A Revolution Down on the Farm
The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kevin Pierce
-
By:
-
Paul K. Conkin
About this listen
At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation.
Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture.
A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come.
Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.
The book is published by University of Kentucky Press.
©2008 Paul K. Conkin (P)2013 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Tractor Wars
- John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture
- By: Neil Dahlstrom
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. By the turn of the 20th century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities. With the tractor, a shrinking farm population could still feed a growing world. Tractor Wars is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture - a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.
-
-
Really enjoyed this book having grown up on a farm with these tractors.
- By Lyle on 06-23-23
By: Neil Dahlstrom
-
Dirt to Soil
- One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture
- By: Gabe Brown
- Narrated by: Gabe Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Dirt to Soil, Gabe Brown tells the story of his ranch's amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge - restoring the soil. The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over 20 years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil.
-
-
loved it.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-19
By: Gabe Brown
-
The Social History of Agriculture
- From the Origins to the Current Crisis
- By: Christopher Isett, Stephen Miller
- Narrated by: Ronald Bruce Meyer
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the world history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Isett and Miller argue that people rather than markets have been the primary agents of agricultural change, exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time.
-
-
Essential Information that is well presented.
- By Mitch1953 on 05-15-21
By: Christopher Isett, and others
-
You Can Farm
- The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise
- By: Joel Salatin
- Narrated by: Joel Salatin
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever desired, deep within your soul, to make a comfortable full-time living from a farming enterprise? Too often people dare not even vocalize this desire because it seems absurd. It's like thinking the unthinkable. After all, the farm population is dwindling. It takes too much capital to start. The pay is too low. The working conditions are dusty, smelly and noisy: Not the place to raise a family. This is all true, and more, for most farmers.
-
-
great book. made me angry.
- By William Nichols on 05-12-20
By: Joel Salatin
-
One Size Fits None
- A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture
- By: Stephanie Anderson
- Narrated by: Aven Shore
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In One Size Fits None, Anderson follows diverse farmers across the United States: A South Dakota bison rancher who provides an alternative to the industrial feedlot; an organic vegetable farmer in Florida who harvests microgreens; a New Mexico super-small farmer who revitalizes communities; and a North Dakota midsize farmer who combines livestock and grain farming to convert expensive farmland back to native prairie. The use of these nontraditional agricultural techniques show how varied operations can give back to the earth rather than degrade it.
-
-
Very informative planning to recommend to friends
- By Sarah Moon on 10-23-19
-
The Unsettling of America
- Culture & Agriculture
- By: Wendell Berry
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its publication in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land - from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.
-
-
love the material, meh on the performance.
- By Fireham on 07-10-20
By: Wendell Berry
-
Tractor Wars
- John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture
- By: Neil Dahlstrom
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. By the turn of the 20th century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities. With the tractor, a shrinking farm population could still feed a growing world. Tractor Wars is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture - a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.
-
-
Really enjoyed this book having grown up on a farm with these tractors.
- By Lyle on 06-23-23
By: Neil Dahlstrom
-
Dirt to Soil
- One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture
- By: Gabe Brown
- Narrated by: Gabe Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Dirt to Soil, Gabe Brown tells the story of his ranch's amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge - restoring the soil. The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over 20 years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil.
-
-
loved it.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-19
By: Gabe Brown
-
The Social History of Agriculture
- From the Origins to the Current Crisis
- By: Christopher Isett, Stephen Miller
- Narrated by: Ronald Bruce Meyer
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the world history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Isett and Miller argue that people rather than markets have been the primary agents of agricultural change, exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time.
-
-
Essential Information that is well presented.
- By Mitch1953 on 05-15-21
By: Christopher Isett, and others
-
You Can Farm
- The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise
- By: Joel Salatin
- Narrated by: Joel Salatin
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever desired, deep within your soul, to make a comfortable full-time living from a farming enterprise? Too often people dare not even vocalize this desire because it seems absurd. It's like thinking the unthinkable. After all, the farm population is dwindling. It takes too much capital to start. The pay is too low. The working conditions are dusty, smelly and noisy: Not the place to raise a family. This is all true, and more, for most farmers.
-
-
great book. made me angry.
- By William Nichols on 05-12-20
By: Joel Salatin
-
One Size Fits None
- A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture
- By: Stephanie Anderson
- Narrated by: Aven Shore
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In One Size Fits None, Anderson follows diverse farmers across the United States: A South Dakota bison rancher who provides an alternative to the industrial feedlot; an organic vegetable farmer in Florida who harvests microgreens; a New Mexico super-small farmer who revitalizes communities; and a North Dakota midsize farmer who combines livestock and grain farming to convert expensive farmland back to native prairie. The use of these nontraditional agricultural techniques show how varied operations can give back to the earth rather than degrade it.
-
-
Very informative planning to recommend to friends
- By Sarah Moon on 10-23-19
-
The Unsettling of America
- Culture & Agriculture
- By: Wendell Berry
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its publication in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land - from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.
-
-
love the material, meh on the performance.
- By Fireham on 07-10-20
By: Wendell Berry
-
The End of Plenty
- The Race to Feed a Crowded World
- By: Joel K. Bourne Jr.
- Narrated by: Joel K. Bourne Jr.
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The End of Plenty, award-winning environmental journalist Joel K. Bourne Jr. puts our race to feed the world in dramatic perspective. With a skyrocketing world population and tightening global grain supplies spurring riots and revolutions, humanity must produce as much food in the next four decades as it has since the beginning of civilization to avoid a Malthusian catastrophe. Yet climate change could render half our farmland useless by century's end.
-
-
WHY won't authors use professional narrators???
- By Maria on 08-29-15
-
Soil Science for Regenerative Agriculture
- A Comprehensive Guide to Living Soil, No-till Gardening, Composting and Natural Farming - Complete with a Step-by-Step Action Plan to Quickly Grow Soil
- By: Amélie des Plantes
- Narrated by: Al Pagano
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), each year, an estimated 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost due to erosion. That’s a whopping 3.4 tons lost every year for each person on the planet.
-
-
Lack of Supporting References
- By Jeffrey G. Boldt on 12-22-24
-
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
- Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
- By: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.
-
-
Everyone dies except Americans
- By preetam on 06-22-22
By: Peter Zeihan
-
For the Love of Soil
- Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems
- By: Nicole Masters
- Narrated by: Nicole Masters
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Learn a road map to healthy soil and revitalized food systems for powerfully addressing these times of challenge. This audiobook equips producers with knowledge, skills, and insights to regenerate ecosystem health and grow farm/ranch profits. Globally recognized soil advocate and agroecologist Nicole Masters delivers the solution to rewind the clock on this increasingly critical soil crisis in her first book For the Love of Soil. She argues we can no longer treat soil like dirt.
-
-
More Narrative Than Prescriptive
- By Real David Art on 08-13-20
By: Nicole Masters
-
Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment
- Third Edition
- By: Jody Butterfield, Allan Savory
- Narrated by: Paul W. Griffiths
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fossil fuels and livestock grazing are often targeted as major culprits behind climate change and desertification. But Allan Savory, cofounder of the Savory Institute, begs to differ. The bigger problem, he warns, is our mismanagement of resources. Livestock grazing is not the problem; it's how we graze livestock. If we don't change the way we approach land management, irreparable harm from climate change could continue long after we replace fossil fuels.
-
-
Ideas To Save the the World, Told Poorly
- By Shawn Oueinsteen on 10-28-18
By: Jody Butterfield, and others
-
The Pioneers
- The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The number one New York Times best seller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that's "as resonant today as ever" (The Wall Street Journal) - the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.
-
-
i would prefer david reading it
- By hooterwah on 05-07-19
By: David McCullough
-
The Lean Farm
- How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency, and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work
- By: Ben Hartman
- Narrated by: Robert David Grant
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed by progressive farms around the world....
-
-
informative a good listen
- By Noah on 07-29-18
By: Ben Hartman
-
Pablo Escobar
- Beyond Narcos
- By: Shaun Attwood
- Narrated by: Max Tilney
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was a devoted family man and a psychopathic killer; a terrible enemy, yet a wonderful friend. While donating millions to the poor, he bombed and tortured his enemies - some had their eyeballs removed with hot spoons. Through ruthless cunning and America's insatiable appetite for cocaine, he became a multi-billionaire, who lived in a $100-million house with its own zoo.
-
-
Much more than Netflix docs; war on drugs exposed
- By Dragonfoureyes on 10-04-17
By: Shaun Attwood
-
Agriculture Course
- By: Rudolf Steiner
- Narrated by: Peter Bridgmont
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures 80 years ago, industrial farming was on the rise and organic methods were being replaced in the name of science, efficiency, and technology. With the widespread alarm over the quality of food in recent years, and the growth of the organic movement and its mainstream acceptance, perceptions are changing. The qualitative aspect of food is once again on the agenda, and in this context Rudolf Steiner's only course of lectures on agriculture is critical to the current debate.
-
-
Perfect narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-19
By: Rudolf Steiner
-
Healing Grounds
- Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming
- By: Liz Carlisle
- Narrated by: Liz Carlisle
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Healing Grounds, Liz Carlisle tells the stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian American farmers who are reviving their ancestors' methods of growing food—techniques long suppressed by the industrial food system. These farmers are restoring native prairies, nurturing beneficial fungi, and enriching soil health. While feeding their communities and revitalizing cultural ties to land, they are steadily stitching ecosystems back together and repairing the natural carbon cycle.
-
-
Science and stories
- By Jenelle on 10-30-24
By: Liz Carlisle
-
Growing a Revolution
- Bringing Our Soil Back to Life
- By: David R. Montgomery
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The problem of agriculture is as old as civilization. Throughout history, great societies that abused their land withered into poverty or disappeared entirely. Now we risk repeating this ancient story on a global scale due to ongoing soil degradation, a changing climate, and a rising population. But there is reason for hope. David R. Montgomery introduces us to farmers around the world at the heart of a brewing soil health revolution that could bring humanity's ailing soil back to life remarkably fast.
-
-
Disappointing
- By option31AW on 11-22-18
-
Perilous Bounty
- The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It
- By: Tom Philpott
- Narrated by: Eric Meyers
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than a decade after Michael Pollan's game-changing The Omnivore's Dilemma transformed the conversation about what we eat, a combination of global diet trends and corporate interests have put American agriculture into a state of 'quiet emergency', from dangerous drought in California - which grows more than 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables we eat - to catastrophic topsoil loss in the 'breadbasket' heartland of the United States.
-
-
Great book to bore you to sleep.
- By E. Rudzinski on 08-28-21
By: Tom Philpott
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Organic Manifesto
- How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe
- By: Maria Rodale, Eric Scholsser - foreword
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment. She traces the genesis of chemical farming and the rise of the immense companies that profit from it, bringing to light the government's role in allowing such practices to flourish.
-
-
those in power must read and work upon it.
- By Jaktip on 12-20-17
By: Maria Rodale, and others
-
Ramp Hollow
- The Ordeal of Appalachia
- By: Steven Stoll
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.
-
-
Almost unlistenable
- By Golf Fan on 09-13-18
By: Steven Stoll
-
Animal, Vegetable, Junk
- A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal
- By: Mark Bittman
- Narrated by: Mark Bittman
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of humankind is usually told as one of technological innovation and economic influence—of arrowheads and atomic bombs, settlers and stock markets. But behind it all, there is an even more fundamental driver: Food. In Animal, Vegetable, Junk, trusted food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of how the frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments.
-
-
Mostly Junk
- By Daniel Ducat on 05-22-21
By: Mark Bittman
-
The Vertical Farm
- Feeding the World in the 21st Century
- By: Dickson Despommier
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. The vertical farm has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These farms, grown inside skyscrapers, would provide solutions to many of the serious problems we currently face.
-
-
Excellent Brainstorming - Not reality
- By Texas Community Project on 01-25-11
-
Enough
- Why the World's Poorest Starve in An Age of Plenty
- By: Roger Thurow, Scott Kilman
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 30 years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the Green Revolution succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every yearmost of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse.
-
-
It's Time For Us To Be More Compassionate
- By James on 07-18-10
By: Roger Thurow, and others
-
Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
-
-
Jared Diamond Downs You in Explanation
- By Rob on 07-20-18
By: Jared Diamond
-
Organic Manifesto
- How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe
- By: Maria Rodale, Eric Scholsser - foreword
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment. She traces the genesis of chemical farming and the rise of the immense companies that profit from it, bringing to light the government's role in allowing such practices to flourish.
-
-
those in power must read and work upon it.
- By Jaktip on 12-20-17
By: Maria Rodale, and others
-
Ramp Hollow
- The Ordeal of Appalachia
- By: Steven Stoll
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.
-
-
Almost unlistenable
- By Golf Fan on 09-13-18
By: Steven Stoll
-
Animal, Vegetable, Junk
- A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal
- By: Mark Bittman
- Narrated by: Mark Bittman
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of humankind is usually told as one of technological innovation and economic influence—of arrowheads and atomic bombs, settlers and stock markets. But behind it all, there is an even more fundamental driver: Food. In Animal, Vegetable, Junk, trusted food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of how the frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments.
-
-
Mostly Junk
- By Daniel Ducat on 05-22-21
By: Mark Bittman
-
The Vertical Farm
- Feeding the World in the 21st Century
- By: Dickson Despommier
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. The vertical farm has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These farms, grown inside skyscrapers, would provide solutions to many of the serious problems we currently face.
-
-
Excellent Brainstorming - Not reality
- By Texas Community Project on 01-25-11
-
Enough
- Why the World's Poorest Starve in An Age of Plenty
- By: Roger Thurow, Scott Kilman
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 30 years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the Green Revolution succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every yearmost of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse.
-
-
It's Time For Us To Be More Compassionate
- By James on 07-18-10
By: Roger Thurow, and others
-
Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
-
-
Jared Diamond Downs You in Explanation
- By Rob on 07-20-18
By: Jared Diamond
-
An Edible History of Humanity
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes---caused, enabled, or influenced by food---has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.
-
-
Flawed, but worthwhile
- By Ary Shalizi on 12-28-17
By: Tom Standage
-
The Source
- How Rivers Made America and America Remade Its Rivers
- By: Martin Doyle
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fresh and powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle explores how rivers have often been the source of arguments at the heart of the American experiment - over federalism, taxation, regulation, conservation, and development. Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the US Constitution's roots in interstate river navigation, the origins of the Army Corps of Engineers, the discovery of gold in 1848, and the construction of the Hoover Dam and the TVA during the New Deal, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina.
-
-
Great historical read without compare.
- By Thomas P Dore on 04-10-18
By: Martin Doyle
-
Nature's Metropolis
- Chicago and the Great West
- By: William Cronon
- Narrated by: Jonah Cummings
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking work, William Cronon gives us an environmental perspective on the history of nineteenth-century America. By exploring the ecological and economic changes that made Chicago America's most dynamic city and the Great West its hinterland, Mr. Cronon opens a new window onto our national past. This is the story of city and country becoming ever more tightly bound in a system so powerful that it reshaped the American landscape and transformed American culture. The world that emerged is our own.
-
-
Moving
- By JB on 02-09-18
By: William Cronon
-
Slavery's Capitalism
- A New History of American Economic Development
- By: Sven Beckert - editor, Seth Rockman - editor
- Narrated by: William Hughes, Kevin Kenerly, Bahni Turpin, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the 19th century, the United States entered the ranks of the world's most advanced and dynamic economies. At the same time, the nation sustained an expansive and brutal system of human bondage. This was no mere coincidence. Slavery's Capitalism argues for slavery's centrality to the emergence of American capitalism in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War.
-
-
The volume is so low I can't hear it.
- By Anonymous User on 01-30-18
By: Sven Beckert - editor, and others
-
Citizen Coke
- The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism
- By: Bartow J. Elmore
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Outsourcing and a trim corporate profile enabled Coke to scale up production of a low-price beverage and realize huge profits. But the costs shed by Coke have fallen on the public at large. Coke now uses an annual 79 billion gallons of water, an increasingly precious global resource, and its reliance on corn syrup has helped fuel our obesity crisis. Bartow J. Elmore explores Coke through its ingredients, showing how the company secured massive quantities of coca leaf, caffeine, sugar, and other inputs.
-
-
Highly Recommend
- By Laura on 02-22-20
By: Bartow J. Elmore
-
Freedom Farmers
- Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement
- By: Monica M. White, LaDonna Redmond - with
- Narrated by: Monica M. White
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1967, internationally renowned activist Fannie Lou Hamer purchased 40 acres of land in the Mississippi Delta, launching the Freedom Farms Cooperative (FFC). Life on the cooperative farm presented an alternative to the second wave of northern migration by African Americans - an opportunity to stay in the South, live off the land, and create a healthy community. Freedom Farmers expands the historical narrative of the Black freedom struggle to embrace the work, roles, and contributions of Southern Black farmers and the organizations they formed.
-
-
HEROIC & WISE COOPERATION TO STAY WITH THE LAND
- By @THEROOTMATTERS on 04-25-21
By: Monica M. White, and others
-
Let There Be Water
- Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
- By: Seth M. Siegel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for the United States and countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also has an abundance of water. Israel even supplies water to its neighbors - the Palestinians and the Kingdom of Jordan - every day.
-
-
More water politics story than water technology
- By normal person on 04-12-21
By: Seth M. Siegel
-
A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things
- A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
- By: Raj Patel, Jason W. Moore
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate that throughout history, crises have always prompted fresh strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism.
-
-
A remarkable exposé & synthesis of the Ponzi scheme that capitalism is and always has been.
- By Scott on 02-10-18
By: Raj Patel, and others
-
Empire of Cotton
- A Global History
- By: Sven Beckert
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780s, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into an empire, and how this empire transformed the world.
-
-
A New History of Global Capitalism
- By Lucian of Samosata on 03-17-15
By: Sven Beckert
-
The Rise and Fall of American Growth
- The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War
- By: Robert J. Gordon
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 30 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.
-
-
Over-detailed, with no engaging message
- By BehA on 01-31-17
By: Robert J. Gordon
-
Capitalism in America
- A History
- By: Alan Greenspan, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the legendary former Fed Chairman and the acclaimed Economist writer and historian, the full, epic story of America's evolution from a small patchwork of threadbare colonies to the most powerful engine of wealth and innovation the world has ever seen.
-
-
Explains a lot
- By Scott on 02-18-19
By: Alan Greenspan, and others
-
Meatonomics
- How the Rigged Economics of Meat and Dairy Make You Consume Too Much—and How to Eat Better, Live Longer, and Spend Smarter
- By: David Robinson Simon
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few consumers are aware of the economic forces behind the production of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy. Yet omnivore and herbivore alike, the forces of meatonomics affect us in many ways. Most importantly, we've lost the ability to decide for ourselves what - and how much - to eat. Those decisions are made for us by animal food producers who control our buying choices with artificially-low prices, misleading messaging, and heavy control over legislation and regulation.
-
-
great book
- By DIY manAmazon Customer on 02-14-16
What listeners say about A Revolution Down on the Farm
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brennan King
- 09-18-16
Very informative, could be sightly more organized.
Excellent information overall but it jumps around a lot. I think a more thoughtful organization could have made the text more concise.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RoosterDood
- 10-02-16
Outstanding
I was riveted from start to finish. The writing was excellent and the narration was pleasant.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Art
- 06-22-13
Effective and concise account of American farming
Great, balanced history of American agriculture with a little bit of everything, personal farm experience, economic history, science and technology, organic vs conventional foods. Particularly deep on policy history which may require re-reading to fully appreciate for this non-social scientist.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andy
- 12-23-16
One man's opinion
While interesting and factually correct, It is mostly a synopsis of governmental farm policy and an advocate for more such policies. Also, advocates for more organic production and higher food prices.
I personally find it a little Malthusian in its outlook.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joanne
- 01-26-14
Excellent review of farming history in US
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Very thought provoking.
Any additional comments?
I wish it had a PDF supplement of the some of the charts or tables of figures.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KC
- 01-12-18
Well researched overwiew
Lots of eye opening information put forward in mostly unbiased way. The author’s lifetime of experience working with farms gives him a broad understanding of the many turning gears that make American agriculture move, however it also made it difficult for him to see success in ag that strayed from past technology.
Really wish I had an ebook for the copious amounts of data. Will have to buy a paper copy to use as a reference.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!