Product Details
Ogallala, 2nd Ed: Water for a Dry Land, Second Edition (Our Sustainable Future)

Ogallala, 2nd Ed: Water for a Dry Land, Second Edition (Our Sustainable Future)
By John Opie

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Average customer review:
The first half of this book is an engrossing history of farming and water on the southern High Plains. Next comes an in-depth look at the Ogallala's present situation and options for the future.

Product Description

In this new, enlarged edition, John Opie updates his groundbreaking work on the environmental history of the Ogallala aquifer and plains farming. He addresses the impact of the 1996 Farm Bill (Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act) and looks at the recent movement of industrial hog farming onto the plains. Opie also develops his argument for the plains as a “moral geography,” a view involving the recognition by society that it has an obligation to balance the responsibility for conserving natural resources with that for keeping a regional people—the family farmers—in operation.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #241409 in Books
  • Published on: 2000-04-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 477 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Opie is a professor of history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and author of The Law of the Land: Two Hundred Years of American Farmland Policy ( LJ 1/88). His new book tells the story of the Ogallala aquifer, an immense but diminishing store of groundwater located under the High Plains region, stretching from South Dakota to Texas. The first half of this book is an engrossing history of farming and water on the southern High Plains. Next comes an in-depth look at the Ogallala's present situation and options for the future. Opie deals with geology and climate as well as political, economic, social, and environmental factors and explains how the concept of sustainability fits, or could fit, into the picture. Although it was researched and written by a historian, Ogallala should not be difficult reading for anyone interested in U.S. agriculture, farm policy, and the environment. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries.
- William H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Opie''s well-written book updates his earlier version . . . that treats an extremely serious impending environmental problem with far-reaching implications. . . . This new edition discusses the recent proliferation of hog farms in this area, which place an additional burden on the aquifer. Opie . . . provides a history of the region, describes the current state of affairs, and helps put this growing problem into perspective. It should be in all undergraduate libraries. Undergraduates, graduates, and faculty in disciplines ranging form American history and geography to agriculture and hydrology."-Choice (Choice )

"Opie's answers, marvelously multi-faceted and unbiased . . . could serve elsewhere as a sane, scholarly model for addressing local enviro-crises."-Booklist (Booklist )

"The coverage is thorough, balanced, thoughtful and certainly thought-provoking. John Opie writes well and clearly has the expertise and professional respect to deal on a knowledgeable basis with the Ogallala and its relationship to agriculture, people, politics and economics. . . . A `must read.'"-Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (Journal of Sustainable Agriculture )

About the Author

John Opie is Distinguished Professor of History (emeritus) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the author of The Law of the Land: Two Hundred Years of American Farmland Policy (Nebraska 1994). He is currently living on the Indiana Dunes of Lake Michigan.

Customer Reviews

A very good introduction to this topic4
A few years ago I came across a magazine article that discussed the importance of the Ogallala Aquifer to American agriculture, geography, and society. Realizing that I knew absolutely nothing about this topic I picked up John Opie's book. It's safe to say that I now know more about the Ogallala Aquifer than I could ever have imagined possible.

The book begins with a discussion of the geology of the aquifer, and then moves into the history of irrigation efforts on the Plains since the 19th century, and finally to a discussion of the various irrigation technologies currently used to exploit the aquifer. There is ample discussion along the way about how these technologies have changed over the years as environmental consciousness and the problems of declining aquifer levels have become more prevalent.

This book is not only a very informative look at the Ogallala Aquifer but is pleasantly readable as well. And now that it is (finally) available in a more affordable paperback edition, I'm going to go buy a copy for myself.