MICHAEL FIELDS AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE

Michael Fields Agricultural Institute is devoted to developing an agriculture that can sustain the land and its resources. As a public, non-profit, it seeks to revitalize farming with research, education, technical assistance and public policy. Consider why this mission is so important to each of us.

Few of us ever pause to consider either the present - or the future - of agriculture in America. Yet much of what we hold as vital and hope to keep for generations is deeply rooted in farming. A democracy sprang up and thrived on this ground by strength of individual land ownership and the industry that comes with toil from the earth. How long will we have our values, our freedoms without the land?

In the life of this nation, over a few hundred years, the number of people who own or work our farmland has steadily fallen. On this one occupation, all livelihoods, all sustenance, our very existence depends. Yet farming’s essentials -- its biology, cultivation, husbandry, conservation - are being lost to generations. And with this shift has come the loss of a rich culture; a sense of community; and human ties to soil, plant and animal life.