Re: The Invisible Farm

Christopher L. Byrne, Director (mailto:info@IDN.ORG)
Mon, 1 Jun 1998 20:37:11 -0400

Message-ID:  <35734937.7E35721@idn.org>
Date:         Mon, 1 Jun 1998 20:37:11 -0400
From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" <mailto:info@IDN.ORG>
Subject:      Re: The Invisible Farm
To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU

"The Invisible Farm: The worldwide decline of farm news and
agricultural journalism training" By Thomas Pawlick is available from
Amazon Books in association with the International Development Network
(http://www.idn.org/) at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1581120222/theinternationadA/

Buying the book through this URL helps sustain the IDN Web Site. Members of the IDN receive a rebate of 5% off of the sale price.

There are over 650 other development titles available in the IDN Bookstore at http://www.idn.org/bookstore/index.htm

Best regards,

Christopher Byrne Director, International Development Network Information Resources for Sustainable Development http://www.idn.org/ mailto:info@idn.org

Tom Pawlick wrote: >
> Several list members have e-mailed to say they'd like further
> information on the book mentioned in my previous query. Accordingly, the
> title is:
>
> The Invisible Farm: the worldwide decline of farm news and agricultural
> journalism training (ISBN 1-58112-022-2)
>
> The book is the result of 2.5 years of research conducted at the United
> Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, and at Carleton
> University, Ottawa, Canada.
> My purpose in writing was to alert agriculturalists and journalists
> alike to the fact that one of the most important subjects in human
> life--how we get our food--is being all but ignored by the major media,
> and neglected in our journalism schools. As a result of the failure of
> mainstream media to cover the subject, most urban consumers haven't a
> clue how a modern North American or European farm functions, or the
> conditions farmers in the Third World face when competing against them.
> Consequently, voters can't make informed decisions on farm policy when
> they go to the ballot box.
> The book is divided into two sections. The first, aimed at urban
> newspeople who may have no farm background, gives a rundown of the key
> social, economic and environmental issues in modern agriculture. The
> second reviews the history of agricultural development and of farm
> journalism in North America (representative of the industrialized
> countries), the former states of the Soviet Union (representing the
> East) and sub-Saharan Africa (representative of the Third World). In all
> three regions, the quantity and quality of farm coverage has declined
> sharply, in some cases to the point of extinction, at a time when major
> changes are occurring in the industry.
> The easiest way to find the book is to access Amazon Books (Amazon.com)
> on the Internet, then use Amazon.com's homepage search engine to locate
> the title "The Invisible Farm" I'd be interested in hearing comments
> about the thesis, as well as suggestions for futher research.