This CAST report provides policymakers, community leaders, and farmers with a guide to help weigh the advantages and disadvantages of contract farming and other forms of vertical coordination in agriculture.

Scientists offer 27 recommendations for preserving the full range of biological diversity and state that stewardship of biodiversity is an unavoidable permanent obligation of modern society.

Reviews by 44 leading scientists support and criticize the 1989 National Research Council report, Alternative Agriculture. The authors represent the disciplines of agricultural engineering, food science, toxicology, animal sciences, crop and soil sciences, economics sociology, weed science, entomology, and plant pathology.