THE TRIUMPH OF TECHNIQUE
The Industrialization of Agriculture
and the Destruction of Rural America
Ruskin Press
1308 Laurel Dr. #5
Decorah, IA 52101
130 pages
$15.00.
Author Robert Wolf’s book takes a hard look at contemporary agriculture and its devastating impact on rural economies. The former Chicago Tribune columnist, who has been an Iowa resident since 1991, has been involved in rural affairs almost since his arrival. The Triumph of Technique invites the reader to join him on a search for the roots of the present rural crisis.
Wolf spent two-and-a-half years researching and writing The Triumph of Technique. This book has been judged by leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement as a significant contribution to understanding the depth of the current crisis in agriculture and its implications for the culture at large.
Fred Kirchenmann, former Director of the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, wrote:
“The Triumph of Technique isn’t an ordinary account of the industrialization of agriculture. It is a wake up call, a warning, and a call to action. And it isn’t just about the structure of agriculture but about the potential collapse of civilization and about the need to ‘restore human scale to human enterprise’ and to ‘emphasize cooperation over competition, virtue over efficiency and control.”
The Journal of Rural Mental Health published a review in 2008. Here is an abstract:
. “Robert Wolf’s analysis of rural political economy in The Triumph of Technique provides vivid glimpses of contemporary rural life with anecdotal passages about bankruptcy, militias, mental illness, and suicide. These portraits are just enough to reinforce the seriousness of the problem without making the reading an exercise in depression. Wolf sets out to offer readers a critical analysis of industrial agriculture by drawing on history, law, science, business, and philosophy from the perspective of America’s local rural cultures. The book’s main thrust is to render a critique of the forces of industrial agriculture and their applied “agricultural techniques” from particular points of view. The writing style and content are accessible for anyone, whether academic, activist, or a civic or community-minded person working for social change. Agribusiness and the broader hegemony of technique will be standing in the way of change. This book can be a point of departure in framing this challenge.” — Reviewed by Steve Owen.
“Outrage for Dummies,“ December 16, 2004
By Robert A. Karp
“Robert Wolf has written a punchy, passionate, and philosophical book about the demise of farming and rural life. On the one hand, the book is a very personal account of Wolf’s confrontation with the shadow side of modern agriculture, when he and his wife moved to a pristine spot in the driftless region of the northeast Iowa countryside, only to confront the reality of huge corporate hog factory being put in down the road.” (Read more, click here🙂
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