Small farms might rescue the future

Abstract

In A Small Farm Future, Chris Smaje argues that small farms offer humanity’s strongest option for a just and ecologically and nutritionally sus­tainable future. He undertakes three major feats. First, he demonstrates that certain forces are driving human­ity toward a small farm future in which local and self-sufficient food production is likely. Second, he outlines the ways in which a small farm future solves most of the world’s loom­ing crises (see chapter 1). Without concrete demar­ca­tions of small or local, Smaje argues for a future in which much of the world population works as small-scale farmers creating “local-autonomies” and “a degree of self-provisioning” (p. 9). Third, he depicts what such a small farm future might look like. . . .