From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Fri Dec 31 2004 - 16:00:37 EST
The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California Richard A. Walker L Product Details: ISBN: 1565848772 Format: Hardcover, 365pp Pub. Date: October 2004 Publisher: New Press, The More Available Copies: Used from our Authorized Sellers ABOUT THE BOOK From the Publisher PREVIEW WHAT'S INSIDE Table of Contents ABOUT THE BOOK The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California FROM THE PUBLISHER For over a century, California has been the world's most advanced agricultural zone, an agrarian juggernaut that not only outproduces every state in America, but also most countries. A full one-third of the food Americans eat is produced on a California farm. But California's success has come at significant cost. Never a family-farm region like the Midwest, California's landscape and Mediterranean climate have been manipulated and exploited to serve a modern business system. Home to gargantuan accomplishments, including the world's largest water storage and transfer network, California also relies on an army of Mexican farm laborers who live and work under dismal conditions. In The Conquest of Bread, acclaimed geographer Richard Walker offers a wide-angle overview of the agro-industrial system of production in California, from farm to table. He lays bare the long evolution of each link in the food chain, showing how a persistent emphasis on productivity and growth allowed California to outpace developments elsewhere in the United States. Full of thunder and surprises, The Conquest of Bread allows the reader to weigh the claims of both boosters and critics in the debate over the most extraordinary agricultural profusion in the modern world. The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction : unlocking the secrets of agribusiness 1 1 Cornucopia 19 2 A landscape of commodities 48 3 Enter the grower 76 4 Down on the farm 105 5 Industrial agriculture 147 6 The harvest of agribusiness 202 7 Capital in the countryside 256 Conclusion : the conquest of bread 300
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