Agrarianism has two common meanings. The first meaning refers to a social philosophy or political philosophy which values rural society as superior to urban society, the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker, and sees farming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values.^[1] It stresses the superiority of a simpler rural life as opposed to the complexity of city life, with its banks and factories. The American Thomas Jefferson was a representative agrarian who built Jeffersonian Democracy around the notion that farmers are “the most valuable citizens” and the truest republicans.^[2]

The philosophical roots of agrarianism include European and Chinese philosophers. The Chinese School of Agrarianism was a philosophy that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism.^[3] This influenced European intellectuals like François Quesnay, an avid Confucianist and advocate of China's agrarian policies, forming the French agrarian philosophy of Physiocracy.^[4] The Physiocrats, along with the ideas of John Locke and the Romantic Era, formed the basis of modern European and American agrarianism.

Secondly, the term "agrarianism" means political proposals for land redistribution, specifically the distribution of land from the rich to the poor or landless. This terminology is common in many countries, and originated from the "Lex Sempronia Agraria" or "agrarian laws" of Rome in 133 BC, imposed by Tiberius Gracchus, that seized the lands of the rich and distributed them to the poor.^[5] This definition of agrarianism is commonly known as “agrarian reform.”

In societies influenced by Confucianism, the farmer was considered an esteemed productive member of society, whereas merchants who made money were looked down upon. In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England, the word identified any land reform movement that sought to redistribute cultivated lands equally. Today, the word has largely shed this radical political meaning. Instead, agrarianism points to a collection of political, philosophical, and literary ideas that together tend to describe farm life in ideal terms^{[citation needed]}.

Philosophy[link]

The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2011)

In the introduction to his 1969 book Agrarianism in American Literature, M. Thomas Inge defines agrarianism by the following basic tenets:

• Cultivation of the soil provides direct contact with nature; through the contact with nature, the agrarian acquires the virtues of "honor, manliness, self-reliance, courage, moral integrity, and hospitality" and follows the example of God when creating order out of chaos.

• The farmer "has a sense of identity, a sense of historical and religious tradition, a feeling of belonging to a concrete family, place, and region, which are psychologically and culturally beneficial." The harmony of this life checks the encroachments of a fragmented, alienated modern society that has grown to inhuman scale.

• In contrast, farming offers more independence and self-sufficiency. It has a solid, stable position in the world order. But urban life, capitalism, and technology destroy independence and dignity while fostering vice and weakness. The agricultural community can provide checks and balances against the imbalances of modern society by its fellowship of labor and cooperation with other agrarians, while obeying the rhythms of nature.

History of agrarian ideas[link]

Greece and Rome[link]

In Greece, Hesiod, Aristotle and Xenophon promoted agrarian ideas. Even more influential were such Roman thinkers as Cato, Cicero, Horace, and Virgil. They all praised the virtues of a life devoted to the tilling of the soil.^[6][7]

Agriculturalism in China[link]

Agriculturalism (農家/农家; Nongjia) was an early agrarian social and political philosophy in ancient China that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism.^[3] The philosophy is founded on the notion that human society originates with the development of agriculture, and societies are based upon "people's natural prospensity to farm."^[8]

The Agriculturalists believed that the ideal government, modeled after the semi-mythical governance of Shennong, is led by a benevolent king, one who works alongside the people in tilling the fields. The Agriculturalist king is not paid by the government through its treasuries; his livelihood is derived from the profits he earns working in the fields, not his leadership.^[9] Unlike the Confucians, the Agriculturalists did not believe in the division of labour, arguing instead that the economic policies of a country need to be based upon an egalitarian self sufficiency. The Agriculturalists supported the fixing of prices, in which all similar goods, regardless of differences in quality and demand, are set at exactly the same, unchanging price.^[9]

They encouraged farming and agriculture and taught farming and cultivation techniques, as they believed that agricultural development was the key to a stable and prosperous society. The philosopher Mencius once criticized its chief proponent Xu Xing (許行) for advocating that rulers should work in the fields with their subjects. One of Xu's students is quoted as having criticized the duke of Teng in a conversation with Mencius by saying: ‘A worthy ruler feeds himself by ploughing side by side with the people, and rules while cooking his own meals. Now Teng on the contrary possesses granaries and treasuries, so the ruler is supporting himself by oppressing the people’.

Physiocrats: 18th century France[link]

Physiocracy was a French agrarianist philosophy that originated in the 18th century. The movement was particularly dominated by [[François who gives Quesnay]] (1694–1774) and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (1727–1781).^[10] The Physiocrats were partially influenced by Chinese agrarianism; leading physiocrats like François Quesnay were avid Confucianists that advocated China's agrarian policies.^[11]

18th and 19th-century Europeans and Americans[link]

Borrowing from the French Physiocrats the idea that all wealth originates with the land, making farming the only truly productive enterprise, agrarianism claims that agriculture is the foundation of all other professions. Philosophically, European agrarianism reflects the ideas of John Locke, who declared in his Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) that those who work the land are its rightful owners. His labor theory of value influenced the thinking of Thomas Jefferson, who in turn shaped the way many nineteenth-century American homesteaders understood ownership of their farms. Jefferson wrote in 1785 in a letter to John Jay that

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, & they are tied to their country & wedded to its liberty & interests by the most lasting bonds.".^[12]

Richard Hofstadter has traced the sentimental attachment to the rural way of life, which he describes as "a kind of homage that Americans have paid to the fancied innocence of their origins." Hofstadter notes that to call this a "myth" is not to imply that the idea is simply false. Rather the myth so effectively informs an agrarian ethos that it profoundly influences people's ways of perceiving values and hence their behavior. He emphasizes the importance of the agrarian myth in American politics and life even after industrialization had revolutionized the American economy and life. He stresses the significance of the writings of Jefferson and his followers in the South, such as John Taylor of Caroline in the development of agricultural fundamentalism.^[13]

American politicians, for example, boasted of their agrarian or log-cabin origins, and praised the republicanism of the yeoman farmers.^[14]

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, agrarianism felt the influence of the European Romanticism movement. Romantics focused attention on the individual and described nature as a spiritual force. At a time when pristine wilderness was becoming scarce in many parts of Europe, what constitutes “nature” was confused with the last remnants of wilderness—cultivated fields, managed woodlands, and cultivated livestock and crops. As someone in constant contact with (this watered-down version of) “nature”, the farmer was positioned to experience moments that transcend the mundane material world. In doing so, these thinkers managed to redefine nature in man's image, accommodating enclosure with a new “domesticated” version of nature.

20th century[link]

In the 1910s and 1920s, agrarianism garnered significant popular attention, but was eclipsed in the postwar period. It has been revived somewhat in conjunction with the environmental movement, and has been drawing an increasing number of adherents.

Eastern Europe[link]

Eastern European theorists include Pyotr Stolypin (1862–1911) and Alexander Chayanov^[15] (1888–1939) in Russia; Adolf Wagner (1835–1917), and Karl Oldenberg in Germany,^[16] and Bolesław Limanowski (1835–1935) in Poland.^[17]

In Russia the intellectuals of the "Populists" (Narodnaya Volya^[18]) and, later, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party developed a theoretical basis for a peasant movement, building a rich, well-developed humanistic ideology which influenced eastern Europe, especially the Balkans. It never attained the international visibility among peasants that socialism did among the urban workers.^[19]

In Poland Bolesław Limanowski thought deeply about Agrarianism and worked out an eclectic program that fit Polish conditions. His practical experience as a farm manager combined with socialist, "single-tax," and Slavic communal ideas shaped his world view. He proposed a form of agrarian socialism with large state farms to counteract the inefficiency of very small holdings. In independent Poland he advocated expropriation of gentry estates. His observation of peasant individualism convinced him that Poland should combine voluntary collectivism and individual possession of the leased land. His pragmatism left room even for private peasant ownership, despite his Marxism.^[20]

Canada[link]

The most important Canadian theorist was an American immigrant, Henry Wise Wood, president of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) during that movement's time as the governing party of the province (1921–1935). He, like many Canadian farmers of the era, conceived of farmers as a distinct social class in the midst of a class struggle against capitalists who owned the banks, railways, and grain trading companies which profited from the efforts of farmers. His solution was a kind of corporatism called "group government". In this scheme, people would be represented in government by a party or organization that defended the interests of their particular occupation or industry, not a particular ideology. On the basis of this philosophy the UFA, as the representative of the farmers as a class, ran candidates only in rural area and not in the cities. Instead they urged their urban sympathizers to vote for Labour candidates, as the representatives of the urban working class.^[21][22] This type of farmer-labour co-operation became common throughout Western Canada, leading to the creation of the short-lived Progressive Party of Canada in the 1920s, and the more durable Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Farmer-Labour-Socialist) in Calgary, Alberta, in 1935, precursor to Canada's modern-day social democratic party, the New Democratic Party.^[23] Demeritt (1995) argues that in British Columbia (and Canada generally), there were three overlapping agrarian viewpoints. Arcadianism was based on nostalgic memories of rural England, and led to the widespread creation of orchards and gardens. Agrarianism claimed agriculture was the source of all wealth and called for the wide distribution of land as the foundation of democracy and freedom. The Country Life Movement was a loose grouping of social reformers, church leaders, and urban progressives; they sought solutions for rural economic decline, social stagnation, and the depopulation of the countryside.^[24]

United States[link]

In American history^[25] important spokesmen included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735–1813), and John Taylor of Caroline (1753–1824) in the early national period. In the mid-19th century important leaders included Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). After 1890 came philosopher Josiah Royce (1855–1916), botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954), the Southern Agrarians of the 1920s and 1930s, novelist John Steinbeck (1902–1968), historian A. Whitney Griswold (1906–1963), environmentalist Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), Ralph Borsodi (1886–1977), and present-day authors Wendell Berry (b. 1934), Gene Logsdon (b. 1932), Paul Thompson, and Allan C. Carlson (b. 1949).

In 1930 in the U.S. the Southern Agrarians wrote in the "Introduction: A Statement of Principles" to their book I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition that

All the articles bear in the same sense upon the book's title-subject: all tend to support a Southern way of life against what may be called the American or prevailing way; and all as much as agree that the best terms in which to represent the distinction are contained in the phrase, Agrarian versus Industrial. ... Opposed to the industrial society is the agrarian, which does not stand in particular need of definition. An agrarian society is hardly one that has no use at all for industries, for professional vocations, for scholars and artists, and for the life of cities. Technically, perhaps, an agrarian society is one in which agriculture is the leading vocation, whether for wealth, for pleasure, or for prestige-a form of labor that is pursued with intelligence and leisure, and that becomes the model to which the other forms approach as well as they may. But an agrarian regime will be secured readily enough where the superfluous industries are not allowed to rise against it. The theory of agrarianism is that the culture of the soil is the best and most sensitive of vocations, and that therefore it should have the economic preference and enlist the maximum number of workers.^[26]

Leading American Neo-Agrarian Theorists[link]

Recent agrarian thinkers are sometimes referred to as neo-Agrarian and include the likes of Wendell Berry, Paul B. Thompson, and Gene Logsdon. They are characterized by seeing the world through an agricultural lens. Although much of Inge's principles, above, still apply to the New Agrarianism, the affiliation with a particular religion and patriarchal tendency have subsided to some degree.

Aldo Leopold Leopold was born in 1887 and educated at Yale University. He developed the field of game management and introduced an ecological ethic that replaced an earlier wilderness ethic where human dominance is stressed. In addition, he included the farm as a place of conservation and is considered an agrarian scholar. Leopold believed that harm was frequently done to natural systems out of a sense of ownership and this idea eclipsed community.[18] He expanded the idea of community to include the environment and the farm. Leopold is the author of several essays and is perhaps best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1953).^[27]

Wendell Berry Wendell Berry is an author of several books, essays, and poems whose writing often illustrates his values which center around sustainable agriculture, healthy rural communities, and a connection to place. He is a prominent defender of agrarian values and has an appreciation for traditional farming. Rod Dreher writes the following: “[Berry's] unshakable devotion to the land, to localism, and to the dignity of traditional life makes him both a great American and, to the disgrace of our age, a prophet without honor in his native land."[29]

J. Baird Callicott Callicott is, perhaps, best known for his research which explores an Aldo Leopold ethic as a response to global climate change. Callicott supports a holistic, non-anthropocentric environmental ethic which is in accordance with Leopold's view that "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise"[15] He holds the view that an adequate environmental ethic — one that addresses actual environmental concerns — must be intrinsically holistic.

Paul B. Thompson Paul Thompson is the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University. He has published extensively on the social and environmental significance of agriculture and a number of volumes and papers on the philosophical significance of farming, notably The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics (1995) and The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism (2000).^[28] His most recient publication called The Agrarian Vision focuses on sustainability and what agrarian philosophy can offer when we conceptualize what sustainability actually means.^[29]

Agrarian parties[link]

Peasant parties first appeared across Eastern Europe between 1860 and 1910, when commercialized agriculture and world market forces disrupted traditional rural society, and the railway and growing literacy facilitated the work of roving organizers. Agrarian parties advocated land reforms to redistribute land on large estates among those who work it. They also wanted village cooperatives to keep the profit from crop sales in local hands, and credit institutions to underwrite needed improvements. Many peasant parties were also nationalist parties, because peasants often worked their land for the benefit of landlords of different ethnicity.

Peasant parties rarely had any power before World War I, but some became influential in the interwar era, especially in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. For a while in the 1920s and 1930s there was a Green International (International Agrarian Bureau) based on the peasant parties in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Serbia. It functioned primarily as an information center that spread the ideas of agrarianism and combating socialism on the left and landlords on the right, and never launched any significant activities.

Bulgaria[link]

In Bulgaria, Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BZNS) was organized in 1899 to resist taxes and build cooperatives. BZNS came to power in 1919 and introduces many economic, social, and legal reforms. However conservative forces crushed BZNS in a 1923 coup and assassinated its leader, Aleksandar Stamboliyski (1879–1923). BZNS was made into a Communist puppet group until 1989, when it reorganized as a genuine party.

Czechoslovakia[link]

In Czechoslovakia the Republican Party of Agricultural and Smallholder People often shared power in parliament as a partner in the five-party pětka coalition. The party's leader Antonin Svehla (1873–1933) was prime minister several times. The party was banned.

Romania[link]

In Romania, in 1919 older parties from Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia merged to become the National Peasants' Party. Iuliu Maniu (1873–1953) was prime minister with an agrarian cabinet from 1928 to 1930, but the Great Depression made proposed reforms impossible. The Communists dissolved the party in 1947, but it reformed in 1989 after Communism collapsed.

Serbia[link]

In Serbia Nikola Pašić (1845–1926) and his Radical Party dominated Serbian politics after 1903; they also monopolized power in Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1929; during the dictatorship of the 1930s, it furnished the prime minister.

Australia[link]

In Australia, the Country Party from the 1920s to the 1970s, promulgated its version of agrarianism, which it called "Countrymindedness". The goal was to enhance the status of the graziers (operators of big sheep ranches) and small farmers, and justified subsidies for them.^[30]

Back-to-the-land movement[link]

Agrarianism is similar but not identical with the back-to-the-land movement. Agrarianism concentrates on the fundamental goods of the earth, communities of more limited economic and political scale than in modern society, and on simple living—even when this shift involves questioning the "progressive" character of some recent social and economic developments. Thus agrarianism is not industrial farming, with its specialization on products and industrial scale.^[31]

See also[link]

	conservatism portal
	Agropedia portal

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Agrarian values[link]

• Danbom, David B. "Romantic Agrarianism in Twentieth-Century America," Agricultural History, Vol. 65#4 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 1–12 in JSTOR
• Grampp, William D. "John Taylor: Economist of Southern Agrarianism," Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 11#3 (Jan., 1945), pp. 255–268 in JSTOR
• Hofstadter, Richard. "Parrington and the Jeffersonian Tradition," Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1941), pp. 391–400 in JSTOR
• Kolodny, Annette. The Land before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860 (1984). onlin edition
• Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (1964).
• Murphy, Paul V. The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought (2000)
• Parrington, Vernon. Main Currents in American Thought (1927), 3-vol online
• Quinn, Patrick F. "Agrarianism and the Jeffersonian Philosophy," Review of Politics, Vol. 2#1 (Jan., 1940), pp. 87–104 in JSTOR
• Thompson, Paul, and Thomas C. Hilde, eds. The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism (2000)

Primary sources[link]

• Sorokin, Pitirim A., et al., eds. A systematic source book in rural sociology (3 vol. 1930) vol 1 pp 1–146 covers many major thinkers down to 1800

Europe[link]

• Bell, John D. Peasants in Power: Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 1899–1923(1923)
• Donnelly, James S. Captain Rock: The Irish Agrarian Rebellion of 1821-1824 (2009)
• Donnelly, James S. Irish Agrarian Rebellion, 1760-1800 (2006)
• Gross, Feliks, ed. European Ideologies: A Survey of 20th Century Political Ideas (1948) pp 391–481 online edition, on Russia and Bulgaria
• Narkiewicz, Olga A. The Green Flag: Polish Populist Politics, 1867–1970 (1976).
• Oren, Nissan. Revolution Administered: Agrarianism and Communism in Bulgaria (1973), focus is post 1945
• Paine, Thomas. Agrarian Justice (1794)
• Patterson, James G. In the Wake of the Great Rebellion: Republican, Agrarianism and Banditry in Ireland After 1798 (2008)
• Roberts, Henry L. Rumania: Political Problems of an Agrarian State (1951).
• Zagorin, Perez. Rebels and Rulers, 1500-1660: Volume 1, Agrarian and Urban Rebellions : Society, States and Early Modern Revolution (1982)

North America[link]

• Goodwyn, Lawrence. The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America (1978), 1880s and 1890s in U.S.
• Lipset, Seymour Martin. Agrarian socialism: the Coöperative Commonwealth Federation in Saskatchewan (1950)
• McConnell, Grant. The decline of agrarian democracy(1953), 20th century U.S.
• Mark, Irving. Agrarian conflicts in colonial New York, 1711-1775 (1940)
• Ochiai, Akiko. Harvesting Freedom: African American Agrarianism in Civil War Era South Carolina (2007)
• Robison, Dan Merritt. Bob Taylor and the agrarian revolt in Tennessee (1935)
• Stine, Harold E. The agrarian revolt in South Carolina;: Ben Tillman and the Farmers' Alliance (1974)
• Summerhill, Thomas. Harvest of Dissent: Agrarianism in Nineteenth-Century New York (2005)
• Szatmary, David P. Shay's Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection (1984), 1787 in Massachusetts
• Woodward, C. Vann. Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebel (1938) online edition
• Woodward, C. Vann. "Tom Watson and the Negro in Agrarian Politics," The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb., 1938), pp. 14–33 in JSTOR

Third World[link]

• Ginzberg, Eitan. "State Agrarianism versus Democratic Agrarianism: Adalberto Tejeda's Experiment in Veracruz, 1928-32," Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 30#2 (May, 1998), pp. 341–372 in JSTOR
• Handy, Jim. Revolution in the Countryside: Rural Conflict and Agrarian Reform in Guatemala, 1944-1954 (1994)
• Jacoby, Erich H. Agrarian unrest in Southeast Asia (1949)
• Paige, Jeffery M. Agrarian revolution: social movements and export agriculture in the underdeveloped world (1978) 435 pages excerpt and text search
• Sanderson, Steven E. Agrarian populism and the Mexican state: the struggle for land in Sonora (1981)
• Stokes, Eric. The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India (1980)
• Tannenbaum, Frank. The Mexican Agrarian Revolution (1930)

External links[link]

• "Agrarianism" in American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia
• "Agrarian Valhalla: The Vanderbilt 12 and Beyond" by Joseph Scotchie, Southern Events
• Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian
• The New Agrarian
• Agraripedia

Notes[link]

Andrés Duany (2005)

Andrés Duany (born September 7, 1949) is an American architect and urban planner.

Duany was born in New York City but grew up in Cuba until 1960.^[1] He attended The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) and received his undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University. After a year of study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, he received a master's degree in architecture from the Yale School of Architecture.^[1]

In 1977, Duany was co-founder of the Miami firm Arquitectonica, with his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Laurinda Hope Spear, and Hervin Romney. Arquitectonica became famous for its signature style, a dramatic, expressive 'high tech' modernism. The firm's Atlantis Condominium was featured prominently in the opening credits of "Miami Vice."

Duany and Plater-Zyberk founded Duany Plater Zyberk & Company (DPZ) in 1980, headquartered in Miami, Florida.^[1] DPZ became a leader in the national movement called the New Urbanism, which seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment. The firm first received international recognition in the 1980s as the designer of Seaside, Florida and Kentlands, Maryland, and has completed designs and codes for over two hundred new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects. At DPZ, Duany also led the development of comprehensive municipal zoning ordinances that prescribe appropriate urban arrangement for all uses and all densities.

Duany is a co-founder and emeritus board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, established in 1993.^[1] He has co-authored two books: "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream" and "The New Civic Art." Duany has worked as visiting professor at many institutions and holds two honorary doctorates.

He also helped design Cornell, a community in Markham, Ontario, Canada.

In 2001, he and Plater-Zyberk were awarded the Vincent Scully Prize by the National Building Museum in recognition of their contributions to the American built environment.^[2]

He was featured in the Canadian documentary Radiant City (2006) on suburban sprawl.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Duany, Andrés, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck (2000). Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press. ISBN 0-86547-606-3
• Duany, Andrés, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Robert Alminana (2003). The New Civic Art: Elements of Town Planning. New York: Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 0-8478-2186-2
• Lombard, Joanna (2005). The Architecture of Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company. New York: Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 0-8478-2600-7
• Duany, Andrés and Jeff Speck, with Mike Lydon (2009). The Smart Growth Manual. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-137675-5

External links[link]

• Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
• Congress for the New Urbanism
• Subdivided: Isolation and Community in America A Documentary Film featuring Andrés Duany media

Salatin giving a tour of his farm

Joel F. Salatin (born 1957) is an American farmer, lecturer, and author whose books include Folks, This Ain't Normal, You Can Farm, and Salad Bar Beef.

Salatin raises livestock using holistic methods of animal husbandry, free of potentially harmful chemicals, on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct-marketing to consumers and restaurants.^[1]

Biography[link]

In high school, Salatin began his own business selling rabbits, eggs, butter and chicken from his family farm at the Staunton Curb Market.^[2] He then attended Bob Jones University where he majored in English and was a student leader. He graduated in 1979.^[3] Salatin married his childhood sweetheart in 1980 and became a feature writer at the Staunton, Virginia newspaper, The News Leader, where he had worked earlier typing obituaries and police reports.^[4]

Tired of "having his stories spiked," he decided to try farming full-time after first getting involved in a walnut-buying station run by two high school boys.^[5] Salatin's grandfather had been an avid gardener and beekeeper and a follower of J. I. Rodale, the founder of regenerative organic gardening. Salatin's father worked as an accountant and his mother taught high school physical education. Salatin's parents had bought the land that became Polyface in 1961 after losing a farm in Venezuela to political turmoil. They had raised cattle using organic methods, but could not make a living at farming alone.^[6]

Salatin, a self-described "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic-Farmer" produces high-quality "beyond organic" meats, which are raised using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. Jo Robinson, the author of Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs and Dairy Products From Grass-Fed Animals (2004) said of Salatin, "He's not going back to the old model. There's nothing in county extension or old-fashioned ag science that really informs him. He is just looking totally afresh at how to maximize production in an integrated system on a holistic farm. He's just totally innovative."^[1]

Salatin with a flock of egg-laying hens that are housed in a large, portable coop, surrounded by predator-deterrent electric netting.

Salatin considers his farming a ministry, and he condemns the negative impact on his livelihood and lifestyle of what he considers an increasingly regulatory approach taken by the agencies of the United States government toward farming.^[7] Salatin now spends a hundred days a year lecturing at colleges and to environmental groups.^[2]

Salatin's farm[link]

Salatin's 550-acre (2.2 km²) farm is featured prominently in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) and the documentary films, Food, Inc. and Fresh. His unconventional farming practices have drawn attention from the alternative agriculture community especially those interested in sustainable livestock management. For example, Pollan became interested in Salatin because of his refusal to send food to locations not within a four-hour drive of his farm, i.e. outside his local "foodshed." "We want [prospective customers] to find farms in their areas and keep the money in their own community," said Salatin. "We think there is strength in decentralization and spreading out rather than in being concentrated and centralized."^[8]

Salatin’s philosophy of farming emphasizes healthy grass on which animals can thrive in a symbiotic cycle of feeding. Cows are moved from one pasture to another rather than being centrally corn fed. Then chickens in portable coops are moved in behind them, where they dig through the cow dung to eat protein-rich fly larvae while further fertilizing the field with their droppings.^[2]

Criticism[link]

Salatin expresses his concerns for deviation from traditional gender roles. He attributes these changing gender roles to removal from the traditional farm. He highlights in an interview, “Hey, 40 years ago, every woman in the country – I'll be real sexist here – every woman in the country knew how to cut up a chicken... Now 60% of our customers don't even know that a chicken has bones! I'm serious. We have moved to an incredibly ignorant culinary connection.^[9]” Vasile Stanescu, co-senior editor for the Journal of Critical Animal Studies, mentions in his essay, "Green’ Eggs and Ham? The Myth of Sustainable Meat and the Danger of the Local", that “Salatin believes so firmly in traditional gender roles that in the past he did not even accept women as workers or interns for the farm labor aspect of his farm although they could work in the kitchen.^[10]"

Awards[link]

• The 15th Heinz Awards (with special focus on the environment)^[11]

Works[link]

• Salad Bar Beef. (1996). ISBN 978-0-9638109-1-5
• Pastured Poultry Profit$. (1996). ISBN 978-0-9638109-0-8
• You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. (1998). ISBN 978-0-9638109-2-2
• Family Friendly Farming: A Multigenerational Home-Based Business Testament. (2001). ISBN 978-0-9638109-3-9
• Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide To Farm Friendly Food. (2005). ISBN 978-0-9638109-4-6
• Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front. (2007). ISBN 978-0-9638109-5-3
• The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer. (2010). ISBN 978-0-9638109-6-0
• Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. Center Street. 2011. ISBN 978-0-89296-819-0. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Polyface Farm, Inc.
• BusinessWeek article about Salatin
• "High Priest of the Pasture", a New York Times article about Salatin
• Video podcast of Salatin Lecture 24-Feb-2005 @ U.C. Berkeley (2hrs)
• Scribed talk notes of Joel Salatin 19-Feb-2009 @ Stanford
• Flavor Magazine (Salatin writes a column, "Rebel with a Cause," for this bi-monthly magazine focused on the DC foodshed)

Manny Villar
25th President of the Senate of the Philippines
In office July 24, 2006 – November 17, 2008
President	Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Preceded by	Franklin Drilon
Succeeded by	Juan Ponce Enrile
Senator of the Philippines
Incumbent
Assumed office June 30, 2001
20th President pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippines
In office July 23, 2001 – August 12, 2002
President	Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Preceded by	Blas Ople
Succeeded by	Juan Flavier
18th Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
In office July 27, 1998 – November 13, 2000
President	Joseph Estrada
Preceded by	Jose de Venecia, Jr.
Succeeded by	Arnulfo Fuentebella
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from Las Piñas
In office June 30, 1992 – June 30, 2001
Preceded by	Filemon Aguilar
Succeeded by	Cynthia Villar
Personal details
Born	Manuel Bamba Villar, Jr. (1949-12-13) December 13, 1949 (age 62) Tondo, Manila, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino
Political party	Nacionalista (2003-present)
Other political affiliations	Independent (2000-2003) LAMMP (1998-2000) Lakas-NUCD (1992-1998)
Spouse(s)	Cynthia Villar
Children	Manuel Paolo Villar III Mark Villar Camille Linda Villar
Residence	Las Piñas City, Metro Manila
Alma mater	University of the Philippines
Profession	Businessperson
Religion	Christian
Website	www.mannyvillar.com.ph

Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar, Jr. (born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and politician. He is currently a Philippine Senator, president of the Nacionalista Party

Villar was supposedly born to a "poor" family in Tondo, an impoverished and densely populated district of Manila.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} After graduating from the University of the Philippines, he worked as an accountant and financial analyst, then launched a highly successful business in real estate. The number of homes built by Villar's companies has totaled to over 200,000 units, and his business career made him one of the country's wealthiest persons.

Villar entered politics in 1992 when he was elected Congressman representing the district of Las Piñas-Muntinlupa, and later became Speaker of the House of Representatives. As Speaker, he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada by the House of Representatives in 2000. In 2001 he was elected Senator, and served as Senate President from 2006 to 2008. He was the candidate of the Nacionalista Party in the 2010 presidential election, which was won by Benigno Aquino III.

Early life and education[link]

Manuel Bamba Villar, Jr. was born on December 13, 1949 in Tondo, an impoverished and densely populated district of Manila.^[6] He was the second-born of the nine children of his parents in a poor family.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]} His father, Manuel "Maning" Montalban Villar, Sr., was a government employee from Cabatuan, Iloilo who worked as an inspector for the Bureau of Fisheries.^[2][6] His mother, Curita "Curing" Bamba, was a seafood vendor from a poor family in Orani, Bataan.^[2] The family lived in a small rented apartment in a run down slum area.^[4] Villar's father was eventually granted a year-long scholarship for higher education in the United States, which lead to a job promotion to a director position in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources upon his return.^[1] Due to cramped conditions in Tondo, Villar's father obtained a P16,000 loan from the Government Service Insurance System, payable in 20 to 25 years, to build a home in San Rafael Village, Navotas.^[5][8]

As a child, Villar initially attended Isabelo delos Reyes Elementary School, a nearby public school in Tondo.^[9] He also assisted his mother in selling shrimp and fish at the Divisoria Public Market, as early as age six, in order to help earn the money to support his siblings and himself to school.^[2][6] However, accompanying his mother interfered with his education and he was forced to drop out from school during Grade 1.^[9] He was then enrolled at Tondo Parochial School (later renamed Holy Child Catholic School), a private school in Tondo run by priests, to complete his elementary education.^[9]

Villar finished his high school education at the Mapúa Institute of Technology in Intramuros.^[10] He attended the University of the Philippines - Diliman and earned his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1970.^[10] He returned to the same school to earn his master's degree in business administration in 1973.^[10] He later characterized himself as being impatient with formal schooling, and eager to start working and go into business.^[4]

Business career[link]

After obtaining his bachelor's degree, Villar began his professional career working as an accountant for Sycip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co), the country's largest accounting firm.^[10] He resigned from SGV & Co. to start his first business, delivering seafood in Makati.^[7] However, when his largest customer was unable to pay him, he negotiated a debt restructuring of sorts, selling discounted meal tickets to office workers in exchange for receivables.^[3] He then worked briefly as a financial analyst for the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines, where his job was to sell World Bank loans.^[2][6] Wanting to start a business of his own again, he quit his job and availed of one of the loans, which offered attractive rates.^[2]

In 1975, with an initial capital of P10,000, Villar purchased two reconditioned trucks and started a business delivering sand and gravel for construction companies in Las Piñas.^[4][7] This eventually segued into building houses, as Villar took out a seven-year loan from a rural bank offering low interest rates,^[3] and began what would become the country's largest home building company, with an emphasis on low-priced mass housing.^[6] A notable innovation of Villar's companies was to sell house and lot packages, when the common practice at the time was to sell lots for future homeonwers to build upon.^[7] He initiated mass housing projects through economies of scale, utilizing the cost advantages of developing a large scale project in order to bring down housing prices.^[7] The number of homes built by Villar's companies totaled to over 200,000 units.^[3]

In July 1995, Villar's flagship property, C&P Homes, was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange and grew by more than a third in one day, ballooning Villar's 80% stake in the company to $1.5 billion. Villar had concentrated on low-cost housings which were bought by the home buyers themselves, giving opportunities for the low and middle income Filipino families to acquire homes. He also wanted to set an example to Filipino entrepreneurs that what they set their mind on can be achieved.^[11]

Vista Land and Lifescapes, Inc. , a family owned business of Villar , is also listed in the privately owned Philippine Stock Exchange. Their shares of stocks were bought primarily by foreign funds which had given the government, as well as the PSE, good revenues.^[12]

Villar has received several awards for his achievements during his profesional and business career, including being one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in 1986, the Agora Award for Marketing Management in 1989, Most Outstanding CPA by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1990, and Most Outstanding UP Alumnus in 1991.^[6] In 2004, he was named the Most Distinguished Alumnus, the highest recognition given by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.^[6]

As of 2011, Forbes magazine ranks him as the 17th wealthiest person in the Philippines, with his net worth of US$620 million or ₱ 26.95 billion (43.47 exchange rate).^[13][14]

Congressional career[link]

House of Representatives[link]

Villar entered politics in 1992 when he was elected to the House of Representatives, representing the district of Las Piñas-Muntinlupa.^[6] Due to congressional redistricting, he later represented the district of Las Piñas City.^[6] He served for three consecutive three-year terms, consistently posting landslide election victories.^[6]

Villar was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1998, during his third term in congress.^[6] As speaker, he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada over corruption allegations in November 2000.^[15] Along with a large group of lawmakers which include the Senate President, Villar defected from Estrada's Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP) coalition in order to hasten the process of impeachment.^[16] Seconds after the opening prayer, and skipping the traditional roll call, he immediately read a resolution sending the impeachment case to the Senate for trial, bypassing a full vote and ignoring attempts by Estrada allies to delay the proceedings.^[15]

Hours after the impeachment proceedings, congressmen allied with the president led a move to oust Villar from his post as speaker, replacing him with Camarines Sur representative Arnulfo Fuentebella, an ally of President Estrada.^[15]

In 2001, barred by constitutional term limits from seeking re-election to a fourth term in the House of Representatives, Villar was succeeded by his wife, Cynthia Villar.

Senate[link]

Villar ran for Senator in the 2001 election. Having recently resigned from Estrada's LAMMP coalition, he ran for Senator as an independent politician, but campaigned as a member of the People Power Coalition, the administration coalition party which was supportive of the recent 2001 EDSA Revolution. He was elected to the Senate with more than 11 million votes, ranking seventh out of 37 candidates.^[17] He later won re-election in 2007, running as a member of the Genuine Opposition coalition, ranking fourth out of 37 candidates.^[6]

In July 2006, Villar was chosen Senate President, making him the first post-World War II public official to head both the House of Representatives and the Senate.^[6] He had previously held the position of Senate President pro tempore, as well as the chairmanship of the Committees on Finance, Foreign Relations, Public Order, and Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries.^[6]

In November 2008, Villar lost the support of the Senate majority, due to alleged fabricated accusations thrown on him by political enemies on the C5 project. He then resigned as President of the Senate and was succeeded by Juan Ponce Enrile^[18] who later on investigated Villar for C5 scam.^[19]

2010 presidential campaign[link]

Villar was a candidate for President of the Philippines in the May 2010 presidential election, as the standard bearer of the Nacionalista Party. He filed his certificate of candidacy for president on November 30, 2009, along with his running mate, Senator Loren Legarda.^[20] His popular campaign line was "Sipag at Tyaga" (Hardwork and Patience). Villar's campaign platform includes combating poverty and corruption, two major problems between which he believes there is a strong link.^[21]

According to a January 2010 survey by polling firm Pulse Asia and the February 2010 survey from Social Weather Stations, Villar was statistically tied in the lead with his main rival in the election, Senator Benigno Aquino III.^[22] In a March survey rival Aquino had regained a significant nine-point lead.^[23] Other significant rivals in the presidential race included former President Joseph Estrada and former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

During the presidential campaign, opinion columnist William Esposo claimed that Villar has lied in his TV ads and could not have been poor because his younger brother Danny was admitted to FEU Hospital, which he claims was a top hospital at the time and in 1962, there was no bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy yet and everyone whether rich or poor died from contracting leukemia.^[8] Villar clarified that his brother was admitted as a charity patient, because the family was unable to afford treatment.Any family member, who is on the verge of death, will definitely be bought to the nearest possible hospital to try and save him, regardless of their status in life.^[5]

Villar placed third in the election, behind Senator Noynoy Aquino and former President Joseph Estrada. On May 11, 2010, a day after the election, Villar was among the first to concede to Aquino.

Personal life[link]

In his third year of college at the University of the Philippines, Villar became friends with Cynthia Aguilar, his classmate in the UP College of Business Administration.^[3] Her father was then mayor of Las Piñas City. They married at the age of 25.^[3] They have three children, Manuel Paolo III (born c. 1977), Mark (born c. 1978), and Camille Linda (born c. 1985).^[11][24] Villar's two sons studied at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for their college education, while Camille attended Ateneo de Manila University.^[3] All three children graduated with degrees in finance or business management.^[24]

Villar lives in a two-bedroom house with his family in Las Piñas City.^[3] In early 2010, a political smear was disseminated on the Internet, claiming falsely that Villar owned an extravagant mansion in the United States, which was debunked by Snopes.com.^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website of Senator Manny Villar
• Senate of the Philippines - Senator Manny Villar
• I-site.ph - Senator Manny Villar

Senatorial history of Manny Villar v t e Presidents pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippines Guanco • S. Osmeña • Clarin • Avelino • Quirino • Arranz • Paredes • Briones • Lopez • Sumulong • Roy • Guingona • Laurel • Shahani • Ople • J. Osmeña • Ople • Villar • Flavier • Estrada v t e <14th Senators of the 15th Congress of the Philippines (2010-2013) 16th> Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (2010–present) # Senior Senators (2007–2013) Junior Senators (2010–2016) Edgardo Angara Joker Arroyo Alan Peter Cayetano Francis Escudero Gregorio Honasan Panfilo Lacson Loren Legarda Francis Pangilinan Aquilino Pimentel III (2011–present)## Antonio Trillanes IV Manny Villar Juan Miguel Zubiri (2007–11)## Vacant (since 2010)### Pia Cayetano Miriam Defensor Santiago Franklin Drilon Jinggoy Estrada Teofisto Guingona III Lito Lapid Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. Sergio Osmeña III Juan Ponce Enrile Ralph Recto Bong Revilla Tito Sotto Term ends June 30, 2013 Term ends June 30, 2016 # — Ponce Enrile was also the Senate president of the 14th Congress. ## —Zubiri resigned from office on August 3, 2011, replaced by Pimentel afterwards. ### — Vacant due to election of Benigno Aquino III to the presidency. v t e <13th Senators of the 14th Congress of the Philippines (2007-2010) 15th> Senate Presidents Juan Ponce Enrile (2008-2010) · Manny Villar (2006-2008) # Senior Senators (2004-2010) Junior Senators (2007-2010) Rodolfo Biazon Lito Lapid Jinggoy Estrada Pia Cayetano Miriam Defensor Santiago Richard Gordon Jamby Madrigal Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. Juan Ponce Enrile Bong Revilla Mar Roxas Vacant ## Edgardo Angara Benigno Aquino III Joker Arroyo Alan Peter Cayetano Francis Escudero Gregorio Honasan Loren Legarda Francis Pangilinan Antonio Trillanes IV Manny Villar Juan Miguel Zubiri Panfilo Lacson Term ended June 30, 2010 Term ends June 30, 2013 # — Villar was also the previous Senate president of the 13th Congress. ## — Vacant due to election of Alfredo Lim as the mayor of Manila. v t e <12th Senators of the 13th Congress of the Philippines (2004-2007) 14th> Senate Presidents Manny Villar (2006-2007) # · Franklin Drilon (2004-2006) Senior Senators (2001-2007) Junior Senators (2004-2010) Edgardo Angara Joker Arroyo Franklin Drilon Luisa Estrada Juan Flavier Panfilo Lacson Sergio Osmeña III Francis Pangilinan Juan Ponce Enrile Ralph Recto Manny Villar Vacant ## Rodolfo Biazon Lito Lapid Jinggoy Estrada Pia Cayetano Miriam Defensor Santiago Richard Gordon Alfredo Lim ### Jamby Madrigal Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. Juan Ponce Enrile Bong Revilla Mar Roxas Term ended June 30, 2007 Term ended June 30, 2010 # — Villar became the next Senate president during the 14th Congress. ## — Position vacated when Noli de Castro was elected to the vice presidency. ### — In 2007, Lim vacated his position prior to his election as the mayor of Manila. v t e <11th Senators of the 12th Congress of the Philippines (2001-2004) 13th> Senate Presidents Franklin Drilon (2001-2004) # Senior Senators (1998-2004) Junior Senators (2001-2007) Teresa Aquino-Oreta Robert Barbers Renato Cayetano ## Teofisto Guingona, Jr. ‡ Gregorio Honasan ‡ Robert Jaworski Loren Legarda Blas Ople ‡‡ John Henry Osmeña Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. Ramon Revilla, Sr. Tito Sotto Edgardo Angara Joker Arroyo Franklin Drilon Luisa Estrada Noli de Castro ‡‡‡ Juan Flavier Panfilo Lacson Sergio Osmeña III Francis Pangilinan Juan Ponce Enrile Ralph Recto Manny Villar Term ended June 30, 2004 Term ended June 30, 2007 # — Drilon's Senate presidency continued until 2006 during the 13th Congress. ## — Position vacated when Cayetano died in 2003. ‡ — The appointment of Gloria Arroyo to Guingona to vice presidency made his position to the Senate vacant from January 20, 2001. On May 14, 2001, Honasan was elected to fill in Guingona's unfinished term until 2004. ‡‡ — Ople was appointed Foreign Affairs secretary in 2002. ‡‡‡ — In 2004, de Castro vacated his position when he was elected to the vice presidency.

v t e Speakers of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Osmeña Roxas Paredes Montilla Yulo Aquino Zulueta Perez Laurel Romualdez Villareal Laurel Villareal Makalintal Yñiguez Mitra de Venecia Villar Fuentebella Belmonte de Venecia Nograles Belmonte