Food and the Mid-Level Farm ─ Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle

Agriculture in the United States today increasingly operates in two separate spheres:large, corporate-connected commodity production and distribution systems and small-scale farms thatmarket directly to consumers. As a result, midsize family-operated farms find it increasinglydifficult to find and reach markets for their products. They are too big to use the direct marketingtechniques of small farms but too small to take advantage of corporate marketing and distributionsystems. This crisis of the midsize farm results in a rural America with weakened municipal taxbases, job loss, and population flight. Food and the Mid-Level Farm discusses strategies forreviving an "agriculture of the middle" and creating a food system that works for midsizefarms and ranches. Activists, practitioners, and scholars from a variety of disciplines, includingsociology, political science, and economics, consider ways midsize farms can regain vitality byscaling up aspects of small farms' operations to connect with consumers, organizing together todevelop markets for their products, developing food supply chains that preserve farmer identity andare based on fair business agreements, and promoting public policies (at international, federal,state, and community levels) that address agriculture-of-the-middle issues. Food and the Mid-LevelFarm makes it clear that the demise of midsize farms and ranches is not a foregone conclusion andthat the renewal of an agriculture of the middle will benefit all participants in the foodsystem--from growers to consumers. Thomas A. Lyson was Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of DevelopmentSociology at Cornell University until his death in 2006. He was the author of Civic Agriculture:Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community. G. W. Stevenson is Senior Scientist with the Center forIntegrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin-- Madison. Rick Welsh is AssociateProfessor of Sociology at Clarkson University.

Thomas A. Lyson was Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Development Sociology at Cornell University until his death in 2006. He was the author of Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community.