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A Call to Farms: Reconnecting to Nature, Food, and Community in a Modern World
Our industrial food system is failing—hope lies with a new generation of farmers.
Within the decade, 400 million acres of American farmland—nearly half of all farmland in America—will become available as an older generation of farmers retire. The farmers stepping up to steward this land will be faced with issues like rising land costs, soil erosion, dietary health epidemics, food inequality, and more. A Call to Farms is an investigative travelogue of these new American agrarians who are modeling what a better, more sustainable future could look like.In this optimistic narrative, journalist Jennifer Grayson introduces readers to farmers across America turning to practices both ancestral and cutting-edge that preserve the environment and make healthy, fresh food accessible to all. From a 1-acre “market garden” in Oregon to a Japanese American no-till farm in Connecticut, to a master gardener combatting food apartheid in South Carolina, these narratives are a must-read for those interested in American foodways and reimagining our agricultural system.
Within the decade, 400 million acres of American farmland—nearly half of all farmland in America—will become available as an older generation of farmers retire. The farmers stepping up to steward this land will be faced with issues like rising land costs, soil erosion, dietary health epidemics, food inequality, and more. A Call to Farms is an investigative travelogue of these new American agrarians who are modeling what a better, more sustainable future could look like.In this optimistic narrative, journalist Jennifer Grayson introduces readers to farmers across America turning to practices both ancestral and cutting-edge that preserve the environment and make healthy, fresh food accessible to all. From a 1-acre “market garden” in Oregon to a Japanese American no-till farm in Connecticut, to a master gardener combatting food apartheid in South Carolina, these narratives are a must-read for those interested in American foodways and reimagining our agricultural system.
- GenresNonfiction
224 pages, Hardcover
Published July 9, 2024
About the author
Jennifer Grayson
2 books2 followersJennifer Grayson is a journalist and the author of UNLATCHED: The Evolution of Breastfeeding and the Making of a Controversy (HarperCollins), which won the Society of Environmental Journalists Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and a Nautilus Book Award. She has been featured on more than three dozen media outlets, including MSNBC, NPR, WGN-TV, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Huffington Post, where she penned the long-running “Innovation Earth” and “Eco Etiquette” columns.
Her new book, A CALL TO FARMS: Reconnecting to Nature, Food, and Community in a Modern World — for which she undertook a regenerative farmer training program in Central Oregon at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — was published by Countryman Press/W. W. Norton on July 9, 2024. She lives in Los Angeles with her TV comedy writer husband and two daughters.
Her new book, A CALL TO FARMS: Reconnecting to Nature, Food, and Community in a Modern World — for which she undertook a regenerative farmer training program in Central Oregon at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — was published by Countryman Press/W. W. Norton on July 9, 2024. She lives in Los Angeles with her TV comedy writer husband and two daughters.
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July 10, 2024
This book will change lives
I had pre-ordered this book for myself and some family and friends because we are all saddened and frustrated by what has happened to our food system in the US, our regional farms, and the collective health of this nation. Yes, I was expecting an in-depth look at these issues by an award-winning environmental journalist. What I was not expecting was this amazing diary of her personal journey to the as-yet unsung pioneers of a movement that may eventually change the way we as a nation farm, eat, and live/thrive. THIS is how the world recovers from unfathomable mistakes like genetic modification of food and glyphosate poisoning of land (and thus, populations). It starts with all different kinds of people, for so many personal reasons, heading back to the land the way our forefathers and -mothers did. That their stories are often inspirational and fascinating yet sometimes frustrating or even difficult to read because of the obstacles encountered, only makes the accounts more human. They are all beautifully related by a talented, lyrical, and highly intelligent writer who also joins the ranks of pioneers in the regenerative farming movement, just by her decision to bring all of these vastly different lives, motivations, and stories to the attention of the rest of us. A Call to Farms is not a book, it is a thoughtfully and skillfully painted portrait of the people--and nation--we can once again be, healthfully feeding and nurturing as we did for untold generations, while benefitting from an honest and noble lifestyle choice.
I had pre-ordered this book for myself and some family and friends because we are all saddened and frustrated by what has happened to our food system in the US, our regional farms, and the collective health of this nation. Yes, I was expecting an in-depth look at these issues by an award-winning environmental journalist. What I was not expecting was this amazing diary of her personal journey to the as-yet unsung pioneers of a movement that may eventually change the way we as a nation farm, eat, and live/thrive. THIS is how the world recovers from unfathomable mistakes like genetic modification of food and glyphosate poisoning of land (and thus, populations). It starts with all different kinds of people, for so many personal reasons, heading back to the land the way our forefathers and -mothers did. That their stories are often inspirational and fascinating yet sometimes frustrating or even difficult to read because of the obstacles encountered, only makes the accounts more human. They are all beautifully related by a talented, lyrical, and highly intelligent writer who also joins the ranks of pioneers in the regenerative farming movement, just by her decision to bring all of these vastly different lives, motivations, and stories to the attention of the rest of us. A Call to Farms is not a book, it is a thoughtfully and skillfully painted portrait of the people--and nation--we can once again be, healthfully feeding and nurturing as we did for untold generations, while benefitting from an honest and noble lifestyle choice.
Displaying 1 of 1 review