Farmbrarian

Fukuoka tells us greening the desert is the only way we’ll achieve sustainable agriculture.

Most of you are probably familiar with The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming, which was Masanobu Fukuoka’s 1978 international best seller on natural farming.

Now he gives us Sowing Seeds in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration, and Ultimate Food Security. An intriguing and ambitious name, to be sure.

As the title implies, his premise is that we’ll need to ultimately cultivate food in the world’s vast deserts in order to achieve food security. This theory was honed over decades of international travel following his first book.

My favorite thing about this book? It proposes an actual solution, rather than simply discussing (or worse – complaining about) the problem. Whether it is truly the only long-term solution, I can’t say, but I’m glad to have a proposal. If we continue to approach the problem of unsustainable agriculture in this way we might actually get somewhere.

If one food is ubiquitous to the local food movement, it is the tomato. As we are in the harvest season, many of you are probably canning some this weekend! We’ve all come to realize that the fruit is incredibly delicious when picked ripe off the vine, but we’ve also learned that it doesn’t travel well. We know that most supermarket tomatoes won’t be any good and that purchasing them outside of the summer months is a joke (hydroponics being a possible exception).

In Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook shows readers that there is a lot more to discuss when it comes to the tomato. For example, most tomatoes available in America, especially in winter, were grown in Florida using obscene amounts of pesticides and fertilizers and picked by laborers under slave conditions. In fact, lawsuits are currently in play utilizing 150 year old laws banning slavery. Yes, tomato growing corporations in Florida are being sued for slavery right now.

Readers interested in the tomato specifically, or more generally in the industrial food system, how it evolved and how to improve it, will find Tomatoland a good read.

Find it on Amazon or at your local library!

This reference was originally published in 1881, but it is still a rich and relevant source of information. I stumbled upon the text and only began reading it because of my infatuation with barns. I quickly realized that I’d found a resource that many small-scale or hobby farmers would surely enjoy.

Barns, Sheds & Outbuildings: Placements, Design & Construction (1994) contains 257 illustrations of various barns, sheds and outbuildings. A lengthy description accompanies each building featured. The descriptions explain in more detail the structure and purpose of the building. For example, “Mr. David Lyman’s Barn” was a multipurpose barn, which housed a multitude of farm animals and equipment and provided food storage. His barn was well equipped to serve many purposes. Other barns featured are only for cattle or pigs. Spaces for poultry, ducks, grains, ice, meat preservation and other purposes are all featured.

For those of us who are trying to live a simpler lifestyle by growing our food and raising our own livestock, you’ll surely learn something about farming and it’s accompanying buildings in this book.

Find it on Amazon or at your local library!

Click to find at a library near you!

With the wealth of new books on homesteading, creating a backyard farm has never been easier. Sue Weaver’s guide The Backyard Goat (2011) is a great addition to the mix. The book is a comprehensive yet approachable reference for anyone considering goats.

Goats are a great source of milk, fiber, labor and companionship, not to mention that they’ll mow the lawn for you. But they require more knowledge, preparation and care than the most common backyard livestock, the chicken. Weaver educated readers on every aspect of keeping goats. She discusses anatomy, breeds, training, milking and many, many more skills and considerations.

The Backyard Goat is definitely meant to be an introduction for hobby farmers. Anyone exploring the idea of keeping these fascinating creatures will benefit from this book.

Thanks to Storey Publishing for sharing this new resource with us!

Today, farming memoirs abound. We’ve featured many books on how a farmer was “grown,” such as The Dirty Life, Made From Scratch, Farm City and Goat Song. Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land (2011) isn’t necessarily the most unique tale. But it is a great account of one modern farmer’s story, and above all else it is a good read.

Kurt Timmermeister is a restaurant owner turned full-time farmer on Seattle’s Vashon Island. The book is organized by aspects of the farm–vegetables, dairy, pigs, etc. Each chapter contains personal experiences as well as reflections, recipes, techniques and more. Today the farm stays afloat by selling artisan cheese and providing Sunday dinners at the farm.

Despite having no writing background, Timmermeister’s book is cohesive and interesting. Indeed there are random, seemingly out of place bits strewn around, but to me that only gave him and his farm a sense of accessibility. I could easily picture myself on his farm churning butter or pressing cider. In fact, the entire tale made me think that I too could become a farmer like him.

In the end, despite many other similar books, Growing a Farmer is a worthy read. Timmermeister portrays his deep respect for the land and desire to return to a simpler time (although he still uses an iPod on particularly monotonous farm tasks). A renewed interest in urban farming has yielded many similar stories, which is wonderful for the health of people and land. I suspect Timmermeister might even convince a few others to “grow” themselves into farmers.

Find it on Amazon, or at your local library.

Author Simon Fairlie aggressively tackles the sensitive topic of eating animals in his new book Meat: A Benign Extravagance (out Feb. 8). His explicit purpose is to evaluate the sustainability of raising livestock–or the long-term ability to feed the human population while maintaining as much of the natural ecosystem as possible. Dietary health and morality, he rightly suggests, are topics for other books.

Meat examines the many facets of the debate at great length. For example, Fairlie examines the oft cited statistic that each kilogram of beef we eat required 100,000 liters of water. After consideration from every possible angle, he determines that this figure is “wildly inaccurate” for the majority of cattle around the world. Other topics covered include: land requirements for livestock versus plants, the natural place for animals in an ecosystem, vegan agriculture, the interesting alliance between the meat and vegetable oil industries, greenhouse gas contributions of eating animal products (very thorough), and permaculture.

Fairlie himself spent several years as a vegetarian, but now eats meat. He has considerable and varying farming experience and presents the arguments as objectively as can be expected (no one can be perfectly objective, which he acknowledges). In many cases he points out when pro-vegan or pro-meat writers make misleading statements, present statistics steeped in partial-truth, or repeat “facts” without proper groundwork. In the end he pushes for a “default livestock” agricultural system where animals fit into the picture without consuming considerable resources that could be directly consumed by humans. For example, grazing cattle on steep, natural grassland that can’t readily be farmed. Or feeding food scraps or excess harvest to pigs, which can be eaten in leaner times. In effect, a pig acts as a caloric savings account (piggy-bank?) that can be accessed later. The “default livestock” system represents a lower level of meat consumption than the current Western average, but specific types of meat eating is supported nonetheless.

Meat is written from an English perspective, even addressing the question of whether Britain could feed itself. This has no real bearing on the book, however, because many situations are evaluated, and his conclusions apply well around the world. To say the least, reading this book was an educational experience. Many other books have addressed this topic, but none so thoroughly as Fairlie’s work. This is a tremendous reference, albeit a thick one, that should be perused by all.

On Amazon or at your local library.

Thanks to Chelsea Green for providing a review copy of the book.

You might also like: The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith and Diet For a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe.

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In a recent Grist article, Michael Pollan named Farm Together Now: A Portrait of People, Places, and Ideas for a New Food Movement (2010) his “favorite book of the season.” This powerful and inspirational book deserves every bit of praise.

In the book, authors Amy Franceschini and Daniel Tucker give a voice to individuals working at the grassroots level to improve food throughout the United States. They specifically profile twenty projects of varying nature and, through interviews, highlight the diverse work being done by farmers, activists, social workers, and environmentalists.

The interview style allows you to interact with the featured individuals on an intimate level. You’ll directly learn about the hopes, fears and accomplishments of people such as the founders of Participation Park in Baltimore–where a vacant lot is now being used to grow food and revive the surrounding, impoverished community. Some of the people, like Myles Harston of AquaRanch, have created model systems or initiatives that are now being replicated. Others are working to foster the next generation of farmers through education and training. The portraits also demonstrate that although the rewards can be great, the challenges are many. Financial and policy barriers, for example, often impede efforts.

The growers also get to share their stories visually through Anne Hamersky‘s talented photojournalism. She beautifully captures the raw joy, determination and satisfaction of the people and places of Farm Together Now. The images that accompany each profile speak as loudly as the interviews.

Everyone needs to eat, and these stories illustrate how food issues permeate all aspects of society. Read Farm Together Now and get to know those who are making great strides towards improving access to clean, healthy food, achieving social and environmental justice, and preserving food and farming traditions. You’ll gain a greater understanding of the impact individual efforts can have on improving our food system. An even greater impact can be made if we work to farm together–now!

Buy this book instead of borrowing from your library, if you can. Fifty percent of the profits will help fund “new documentaries about food production in the United States” (189). Contest update: Thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations to our randomly selected winner Bonnie Schulz. Lookout for more giveaways in the future!

You might also like: Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat by Temra Costa

Click to find at a library near you!

Kristin Kimball, a New York based journalist, begins a whirlwind romance with a fervid farmer, and she quickly discovers that she’s also deeply in love with the agrarian lifestyle. The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love is yet another story of a city girl turned farmer. Most of the memoir is set on a farm in upstate New York, where Kimball and her soon-to-be husband struggle to make their dream—to provide a year-round CSA with only the use of horsepower—a reality. Although the plot is similar to many others, the personal journey woven throughout sets this book apart.

In addition to discussing the challenges of farming, nose-to-tail cooking, and working with horses, Kimball incorporates her story of love, life and new beginnings. Throughout the book, Kimball constantly grapples with her fear of commitment. And readers are left wondering if she’ll stay on the farm or run.

The concept of providing a year-round CSA that extends beyond just vegetables to include meats, cheeses, maple sugar, and even grains is extremely ambitious. Rarely today does a small, organic farm provide so much—and with only the use of horsepower! The implementation and execution of such a comprehensive program will intrigue many. But Kimball doesn’t spend too much time discussing logistics. Instead, as the subtitle mentions, her conversation equally discusses food, farming and love. The combination is perfectly executed for those interested in a romantic read about the satisfactions of an agrarian lifestyle.

You might also like: The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald

Click here to find at a library near you!

The US Farm Bill is a major point of contention among those concerned with human and environmental health. Most notably, the Farm Bill is responsible for subsidies paid to farmers for growing commodity grains on a large scale in order to provide a lot of cheap (and processed) food. As author Daniel Imhoff points out in his book Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill (2007), however, this legislation is much more than just corn subsidies.

In the foreword, Michael Pollan sums it up nicely by explaining that the legislation determines “what happens on a couple hundred million acres of private property in America, what sort of food Americans eat (and how much it costs), and as a result, the health of our population.” With such enormous implications, it is amazing the extent to which the Farm Bill flies under the radar.

Food Fight appears to be the only recent book attempting to explain the Farm Bill to the lay person. Imhoff succeeds in that the book is informative, readable, and thorough, without getting caught up in the minutia of an enormous piece of legislation.

Every 5 or so years, this legislation is changed, and I suspect (and hope) major changes will continue to come. The more educated John Q. Public is on what is really happening here, the better chance that we can improve this bill. Making positive steps is important, because as Michael Pollan points out, our health depends on it.

You might also like: The Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale

Click here to find at a library near you!

There is a perceived battle between ranchers and environmentalists. Ranchers intend to raise animals without consideration for the land, while environmentalists fight tooth and nail against the exploitation of nature. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Author Courtney White shows that these two groups hold nearly identical intentions in his book Revolution on the Range: The Rise of a New Ranch in the American West.

There are many examples of land being severely damaged by overgrazing. For this reason, many groups fight for tighter restrictions on livestock grazing, especially on public lands. White thoroughly details, however, that livestock can play an integral role in restoring an ecosystem when used properly.

His picture is painted using many different ranches across the American West. The action-oriented book is ripe with solutions, and as a result will be very useful in the ongoing task of land management. To an average person though, readability suffers.

White lays out his “new ranch” as an integral part of land conservation. To him, ranching and environmentalism are not only compatible, they are co-dependent. The arguments are compelling, and the solutions are innovative and realistic. The book is a great addition to the conservation literature.