Page 10 RAIN Apnl1980 Agri -Economics cont. Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) 2606 Westwood Drive Nashville, TN 37204 The Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) began in 1974 to assist family {arms in Tennessee. Currently it has sister organizations in Alabama, North Carolina and qeorgia. "AMP seeks systematic change in the food production and distribution system to increase farmer and consumer control over the economic furct's that affect their lives. Concepts of decentralization, local self-sufficiency and maintenance of an ecological balance are all important factors an shaping the direction of AMP's efforts." In 1975 AMP initiated Food Fairs, direct farmer to consumer markets. commonly held in church parking lots. Food Fairs soon spread to 29 cities throughout Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and Ohio. AMP organizers set up the first Food FaIrs in particular (mes. In the fall, farmers incorporated to form Farm Associations for Retail Marketing (FARM) which continues Food Fairs with AMP prOVIding technical assistance only. One of AMP's principal aims is to encourage tbe growth of urban-rural COalitions. Farmers and consumers face many of the same problems, such as higher prices, fuel costs and the expansion of corporate agriculrure. Educational pamphlets which proVide information on nutritional foods. the growth of corporate agriculture, financial conditions of small farmers and the causes of high food pnces arc distributed at Food Fairs. AMP organizes workshops taught by farmers which include such topics as site management, consumer publicity, and alremative technology. Food programs for gradeschoolers which emphasize nutrition and the economics of small farming have been developed by AMP and Manna, a Nashville anti-hunger coalition. AMP feels that communication and reciprocal education between consumers and farmers will lead to dialogue about the political change$ that must take place in the agricultural economy. This integrative approach of working on many different levels, establishing communication between groups, and viewing the problem from various du ections IS an important part of AMP's success. It is very inspiring to find an organization purring the tools and knowledge into people's hands that can help them push for a market economy responsive to their needs. -KS ( LIBRARY "Emerging Patterns of Community Service," edited by Margaret E. Monroe and Kathleen M. Heim, special issue of Library Trends, Fall 1979,$5.00 from: University of Illinois Press Urbana, IL 61801 Libraries have traditionally catered to highly literate users-people with power and status in the community. A survey in the 19605 revealed that many librarians, while recognizing that a real need existed to serve people at the other end of the specm Ull, were psychologically locked into doing what they knew best : developing central reference services and highly specialized subject collections. The essays in this special issue of Library Trends describe how these patterns have gradually broken down to allow for literacy training programs and other services to non-traditional library users. They also reveal a broadening of community involvement in such areas as the development of information fiJes to direct people to thE' programs sponsored by their local citizen groups. Perhaps most interesting : some libra ries are now offenng programs in bibliotherapy ("selfgrowth based on the shared experience and diSCUSSIOn of literature") . These are positive innovations, and we can hope they will flou rish and expand. We can also hope that librarians will learn to describe them to us with a more sparing use of profeSSIOnal Jargon. -IF Guide to Convivial Tools (Library Journal Special Report #13), by Valentina Borremans, preface by Ivan Illich, 1979,112 pp., $5.95 from: R.R. Bowker Company Xerox Publishing Group 1180 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 Convivial tools are those which give IUlch person t hat uses them Iht' g rell test opportunity to enrich the ell1lironment witlt the frlllts of his vision. - Ivan Illicit "The library-today mor(' than everIS the place where a dissident world view can first take shape and consistency. By proper! y labeling a new kind of perspective and by putting a new kind of matenal on the shelves, a new social reality can be fostered that will be confirmed even by those who impugn its legitimacy." Cataloging hundreds of books, periodials and organizations, this comprehensive international guide is a bibhographic must fo r researchers, librarians, studen ts and others interested in " use-value oriented convivial tools." -MR )Sri,",e .nd T," ..ology Lib,."" (Volume 5 of Subject Directory of Special LIbraries and Infonnation Centers, 5th ed.), edited by Margaret L. Young and Harold C. Young, 360 pp., 1979, $48 from: Gale Research Company Book Tower Detroit, MI 48226 This volume contains descriptions of several thousand libraries with collections in the areas of scienceItechnology, agriculture, energy, environment/conservation, and food science. It is weighted heavily towards government, industry, and university-supported institutions, and is hardly a sure source of information about library holdings of your favorite grassroots non-profit group (it even omits the RAIN library, for heaven's sake I), but it is still likely to point you toward some rich lodes of research data which you didn't know existed. A good book to recommend to your local library. -JF ( THE PAST) By the People: A History of Americans as Volutlteers, Susan J. Ellis and Katherine H. Noyes, 1978, 308 pp., $8.95 (hardcover), $5.75 (paper) plus $1.00 postage and handling from: Energize Book Orders 6507 North 12th Street Philadelphia, PA 19126 From Red Cross worker to frontier vigilante; from community group fundraiser to student activist : Americans have always shown a remarkable propensity for involving themselves in voluntee r causes of all kinds. Authors Susan Ellis and Katherine Noyes, themselves volunteerorganizers, believe the self-reliant spirit evidenced in volunteer action has had a profound effect on American history-while somehow escaping the special foclls of historians. Tiley also note that until the present century, women in America could make their impact fclt Dilly through volunteer action, so in the ab~ence of a comprehensive history of volunteers there has not really been a comprehensive history of women's accomplishments. By tit" People was written to fill these gaps. Ms. Ellis and Ms. Noyes have combed many hundreds of sources to locate the people who have shaped the present through their deJicution to social. political and religiOUS volunteer action, but have tended, until now, to fall between thl' lines of history texts. The result is a book wirh a fresh and frequently inspiring picture of America's past. -)F
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