A Call to Farms: Reconnecting to Nature, Food, and Community in a Modern World [Hardcover]

Food, farming, and a purposeful life all come?together in this inspiring?tour that visits Americas new generation of regenerative pioneers. In this deeply inspiring book, Jennifer Grayson examines the motives, practices, problems, and successes of a diverse collection of young, small-scale farmers growing food sustainably and achieving enormous satisfaction and joy in the process. The farmers provide abundant reasons for hope in the future of food thats healthier for producers, people, and the planet. If youre looking for hope, here it is. This is a wonderful book, perhaps a milestone in the gathering movement for a sane, agroecological food system. Each chapter is its own little jewel, glinting with the joy and energy of people finding connection among land, food, and community. Bittersweet jewels they are, though, because Jennifer Grayson knows the painful histories that have sundered these connections and still are shaping our world. That she can face this squarely while conveying such hope is a testament?to?her skills as a writer and also?to?the power of the new stories that the farmers whom she describes are writing. In this vibrant report . . . Grayson provides colorful accounts of the farmers life stories . . . a spirited look at the lives of small, eco-conscious farmers. [Turning] to Graysons book is like taking a sunny walk on the first spring day after a long, harsh winter. Yet her mostly upbeat profiles play out within a grim subtext. In the coming decade, she writes in the introduction, nearly half of all U.S. farmland will be up for grabs as current owners retire or die. In each of the 10 chapters of