BALANCING ON A PLANET - TOWARD AN AGRICULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Robert Netting had a central role in establishing agricultural anthrop ology. Many people lightly remember him as an astute ethnographer of f arming communities, focused on analyzing the empirical details of chan ging patterns of household composition, land holding size and labor us e. Yet during his career he was increasingly concerned about the susta inability of smallholder vs. conventional industrial agriculture model s on a global scale. Thus, Netting also had an important role in layin g the foundation for the development of an agricultural anthropology f or the twenty-first century, an anthropology that shows how smallholde rs ''balancing on an Alp'' can help us to understand how we might bala nce on this planet. This paper analyzes Netting's contribution to the future of agricultural anthropology in three key areas: the environmen t, population, and agriculture relationship; farmer knowledge and epis temology; and models for global sustainability.