Overview
A clarion call to recognize the importance of rural farming communities and to build a new agriculture policy for our future
In a twenty-first-century landscape marked by unprecedented challenges, the relevance of agriculture and farms has never been more apparent. From the unsettling shortages experienced during the pandemic to recent fluctuations in the cost and availability of basic grocery items due to historic droughts and climate impacts, Americans are being reminded daily of the importance of rural communities. And yet, the reality of these farm communities and farm policy is foreign to many Americans. Written from the unique perspective of best-selling author Jerry Apps, a farmer and noted historian, On Farms and Rural Communities: An Agricultural Ethic For the Future is a poignant testament to the enduring importance of this vital part of our nation and a call to shape agricultural policy for the present and future.
Jerry Apps takes a comprehensive look at the historical, present-day, and future significance of rural communities. With insightful analysis of critical issues such as agriculture, land utilization, demographic shifts, and socioeconomic and cultural factors, Apps highlights the urgent need to restore and better appreciate our rural communities. He urges the creation of an agricultural ethic that looks at the land and the people, celebrating all that has made American farming an essential part of our history while positioning it for a brighter future. The book is a must-read for all Americans, proving insight and hope for our agricultural future.
Reviews
“Apps has a knack for mixing facts based on data with lifelong rural experiences to spin a compelling story about life in rural America. I highly recommend On Farms and Rural Communities, as it continues this tradition to help us understand changes in the rural economy and the interesting impacts on rural communities.” —Andy Lewis, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Extension
“Apps’s most forceful and impassioned book . . . calls our attention to the present state of rural communities in relation to the future health of our country.” —Philip Hasheider, farmer, writer, and local historian
“Much has been said and written about the growing divide between those who populate our cities and suburbs and those who inhabit our rural areas. This book-length essay on what is happening in rural America and how it came to be is essential reading for those who wish to understand what is at stake."
“Jerry Apps draws upon his many years of personal and scholarly experience in framing this wide-ranging survey of rural life. There are facts aplenty here, along with eloquent prose that testifies to his love of the land and the people. He brings his boyhood hometown of Wild Rose, Wisconsin, to life in ways that poignantly testify to what has been lost.
“But his book is not a simple memorial to the past. It is heavily focused on the ills of the current system of farming and the threats to the future of our food security. The issues he raises are at the heart of what a system of rural economic health might look like in a culture that values sustainability for the people and the environment.”
—Dennis Boyer, Fellow Emeritus, Interactivity Foundation and Director of Policy Projects on Agriculture and Rural Life
“If you care about rural America, read this book. If you don’t care about rural America, read it anyway. This is a love note to rural farming but also a cautionary tale to all of us about what happens when we orient our economy around greed rather than well-being. It is also vintage Jerry Apps, so you’ll get a heavy dose of hope and possibilities as well.” — Katherine Cramer, Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science, Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of The Politics of Resentment
“Jerry Apps has lived and written about farming and rural life for many years. There are few individuals who have been more steeped in the connections between—the rise and fall of—farms and rural communities of America. If Jerry thinks we’ve got a problem, a serious one, we should pay attention. In this concise book, he identifies what he sees as the problem and offers up ‘approaches and ideas to move agriculture and its rural cities and villages forward with excitement, hope, and success.’ I for one count this book as a gift.” —Richard L. Cates, Jr., farmer, and new farmer trainer, Spring Green, Wisconsin
Author Biography
Jerry Apps is a former county extension agent and is now professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for thirty years. Today he works as a rural historian and full-time writer and is the author of many books on rural history, country life, and the environment. He has created six-hour-long documentaries with PBS Wisconsin, has won several awards for his writing, and won a regional Emmy Award for the TV program A Farm Winter.
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