Globalization and the Rural Environment

“This book is key to understanding the overwhelming changes shaking our world, an inescapable book for all those interested in the challenges that the rural world is facing because of globalization shaped by the information society. The deepness of the analyses and the diversity of new insights present the render with unsuspected and stimulating perspectives on problems that are usually tackled separately, whether they deal with new technologies, economic growth, risks of hunger, or the evolution of the rural environment.”—Robert Barbault, Professor, Université Paris VI, and Director, Institute of Fundamental and Applied Ecology

“This book makes excellent reading for everyone scientifically or otherwise professionally interested in the subject of the rural environment and its transformation by successive cycles of globalization and new technologies, including the opportunity provided by the new information technologies. The book provides a wealth of information and interesting ideas for the formulation on new policies.”—Gisbert Glaser, former Assistant Director for the Environment, UNESCO

“Globalization and the economic changes of the post-industrial economy are creating enormous changes in rural enterprises and in the life of our rural communities, with often contradictory results. To reach economic development with equity we must continue with productive and technological changes. But we also must find ways to make economic growth sustainable in ecological terms, and above all in social terms. I am convinced that this book will help in that direction.”—Ing. Agr. Felipe Solá, Lt. Governor, State of Buenos Aires, and former Secretary of Agriculture, Argentina

“The need for better food for everybody is a great challenge; to obtain food sustainably is another great challenge. That the discussion in this book includes the views from farmers to scientists, from Europe and America, and that the venue was Harvard, is very encouraging for farmers worried about sustainability. It is a great contribution to sustainable agriculture that we hope soon will be translated to other languages.”—Victor Trucco, Argentine farmer, President of AAPRESID (Argentine Association for No-till Agriculture)