The hidden history of an economic and cultural crisis that is threatening our food supply is explored in Brian Reisinger's book, Land Rich, Cash Poor. He weaves forgotten eras of American history with his own family's four-generation fight for survival in Midwestern farm country, revealing the truth about the most detrimental and unexplained socioeconomic crisis in America. The book explores the challenges faced by family farms, including accidents, weather, economic crises, and the tradition that presses down on each generation. It highlights the soaring food prices, vulnerable food supply chain, environmental and ecological dilemmas, security of farmland, mental health crisis, urban-rural divide, and more worries about what's for dinner.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 10 October 2024
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

The hidden history of an economic and cultural crisis that is threatening our very food supply—the disappearance of the American farmer.

An anthem to the family farm in America.

— The Associated Press

Taking on this working-class story of heart and hardship,

award-winning writer and rural policy expert Brian Reisinger weaves forgotten eras of American history with his own family's four-generation fight for survival in Midwestern farm country. Readers learn the truth about America's most detrimental and unexplained socioeconomic crisis: How the family farms that feed us went from cutting a middle-class path through the Great Depression to barely making ends meet in modern America. Along the way, they'll see what it truly takes to feed our country: accidents that can kill or maim; weather that blesses or threatens; resilience in the face of crushing economic crises, from depressions and recessions to COVID-19; and the tradition that presses down on each generation when you're not just fighting for your job, you're fighting for your heritage.

With newly analyzed data, sharp historical analysis, conversations with some of modern farmings most notable champions and critics alike, honest debate on both sides of the aisle and everywhere in between, and personal storytelling,

Reisinger reveals how the hollowing out of rural America is affecting every single American dinner table. Food prices soaring far beyond the rate of inflation, a vulnerable food supply chain, environmental and ecological dilemmas, the security of our farmland from foreign adversaries, a mental health crisis that includes farmer suicides and addictions, a deepening urban-rural divide, and more worries than ever about what's for dinner. These are all becoming the hallmarks of a food system that has long been in crisis.

Weight: 440g
Dimension: 160 x 236 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781510779983