The Bookshelf

NewEnglandGrown offers short book reviews as a way of introducing readers to books of interest.  We don't review just the new releases, but both old and new books that we feel our readers would enjoy.

Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature: Essays in Conservation-Based Agriculture Daniel Imhoff and Jo Ann Baumgarner, eds. Environmentalists and farmers have not always been allies.  Industrial farming of course has come under attack for overusing pesticides, causing soil erosion, and creating ocean dead zones from run-off of fertilizers, among other offenses. But even organic and sustainable farmers have not always allied themselves fully with conservationists.  Although in principle they share ideals, they have been some cultural gaps between the two groups.  Conservationists tend to be drawn to the wildest of places and lack passion for land that has been touched by human hands. Sustainable farmers want to protect the environment from the effects of bad farming practices, but they tend lack enthusiasm for predator species that attack livestock, beavers whose dams flood fields, or the untended appearance of fields being taken over by brush and weeds. Enter the Wild Farm Alliance, an organization devoted to the intersection of conservation and agriculture.  Founded in blahblahblah.  Their recent collection of essays, Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature, has brought together an impressive collection of well-known writers, including Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Aldo Leopold, and Gary Paul Nabthan, to address a wide range of issues in the relationship of wilderness and cultivated land. Few of the essays are overly technical; the book is accessible to a wide audience, but it does presume a certain familiarity with the major topics in sustainable agriculture.  And reader, be warned – as with any book devoted to environmental issues, some of the essays can be very, very depressing. For my money, Ted Williams’ dismal story of the gutting of the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act – and the political maneuvering that sold the story as a question of farm families versus environmentalists – was the  most heartbreaking piece of the bunch.  It could drive a man to drink – though not tequila, at least after reading about the fate of the agave plant, which is suffering from the genetic vulnerability that comes with cloning and large-scale monoculture. But there are glimmers of hope.  Luba Vangelova’s tale of the revival of the use of Karakachan dogs in Bulgaria to protect livestock from wolves will bring a smile to anyone’s face.  The nearly-lost breed is once again serving its traditional role, scaring off wolves without killing them, allowing shepherd and wolves to co-exist.  Scott McGillon also offers a positive vision with his piece on a farmer who works with beavers, rather than fighting them. The books covers larger issues as well, taking on broad questions of the role of organics, local farming, the problems with current farm policy, the limitations of the effects of farmers’ own choices, the need for a broader rethinking of the place of wilderness and the place of agriculture.  These are big issues, and no book of essays can offer a full range of answers, but this one does get the conversation rolling. Highly recommended.

Other Recommended Books from the NewEnglandGrown Bookshelf New England Food and Farm Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England, William Cronon This classic work, originally published in 1983, provides a historical context for the development of agriculture in New England and the resulting effects on the landscape. Eating New England: A Food Lover’s Guide to Eating Locally From the Traditional to the Unexpected, Juliette Rogers and Barbara Radcliffe Rogers An indispensable guide to local food with a broad range that covers restaurants, farms, cider mills, fish piers, sugar houses, chocolate makers, breweries and other producers of great grub. Published in 2002, so some material is no longer current, but still essential. Explorers Guides (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont), various authors In addition to being well-researched and thorough, this series of guidebooks offers unusually strong listings of farms and other local food sources. Here and Nowhere Else/Five Thousand Days like This One/Clearing Land, Jane Brox Brox’ award-winning portrait of the life of her family’s farm is a lovely elegy to a vanishing way of life, a meditation on family, and a history of farming in Massachusetts The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier, Colin Woodard Well-written portrait of the lobster industry and the history of the Maine Coast. Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots, John Thorne Master food-writer John Thorne lived for many years in Downeast Maine. The first half wonderful book examines Maine food traditions (the second half is devoted the food of New Orleans).   General Local Eating Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods, Gary Paul Nabhan The book that inspired a hundred Eat Local Challenges, Coming Home to Eat describes Nabthan’s experiences eating only food grown within two hundred miles of his home in Arizona for one year. Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, Brian Halweil A review of the political, environmental and economic issues of the eat local movement, with portraits of innovative program from around the world. Fields that Dream: A Journey to the Roots of Our Food, Jenny Kurzweil A series of portraits of sustainable farmers who sell at a Seattle farmers’ market. Interesting insights into different types of innovative farming operations, as well as the lives of farmers. Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide To Farm Friendly Food, Joel Salatin The rabble-rousing grass-farmer’s guide for consumers.  Salatin gives consumers insight into the struggles of farmers, the meaning of quality food, and the changes that are needed in the country’s food distribution system, all in his inimitable earthy style. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan The justly popular examination of eating in America is a must for anyone interested in where their food comes from.