Alternatives, traditions, and diversity in agriculture

This review essay examines several recentbooks about agriculture, including two books on thelinks between cultural and biological diversity intraditional agriculture, two books on the US farmcrisis, and a collected volume examining globalaspects of agricultural restructuring andsustainability. Finally, a history of ``alternative'agriculture provides a framework for thinking aboutthe ways the different cases shed light on the complexrelations between tradition and innovation inagriculture. A historical perspective highlights theextent to which ``alternative' is a relative term. Themonocrop, ``factory' mode that dominate US agriculturetoday certainly differs from what has characterizedfarming for most of history and in most of the world.Small-scale, more or less organic, diversified farms,which appear so ``alternative' in the present context,have until lately counted as the norm, here andelsewhere. These books also highlight both the dangersof the currently dominant industrial agriculture andthe potential for genuine alternatives.