How the West was One

Abstract

As in many industrialized countries, non-industrial-scale agriculture in the western USA faces severe economic challenges. Many farmers and ranchers experience great difficulty earning a living from the land. Huge areas of western American landscapes have been converted from agriculture to commercial and residential use (the much-dreaded phenomenon of ‘sprawl’) as farmers and ranchers have been forced by economic realities to sell their land for development. With an increasingly conservative political orientation and fiscal constraints, effective programmes by the federal government to help non-industrial-scale farmers and ranchers to survive have largely disappeared in recent decades. During this same period, however, environmental organizations and large numbers of relatively wealthy new ‘ex-urban’ residents in rural areas have recognized that helping farmers and ranchers to survive is crucial for protecting open spaces and rural and environmental qualities. As a result, there have emerged a large number of highly innovative and effective partnerships between environmental organizations and farmers and ranchers. Today, these locally based, grassroots collaborations may represent the best hope for the survival of farmers, ranchers and the unique open landscapes and environmental qualities of the American West.