Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-247) and index.
Contents:
Louis Bromfield comes home -- Crusading for conservation -- A new kind of pioneer -- The golden age of grass -- Conservation at a crossroads -- Vegetables on the middle ground -- Saving Malabar -- Marginalization -- Surviving the Sixties -- For the people of Ohio -- Sustainable agriculture.
Summary:
"Established in 1939 by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and farmer Louis Bromfield, Malabar Farm was once considered 'the most famous farm in the world.' Farmers, conservationists, politicians, businessmen, and even a few Hollywood celebrities--including Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall--flocked to rural Ohio to see how Bromfield restored worn-out land to lush productivity using conservation practices. Permanent, sustainable agriculture, Bromfield preached, was the 'New Agriculture' that would transform the postwar world. Anneliese Abbott tells the story of Malabar Farm within the context of the wider histories of soil conservation, the environmental movement, and the Ohio-based conservation organization Friends of the Land. Malabar Farm, which became an Ohio state park in 1976, provides an intriguing case study of how soil conservation flourished during the New Deal, was marginalized during the 1950s, and continues to influence the modern idea of sustainable agriculture. To see Malabar strictly as a modern production farm--or a nature preserve, or the home of a famous novelist--oversimplifies the complexity of what Bromfield actually did. Malabar wasn't a conventional farm or an organic form; it was both. Malabar Farm represents a middle ground that is often lacking in modern discussions about sustainability or environmental issues, yet it remains critically important"--Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.