Sharon Astyk - A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil

Advance praise for A Nation of Farmers

Sharon Astyk is one of the most interesting writers on the environment today. I strongly urge you to read her book.

George Monbiot,
author of Heat,
www.monbiot.com.

A hundred million new farmers! Its a daunting and invigorating challenge, and its a damned good thing that someone is thinking about how it might actually happen. This book is more exuberant than scary, thank heaven its just what we need.

Bill McKibben,
author of Deep Economy

This comprehensive, mega-look at Americas biggest challenges in a refreshingly positive spirit, A Nation of Farmers should be required reading for every high schooler. We dont have to wait on politicians or Wall Street to get it. This book empowers every person with an action plan that is revolutionary in its simplicity and effectiveness.

Joel Salatin, farmer, Polyface Farm,
and author of You Can Farm and
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal,
www.polyface.com.

The world is sleepwalking into a food scarcity fiasco. Those Americans who want to continue eating regularly will have to take more responsibility for growing it themselves. This book is a forceful, sensible, and comprehensive treasure trove of knowledge about where food comes from and what to do with it.

James Howard Kunstler
author of World Made By Hand
and The Long Emergency

Whether you are a full-time farmer or a backyard hobbyist, a city dweller or a budding back to the lander, A Nation of Farmers belongs on your bookshelf. If you eat, you need to read it.

Kathy Harrison,
author of Just In Case: How to be
Self-sufficient When the Unexpected Happens

A Nation of Farmers offers an elegantly clear path to understanding how we have strayed so far from living within the Earths limits, and also to finding simple ways to move into a prosperous life that regenerates, rather than depletes, this beautiful planets bounty. Sharon and Aaron are to be congratulated on teasing apart, and then masterfully reassembling, complex issues of food, land, and livelihood. This book gives us tangible steps we can take to quiet our fears and live gracefully and in abundance at the end of the Oil Age.

Toby Hemenway,
author of Gaias Garden,
www.patternliteracy.com.

A NATION of FARMERS

Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil

Sharon Astyk & Aaron Newton

NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS

CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

A catalog record for this publication is available from the National Library of Canada.

Copyright 2009 by Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover images: Beet iStock/Natasha Litova; Pitchfork: iStock/Daniel Goodings

Printed in Canada. First printing March 2009.

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-623-0

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of A Nation of Farmers should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America)
1-800-567-6772, or order online at: www.newsociety.com.

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. This book is one step toward ending global deforestation and climate change. It is printed on Forest Stewardship Council-certified acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-certified stock. Additionally, New Society purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit, operating with a carbon-neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com.

NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS
www.newsociety.com.

Books for Wiser Living
recommended byMother Earth News

Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending select New Society Publishers books to its readers. For more than 30 years, Mother Earth has been North Americas Original Guide to Living Wisely, creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature. Across the countryside and in our cities, New Society Publishers and Mother Earth are leading the way to a wiser, more sustainable world.

For
Salem, Keaton,
Asher, Isaiah, Simon & Eli

Contents

1. A Fast Train
Food Security in Crisis

2. Hands on the Wheel
What We Should Be Getting from Our Food System

3. Ring the Bell
It Starts with How We Eat

4. Gods Away on Business
What Are Our Choices?

5. Hard Times Come Again No More
Feeding the World

6. The Landslide Brings it Down
Feeding Ourselves

7. The Hands that Built the Country Were Always Trying to Keep Down
Extending the Table

8. Keep Your Hand on the Plow
Transformations

We owe many people a debt of thanks, including everyone who commented on the work in progress at our blogs, Hen and Harvest and The Oil Drum. To Ingrid Witvoet for midwifery and endurance, and Audrey Dorsch for patient editing, to all who contributed recipes, and to our kind transcriptionists: Jerah Kirby, Sarah Hartman, Meredith Funston and Hannah Roberson. Thanks to those whose wisdom we drew on: MEA, Steve Balogh, Carolyn Baker, Peter Bane, Albert Bates, Colin Beavan, Jason Bradford, Kathy Breault, Jeffery Brown, Kurt Cobb, Ron Danise, Julian Darley, Roger Doiron, Deanna Duke, Miranda Edel, Edson Freeman, Adam Grubb, Kathy Harrison, Richard Heinberg, Rose Hayden-Smith, Toby Hemenway, Rob Hopkins, Ilargi, Keith Johnson, George Kent, Gene Logsdon, Matt Mayer, Bill McKibben, Kathy McMahon, Pat Meadows, George Monbiot, Faith Morgan, Pat Murphy, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Alice Oldfather, Cassie Parsons, Dale Allen Pfeiffer, Thomas Princen, Megan Quinn-Bachman, Tom Philpott, Phil Rutter, David Roberts, Stoneleigh, Stuart Staniford, Gail Tverberg, Natalie Veres, Bob Waldrop, Chris Welch, and Judy Wick.

Sharon wishes to thank a crew of supportive friends/family including her parents, in laws, sisters and nieces, Alexandra, Steve, Joe, Susan, Ted, Miriam, Bess, Chris, Jesse, Jon, Steph, Jenn, George, Claudia, Elaine, Jamie, Carol and others who tolerated her nattering. Most of all, she is grateful to Eric, reluctant and beloved farmer, and her four farmers-in-training, Eli, Simon, Isaiah and Asher.