''The Triumph of Technique: The Industrialization of Agriculture and the Destruction of Rural America'' is a 2004 book by
Robert Wolf.
''The Triumph of Technique'' examines contemporary
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
and its impact on rural
economies. This book has been hailed by leaders of the
sustainable agriculture movement as a significant contribution to understanding the depth of the current crisis in agriculture and its implications.
The “technique” of the title refers not only to technologies but to any methods developed for the purpose of achieving predetermined ends. Wolf argues that technique, as he defines it, has taken the art out of farming by transforming it into
agribusiness
Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy,
in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise.
The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...
, on a much larger scale. He claims that this transformation has led to the decline of rural communities.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Triumph Of Technique, The
2004 non-fiction books
Agriculture books
Intensive farming