Balancing on a Planet: Toward an Agricultural Anthropology for the Twenty-First Century

Robert Netting had a central role in establishin g agricultural anthropology. Many people rightly remember him as an astute ethnographer of farming communities‚ focused on analyzing the empirical details of changing patterns of household composition ‚ land holding size and labor use. Yet‚ during his career he was increasin gly concerned about the sustainability of smallholder vs. conventional industrial agricultu re models on a global scale. Thus‚ Netting also had an importan t role in laying the foundation for the developm ent of an agricultural anthropology for the twenty-first century‚ an anthropo logy that shows how sm allh olders “balan cing on an Alp” can help us to understan d how we might balan ce on this plan et. This paper an alyzes Netting’s con tribution to the future of agricu ltural anthropology in three key areas: the environ m ent‚ populatio n‚ and agricultu re relationsh ip; farm er knowledge and epistem ology; and m odels for global sustainability.