In From the Farm to the Table, over forty farm families from America's heartland detail the practices and values that relate to their land, work, and communities. Their stories reveal that those who make their living in agriculture--despite stereotypes of provincialism perpetuated by the media--are savvy to the influence of world politics on local issues.

Gary Holthaus demonstrates how outside economic, governmental, legal, and business developments play an increasingly influential, if not controlling, role in every farmer's life. The swift approval of genetically modified crops by the federal government, the formation of huge agricultural conglomerates, and the devastating environmental effects of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are just a few issues buffeting family farms. From the Farm to the Table explores farmers' experiences to offer a deeper understanding of how we can create sustainable and vibrant land-based communities by adhering to fundamental agrarian values.

Gary Holthaus is the author of several books, including Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West.

Reviews:

"With much love, dedication, and diligence, and through interviews with farmers in Minnesota, Holthaus tells the story of today's agriculture... it is not a pretty picture... This book serves an as eye-opener. Highly recommended."--Choice

"Holthaus's book tells the story of modern agriculture through engaging interviews with men and women who make a living farming in southeastern Minnesota. In a tone reminiscent of Wendell Berry's A Place on Earth, he examines the far-reaching effects of genetically modified organisms, free-trade agreements that nurture 'transnational corporate profit,' dependence on fossil fuel-derived chemicals, and the toll all this has taken on the land and farmers... Recommended for academic agriculture collections."--Library Journal

"[Holthaus's] book is a comprehensive look at the context of agriculture today and is valuable for urban readers as well as rural people who want to know where their food comes from and how it is produced."--Dickey County Leader

"His selected interviewees are all compelling studies."--Harvard Book Review

"Farmers all over the world have begun to choose a new path--a way of farming that is enjoyable and profitable for the farmers, leaves a small footprint on the planet, and makes a beneficial contribution to rural communities. Gary Holthaus has taken the time to listen to, and share with us, the stories of such new farmers, most of whom live near his own community in Minnesota. Then he contends that these wonderful farmers may be the harbingers of the future."--Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University

"Rural America is not somehow 'behind us,' a part of a past that is no longer central to our lives. For all of us, Holthaus shows, the thinking of rural people is relevant to the well-being of the nation and far more complex than we have realized. This book provides fresh insight into what is going on in the rural countryside and what farmers themselves have thought about those changes."--Donald Worster, author of Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas

"Holthaus is a world-class listener, so much so that he is able to bring us farm stories that enlighten and enrich our sphere of knowledge and understanding of agriculture and all that it encompasses."--Helene Murray, Executive Director, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture

"When farmers tell their story, there is no end to learning.... A solid piece of work in the mosaic of the farming history of our country."-Claus Sproll, Lilipoh