Book Review: "The Call of the Land: An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century" by Steven McFadden

Review by Charles Francis

“The Call of the Land: An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century”
Author: Steven McFadden
Publisher: Norlights Press, Nasville, Ind.

Journalist Steven McFadden introduces this instructive and current call to action as a “primary book about food, land, and people—both a survey and a synthesis of visions, ethics, practices, systems, and networks that can make it possible for us to eat well and wisely, now and in the future.” Such an ambitious goal becomes an overview for a book that in fact does attempt to do all these things and to some degree succeeds. First we need a summary of the chapters and then a critique of how closely the author meets the stated goals.

The introduction provides a brief chronicle of the many challenges that face our society in trying to establish a food production system that will keep up with global population increase. After descriptions of the limitations of fossil fuels and water, plus climate change and increasing instability, there are vivid descriptions of how our intensive production systems that depend on chemicals have fouled our water supplies and polluted our bodies. The author quotes a 2008 UNESCO study that concludes, “Business as usual is no longer an option,” and goes on to recommend a massive shift to sustainable agricultural systems. There is little new in the introduction, but we find a compelling argument that a return to our agrarian roots will provide a more viable long-term option than the current rush to a high-tech, digital future.

In “Listening to the Call,” chapter one depends on a series of interviews about the current food production system with key people in the alternative agriculture community, from nonprofit organizations and universities to farmers. The quotes include a number of nostalgic memories about the good old days, when a small, diversified farm could support a large family and even send children to college. This familiar refrain does little to inform our design of a path toward the future, but the principles of farm and product diversity, using local resources to produce what we need, and the connections among our flagrant consumption and lack of long-term planning ring true.

Our “Agrarian Ethos” runs through U.S. culture from the time of founding through the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Native American leaders to modern-day philosophers like Wendell Berry and others who write about resources and the environment. Chapter two restates three ethical statements from a former book: renew life “so human beings can be borne safely and have healthy bodies that allow them to live out their destinies; … provide adequate food, wood, and fiber for people, so no one will be forced to live without; … steward the Earth in such as way that it brings forth an abundance of clean food and water for this and following generations, and by so doing to propagate beauty that uplifts the human soul.” The author continues with a list of statements related to other animal species, diversity, cultural issues and stewardship in many forms, a litany of feel-good concepts that are well meaning but little connected and providing limited practical guidance. Yet they provoke the reader to think about key areas of ethical concern and the importance for each of us to develop our individual codes of decision and behavior.

Practical solutions are presented in chapter three, where “Citizen Responses” at the local level address many of the challenges listed above. Victory Gardens during World War II, cooperative neighborhood food production and CSAs, and extra plantings for the poor are among the examples. Innovative solutions such as rooftop and patio gardens, urban homesteads and permaculture put solutions within reach of everyone. Beyond the individual, “Community Responses” described in chapter four include productive use of public lands, farmers markets, church- and workplace-organized food-purchasing cooperation. Food banks, community kitchens and both local and regional nonprofit organizations add to the opportunities for everyone to participate in the food system and appreciate more where food comes from.

Reflecting an appreciation of the importance of solutions at all levels of scale, the author then moves in chapter five to potential “Systemic Responses” to create a more sustainable food system. In contrast to the long history of government attempts at intervention in policy and economics, the book provides examples of “self-directed, self-willed, cooperative, reality-guided reforms.” Through quotes from thoughtful critics of the current industrial-style agricultural system, we are challenged to confront the impacts of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and large-scale monoculture crop production. Such systems are highly dependent on fossil fuels and other outside inputs and tend to externalize many environmental costs to other places or into the future. A number of examples of nonprofit initiatives for farmland preservation, coalitions for education and action and ecologically oriented sources of information are described as positive alternatives to the current industrial paradigm.

“Education Responses” in chapter six include several locally based school and community projects that link food production with children and cites the “Edible Schoolyard” program started in Berkeley as a model for many other such initiatives. In higher education the Leopold Center at Iowa State University, The Ohio State University sustainability graduate fellowships and the University of Arkansas Applied Sustainability Center are three examples from the Midwest. Our own Center for Applied Rural Innovation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is not included in the list but is well known to Nebraskans for its rural poll and many workshops promoting entrepreneurship and rural development.

The final chapter, “Echoing the Call,” describes Jared Diamond’s book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” and its comparison of cultures through the ages that have either ignored or responded to environmental and resource crises. Author McFadden exhorts us to heed the signals and to take positive action to revive our agrarian roots as the only logical strategy to create a sustainable food supply and society.

“The Call of the Land” is a useful book, and the critical reader needs to move past some of the obvious and lightly substantiated statements of opinion to dig out the value of the larger message. For example, to claim that organic food is safer due to less pesticide residue is well documented, but this food is not free from residues. Similarly, the claim that organic food is nutritionally better is still not generally proven, with many conflicting reports in the scientific literature. But this is not an academic treatise where reviewers quibble over details and specific citations. McFadden’s call to action is clearly written, well referenced with a robust list of current websites and a bibliography for general reading on positive methods for resolving our food security challenge. Anyone interested in a good contemporary overview of challenges and solutions will find the book valuable.

Editor’s note: Steven McFadden is also noted for his 1991 “Farms of Tomorrow,” co-authored with Trauger Groh, one of the first books on Community Supported Agriculture in the U.S., considered by “Whole Earth News” to be “the best book to access the CSA movement.”

Bookmark/Search this post with:

Delicious  •   Digg  •   StumbleUpon  •   Facebook  •   Yahoo