Description
Book SynopsisCattle Beet Capital explores the economic, cultural, and environmental processes and contingencies that shaped the evolution of industrial agriculture in northern Colorado.
Trade Review"At first glance, Colorado's eastern plains appear similar to the other plains that surround it, but Michael Weeks's book on the northeastern section of Colorado (the Colorado Piedmont) and the industries that developed there explains the complicated relationship between this region, the rest of the state, and to some extent the rest of the American West. That alone makes this work a tremendous contribution to Colorado history."—Jonathan Rees, H-Environment
"[
Cattle Beet Capital is] a valuable resource for readers interested in the agricultural and environmental history of the American West."—E. G. Harrington,
Choice“This is an important story about the development of factory farming in the Colorado Piedmont in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. One key intervention that Weeks makes is placing the story of the Colorado Piedmont at the center of the history about the growth of irrigated agribusiness in the West.
Cattle Beet Capital makes important contributions to environmental history, agricultural history, and business history as well.”—Bartow J. Elmore, author of
Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism“[Weeks] has uncovered loads of fascinating new material, especially from archives, that makes this story interesting and revealing.
Cattle Beet Capital offers a fresh and original story that should inspire others. This will make an important contribution to agricultural, environmental, and regional history.”—Deborah Fitzgerald, author of
Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American AgricultureTable of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Cultivating a Regional Agroecology
2. Capitalism and Sustainable Farming
3. Beet Biology and the Nature of Labor
4. Piedmont Sugar and the State of Science
5. The Economics of Mechanization and Watershed Engineering
6. Building the Petrochemical Paradigm
7. Manufacturing Beef
Perspective
Notes
Bibliography
Index
