Ag history
recording available! from disparity to parity: balancing the scales
Disparity to Parity: Balancing the Scales of Agricultural Policy for Racial Equity & Climate Resilience Earth care requires wise agricultural and food policies that mandate fair pricing and update supply management to build a racially just, economically empowered, and climate resilient food system. In short: moving from Disparity to Parity. Please join the National Family […]
the story of the texas xit ranch
In the 1880s, the XIT ranch was the largest range in the world under fence and it all laid in the Texas Panhandle. It's three million acres sprawled across ten counties in Texas. The state of Texas, the biggest state in the union, used the sale of the ranch to pay for it's red granite […]
new resource: national sustainable agriculture oral history archive
The National Sustainable Agriculture Oral History Archive is a collection of interviews with people who have been instrumental in the development and implementation of public policies to advance sustainable agriculture in the United States. It was started in 2015 and has been growing ever since. Several of the interviews are with key members of the National […]
on this day in 1845, a fateful step was taken towards enclosure of the commons
On this day in 1845, Westminster, the UK Parliament passed the 1845 enclosure act. Although not the first step in the enclosure of the commons, this act created enclosure commissioners who were given the authority to enclose land without prior parliamentary approval. In total, over the course of 300 years, the British government enclosed nearly […]
from the ag archives: the harvest of shame
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJTVF_dya7E] On the one hand, it is great to see how far we've come. And on the other, it is pretty difficult to accept how far we haven't. Pay close attention at 19:00 minutes to what one farm employer has to say about working conditions, wages, and his workers dispositions.
who's behind the farm bureau?
A perspective from 1943. Download the pdf: Kansas Union Farmer
a nice history of 19th century social movements in agriculture
Check it out HERE. A snippet: Three movements to build public life The Grange Initially a movement to improve agriculture. Travelling speakers would speak about the latest scientific agricultural techniques, and the operations of the commercial economy. An offshoot of the Morrill Act which established land grant universities (like the University of Maryland) to advance […]