Mega-disastrous mega-farms

In American agriculture, as elsewhere, the plunder of man goes hand-in-hand with the plunder of nature. Two new books make the link between environmentally ruinous mega-farms and the ruination of small and medium farmers. To set the scene:

We are eating a big hole in the middle of the Midwest and sucking up California’s ancient aquifers until the land collapses like an empty juice box. The awe that new arrivals from other countries feel when they see the bounty in a US supermarket is an illusion—more like what one might experience when stepping from a cold night into a nice, warm house where they’re burning the furniture. In short, we are plundering the natural sources of our food production and can’t go on this way.

Read more here.