecy."--Los Angeles Times "The plowshare may well have destroyed more options for future generations than the sword," writes Wes Jackson in a review of practices that have brought U.S. agriculture to the edge of disaster. Tillage has hastened the erosion of irre-placeable topsoil everywhere and a technology based on fossil fuels has increased yields for short-term profits, leaving crops ever more vulnerable to diseases, pests, and droughts. Such, says Jackson, is "the failure of success." As high-technology agriculture becomes more wasteful and expensive, more farm-ers are being forced off the land or into bankruptcy. Jackson's major solution calls for the development of plant combinations that yield food while holding the soil and re-newing its nutrients without plowing or applying fossil-fuel-based fertilizers or pesticides. His new way of raising crops, by working with the soil's natural systems, would keep the world's bread-basket producing perpetually. Wes Jackson and his wife, Dana, are directors of the Land Institute, a research and educational organization near Salina, Kansas, where they are currently breeding seed-producing perennials that could revolutionize world and American agriculture within fifty years.