Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography) [Paperback]

Julie Guthman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520240952 | ISBN-13: 978-0520240957 | Publication Date: August 4, 2004 | Edition: 1

In an era of escalating food politics, many believe organic farming to be the agrarian answer. In this first comprehensive study of organic farming in California, Julie Guthman casts doubt on the current wisdom about organic food and agriculture, at least as it has evolved in the Golden State. Refuting popular portrayals of organic agriculture as a small-scale family farm endeavor in opposition to "industrial" agriculture, Guthman explains how organic farming has replicated what it set out to oppose.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Agrarian Dreams throws a cold shower of reality over the dream of organic agriculture in California, demonstrating all that is lost when organic farming goes industrial. This is a challenging book, and until we can answer the hard questions Julie Guthman poses, a genuinely sustainable agriculture will elude us." - Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire; "Agrarian Dreams puts organic agriculture in a broad intellectual, social, and theoretical context in a readable way. Nobody has written at this scale and scope about organics. This is an outstanding work." - Sally K. Fairfax, University of California, Berkeley"

From the Inside Flap

"Agrarian Dreams throws a cold shower of reality over the dream of organic agriculture in California, demonstrating all that is lost when organic farming goes industrial. This is a challenging book, and until we can answer the hard questions Julie Guthman poses, a genuinely sustainable agriculture will elude us."--Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

"Agrarian Dreams puts organic agriculture in a broad intellectual, social, and theoretical context in a readable way. Nobody has written at this scale and scope about organics. The availability of this basic data and interpretation will open discussion to a broad range of citizens, scholars, and decision makers. This is an outstanding work."--Sally K. Fairfax, Henry J. Vaux Distinguished Professor of Forest Policy, University of California, Berkeley

"Guthman takes on the sacred cow of organic agriculture: that farmers and consumers can transform our food system simply through by adopting new philosophies of eating, farming and nature. With an analysis that is at the forefront of agrarian theory today, she shows that organic farmers, no matter what their philosophy, have to work under the economic gun of markets and land prices. As a result, organic growers in California are forced to become increasingly industrialized, unjust and unhealthy. Her analysis is proof that it will take more than new kinds of thinking to create sustainability in our food system."--Melanie DuPuis, author of Nature's Perfect Food: How Milk Became America's Drink

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (August 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520240952
• ISBN-13: 978-0520240957
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Agronomy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original, Intellectually Engaging: It Rips Stale Myths Apart, July 30, 2004

By 

Jerry Kohn (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography) (Paperback)

Well, everything you think you know about organic agriculture gets brilliantly demolished and reformulated in this innovative and ground breaking book. Think you know about small family farmers in California? Well, get ready to learn about the real corporate farming tradition, especially in the Central Valley. Think a new generation of organic farms makes for some sort of new utopia? Well, you're living in an "agrarian dream" if you think conditions for agricultural workers get transformed automatically in a more "organic" world.

I eat organic food all the time and myth after myth that I have accepted gets exposed in this book. Think the regulators are always on the side of the little guy? Think eating organic food automatically creates a more sustainable food system? Think you're "going back to nature" if you eat organic? Well, Guthman lays out how all of us have to think critically and take concerted action if we really want to change the power relations of today's industrial agriculture.

And yet I finished this book more exhilirated and inspired to
think about and work toward a new world of sustainable agriculture. And with my eyes now wide open that when I'm eating an organic apple that doesn't transform the world or ease the exploitation of those working the land. I see this as a seminal work in showing us clearly how to tear off our blinders and move from our agrarian "dreams' to a new agrarian reality.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written with careful research, May 17, 2010

By 

Concerned Consumer - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography) (Paperback)

I agree with the previous reviewer, this book did a great job of exposing the hypocrisy of 'Big Ag' in organic agriculture without seeming the author was biased or selling an agenda. I am an aspiring organic farmer myself, and found this book informative about both the history of organic agriculture as a movement and its march towards mainstream acceptance, along with the corporate infiltration that comes with it. I thought the author did a good job of not just detailing the current state of organic agriculture in California, but in explaining the seemingly inevitability of its development to today's conditions. This is a great read for anyone interested in the economics of organic agriculture or farming in general.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Local Organic Movement, October 15, 2010

By 

zach - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (California Studies in Critical Human Geography) (Paperback)

I'm currently writing my dissertation on the dynamics of the local organic movement in Southern Arizona. This book was a wonderful resource in helping me frame my literature review.