Agriculture Economics

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.

The 1965 film Poverty in Rural America by the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers a documentary portrait of impoverished rural communities across the United States during the early years of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s "War on Poverty." The film highlights the economic and social hardships faced by families in isolated regions, including Appalachia, the rural South, Native American reservations, and agricultural areas in the Southwest.

An indispensable analysis of how the world really produces and consumes its food—and a scientist's exploration of how we can successfully feed a growing population without killing the planet We have never had to feed as many people as we do today. And yet, we misunderstand the essentials of...