[.ca] Fields Without Dreams: Defending the Agrarain Ideal (ISBN 0684835703)

From Amazon.com:
Classicist, professor, and farmer Hanson chronicles the decline of small-scale agriculture in the Central Valley of California. He takes his classics seriously, likening the raisin farmers of Modesto to Aeschylus' ideal virtuous man, who "did not wish to seem just, but to be so." He takes modern cultural dictates less seriously: "Is it not odd," he writes, "to rise at dawn with Japanese-, Mexican-, Pakistani-, Armenian-, and Portuguese-American farmers and then be lectured at noonday 40 miles away on campus about cultural sensitivity and the need for 'diversity' by the affluent white denizens of an exclusive, tree-studded suburb?" Hanson relates the life stories of his farmer neighbors, writing that their way of life will likely soon disappear, thanks in part to a federal system of agricultural subsidies that favors large-scale, industrial farm corporations over individual "yeomen." This is a sobering and eye-opening book.

two worlds, one person:
Hanson is one of the rare people that can live in two distinct worlds and have the vision to see the difference. Fortunately for all the rest of us, he also has the ability to allow us all to see his two worlds. To me, many that read this book need to read it closer, for the book contains much more than casual reading can reveal. This book tells real life stories of real life people and the many interactions that take place between these people, that will ultimately shape everyones future. I did my best to try and say how I feel about this book. Read this book yourself and enjoy.

Undermining Modern Farming:
When I read this book with my wife I was looking for aspokesman for those of us who are now caretakers of much of ournations remaining farmland and water rights. In my case one branch of my family's roots in farming go back to the American Revoultion. The farm I still maintain stretches back 5 generations to a homestead deed from Grover Cleveland. As a family we lost the oldest farm in the Great Depression. My great-grandfather having made enough money in the California gold fields to return relatively well off to the homestead in New York, made the mistake of sending both his sons, my grandfather and my great uncle, to Agriculture School at Cornell University in the 1880's. That training and the usual series of misfortunes left my father a landless orphan who took his chances playing russian roulette for the Army Air Core over Europe in order to earn the right to own land in America again. I now own and maintain my mother's family farm in the west through my work here in California. As we read this book it became clear that Professor Hansen's uniformly negative opinions of the people who now support themselves as professional farmers are truly clouded by his amateur status as a farmer. The sad thing is that he does not see that himself. In case you are wondering, his profession is, after all, that of College professor. In a recent article for American Heritage he points out that he has more invested in books than farm equipment. Worse, he seems to want us to see him as a downtrodden yeoman while he hawks sour grapes about bigger Classics Departments at the Universities on the Coast. Personally, I am doing what I can to preserve the arable land we have left, and I wish we had a Howard Jarvis or a Ron Unz out there who could stop Urban Sprawl, but bellyaching about banking, big farming operations, absentee ownership, and the lack of regulation in the commodities market is probably the most counter-productive thing anyone could do to save farming in the central valley. Nothing, not even collectivizing agriculture, will ever make it possible to succeed by making the lousy farming decisions he attributes to himself in this book. He has simply gone out of business, and this is as it should be. I can certainly agree with his suggestion to close the USDA, but the vilification of agribusiness is simply being used, by him and by others, to dry up the water supply to the valley. Professor Hansen's book will do more to turn productive farmland into college lecture halls than it will ever do to save family farms. After all, people need to make a living during the population explosion. If stone-age hunter-gathering could have supported the population of the world beyond its size 10,000 years ago, it would not have been supplanted by family and tribal agriculture. If the population 150 years ago could have been fed by exports from big cattle ranches, the Mexican Ranchos would not have had to yield to the more advanced technologies of the American Nineteenth century. If the population today could be supported by anything other than international agribusiness it would be doing so. If you, like me and Professor Hansen, are now an amatuer farmer, and are looking for a kindred soul you will not find one in this book, because Dr. Hansen is involved in a sharade that he is unwilling or unable to recognize. For a description of the real effects of the urbanization that necessarily tracks the population explosion read Kim Barnes', In the Wilderness. I would also recommend that one to Professor Dickey. END

Fields Without Dreams:
I must respond, although a bit late, to the review posted in Dec. '99 by "a reader": "As we read this book it became clear that Professor Hansen's uniformly negative opinions of the people who now support themselves as professional farmers are truly clouded by his amateur status as a farmer. The sad thing is that he does not see that himself. In case you are wondering, his profession is, after all, that of College professor." Clearly the "reader" did not read Mr. Hanson's book carefully enough. As a nearby resident of his town of Selma, I can attest to Mr. Hanson's personal and family legacy of professional farming. He is by no means "an amateur farmer." Instead, he has worked on his family farm more than full time since his pre-teens, and supported his family doing so. The difficulties Hanson encountered as a farmer were common to the ventures of his particular crops. In addition, his acceptance of a university position at Cal. State Fresno was mainly a way to keep food on the table after the raisin crash. I wish this reviewer had read the book more carefully before tossing out major criticisms. As an outsider to farming, although my uncle is a cattle farmer in Wisconsin, I developed a passionate respect for farming after reading Fields Without Dreams. Hanson's overriding point, I think, is to emphasize the character and toughness required of farmers in any age. His book is particularly timely because, as he notes, "Family farmers are noble, but vanishing stewards of ancient ground." Hanson also makes an important statement about farming--that its myth of simplicity and quaintness is unfounded. While capitalism overtakes the family farm in favor of agribusiness, just like it has many other American businesses, what is disappearing along with the family farm is an honorable society we'll never see again. I am glad Hanson is around to capture this moment for us.

Brilliant, engaging, impressive.:
A wonderful read. Hanson sweeps the reader up into the the high stakes game, the espirt d'corps of the family farm, the teeter-totter hazards of weather and market demands, the changing fortunes of agrarian culture. A magnificent achievement. One of my favorite books of the last decade.