Decomposing the grid

Abstract

The American landscape chronicles the dreams of an agricultural nation through a series of regular lines en-scribed on a flat plane. Each 6 mile x 6 mile square frames a lose-lose situation in which government subsidies encourage intensive monocultural production resulting in loss of topsoil, biodiversity and population while contaminating the ground with chemicals and glutting global commodity markets. Current "advances" in agricultural research demonstrate that age-old technologies - small scale rotational systems - properly managed, can multiply productivity while rehabilitating soils, retaining moisture and reducing or eliminating chemical applications. At a fragile moment in history when only 2% of the population produces the agriculture which supports the other 98%, this thesis proposes an alternative to the current agro-political landscape in which rational lines no longer suffice to measure a rotational landscape.