ROOTED INLTHEANDedited by William Vitek and Wes Jackson
also:New Roots for Agriculture, by Wes Jackson
"This book is a collection of new and previously published essays that take as their central theme the importance of "placed" human communities. Not all landscapes should be inhabited by human beings, but each of us is enriched to the extent that we can belong to, and participate in, a well-ordered human community integrated into the natural landscape of a particular place. A long tradition of philosophers and social activists describes human beings as communal by nature and advocates a life of civic virtue. And it was Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac who clearly articulated the inclusive notion of citizenship, a relation to land founded on awareness, respect, and restraint. Rooted in the Land offers the philosophical perspectives and personal commitments of life lived with others and in place.
We believe that this book stands out in another way. our contributors represent a rich cross-section of academic disciplines and social activism. Some authors engage in theoretical distinctions, but always with a certain sense of their practical applications. Many use personal narratives and experiences to describe or validate theories of community or ecology. There are spirited defenses of community life, theoretical discussions of the nature of community, and practical suggestions for becoming connected to others and native to a place. The book is divided by themes, not by disciplines, and our contributors were asked to write or a general audience of reflective readers with a wide variety of educational exneriences. Our book is itself a community of writers and activists, speaking from widely different perspectives but sharing similar goals and commitments.
Contents
PREFACE (quoted above)
Rediscovering the Landscape
WILLIAM VITEK
1. STANDING FIRM
ROOTLESSNESS
Leave if You Can
HARRY W. PAIGE
The Rootless Professors
ERIC ZENCEY
Pseudocommunities
DAVID EHRENFELD
From Monoculture to Polyculture
PAUL CUSTODIAL BUBE
PERSPECTIVES, LOCAL AND GLOBAL
An Amish Perspective
DAVID D KLINE
The Common Life
SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
Living with the Land
HELENA NORBERG-HODGE
VALUING COMMUNITY
Defending Small Farms, Small Towns, and GoodWork
LYNN R. MILLER
Addicted to Work
LINDA M. HASSELSTROM
Conserving Communities
WENDELL BERRY
Does Community Have Value?—A Reply
CARL D. ESBJORNSON
II. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
PLACE
Matfield Green
WES JACKSON
Dwelling: Making Peace with Space and Place
DEBORAH TALL
Coming In to the Foodshed
CK KLOPPENBURG, JR., JOHN HENDRICKSON, AND G. W. STEVENSON
"Placed" between Promise and Command
WALTER BRUEGGEMANN
THE ECOLOGICAL CONNECTION
Other Selves
JOHN A. LIVINGSTON
Aldo Leopold as Hunter and Communitarian
FRANKLIN A. KALINOWSKI
Aldo Leopold and theValues of the Native
GREGORY COOPER
Biological Explanations and Environmental Expectations
KRISTIN SHRADER-FRECHETTE
COMMUNITY CRITERIA
Barn Raising
DANIEL KEMMIS
Community and theVirtue of Necessity
WILLIAM VITEK
Defining Normative Community
JOHN B. COBB, JR.
In Search of Community
PHILIP SELZNICK
III. BECOMING NATIVE
Redeeming the Land
RICHARD CARTWRIGHT AUSTIN
Creating Social Capital
CORNELIA BUTLER FLORA AND JAN L. FLORA
Re-Ruralizing Education
DAVID W. ORR
A Public Philosophy for Civic Culture
WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Land: Challenge and Opportunity
SUSAN WITT AND ROBERT SWANN
Community-Supported Agriculture: Rediscovering Community
JACK KITTREDGE
Comrnunity Farming in Massachusetts
BRIAN DONAHUE
WORKS CITED 273
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 281
INDEX 283
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rooted in the land: essays on community and place / edited byWilliamVitek andWes Jackson
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-06541-8 (cloth: alk. paper
ISBN 0-300-06961-8 (paper: alk. paper)
1. Community 2.Community life.
I.Vitek,William. 1957- lI.Jacksoll, Wes.
H M 131. R697 1996
307—dc20 96-12670
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
"The plowshare may well have destroyed more options for future generations than the sword" - Wes Jackson
New Roots for Agriculture
Foreword to the New Edition:
by Wendell Berry
"WES JACKSON'S book, New Roots For Agriculture is a landmark. For some time before the book came out, I had been hearing of it and of its author by way of highly complimentary rumor, and the book did not disappoint me. It offers 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. It proposes practical remedies, pre-eminent among them the idea of developing perennial grain crops, or as he calls them herbaceous perennial seed-producing polycultures."
What he is proposing, in other words, is a grain field that would lie under the same live vegetative cover year after year like a pasture. And, like a good pasture, it would not be seeded to monoculture, but to a mixture of plants, not only to in increase productivity, but to increase the range of nutritive value, to reduce the dependence on purchased nitrogen, to reduce vulnerability to pests and disease—in short, to benefit in every possible way from the principle of diversity.
One does not need to reflect long upon the worst problem and weaknesses of our present agriculture in order to see the significance of this possibility. Perennial grains, once the plantings were established, would be an ideal remedy for soil erosion. Not only would our currently disastrous soil losses be prevented but the soil would build and heal under the continuous cover, exactly as it does under well-managed pasture. The dependence on irrigation would be reduced, for these crops would use water more efficiently.... "
Contents
Foreword to the New Edition, by Wendell Berry
Preface 1
The Earth in Review 5
The Four Failures
1. The Failure of Stewardship 11
2. The Failure of Success 14
3. The Failure of History and Prophecy 38
4. The Failure of Organizations 51
The Pivotal Question
5. Agriculture: Tragedy— Or Problem with a Solution?; 61
Dimensions of a Solution
6. The Religious Dimension 66
7. The Earm as Hearth— Or the Farm as Food Factory ;75
8. New Roots for Agriculture 93
A Vision for the Future
9. Outside the Solar Village: — One Utopian Farm 118
Afterword to the New Edition 133
Acknowledgments 149
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jackson, Wes.
New roots for agriculture.
Reprint. Originally published: San Francisco, Calif.: Friends of the Earth; Salina, Kan.: Land Institute, c1980. With new afterword.
1. Agriculture—United States. 2. Agricultural ecology—United States. I. Title.
S441.J25 1985 333.7'6'0973 84-25694
ISBN 0-8032-7562-5 (pbk.)
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