Gary Paul Nabhan - Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land: Lessons from Desert Farmers on Adapting to Climate Uncertainty

Gary Paul Nabhan offers a necessary guide to the ways of plants, and to managing water wisely in an increasingly unpredictable climate. Past civilizations could have used a book like this. And if we ourselves dont want to become a distant memory, we would do well to heed the hard-won lessons of desert farmers from around the world, and learn the practical earth skills needed to create a permaculture oasis of our own.

Michael Phillips , author of The Holistic Orchard and The Apple Grower

Drylands are home to 40 percent of the worlds people: a figure sure to rise in the coming decades as our world grows more parched. That is why Gary Nabhans latest book is indispensable. Everyone who grows foodmake that, everyone who eats foodshould be grateful he wrote it. An homage to old wisdom and to the latter-day soil magicians who are Nabhans living muses, it is a rich herbarium of delicious, hardy sustenance and a manual for our future.

Alan Weisman , author of The World Without Us and Countdown

In a world where climate change is the new normal, Gary Nabhan offers a blueprint for food production. Using desert agriculture as a backdrop, Nabhan is the ideal guide for understanding and addressing the challenges of rising temperatures, depleting water resources, and ever-shifting conditions. It is a cautionary book of hope, full of dry-farming wisdom, to-do lists, and Gary Nabhans enjoyable combination of insight and humor.

Dan Imhoff , author of Food Fight, CAFO , and Farming with the Wild

In Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land , Gary Paul Nabhan has crafted a cogent treatise blending his own considerable knowledge and experience with the traditional ecological wisdom of indigenous desert farmers, who have been thriving in the face of climate uncertainty for many generations.

The hard-won lessons and innovations described in this book are applicable for farmers cultivating in all changing climates, and inspirational for all people who depend on their survival and success. A must-have arrow in the quiver for all pragmatic Thrivalists!

Brock Dolman , director, WATER Institute and Permaculture Design Program, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center

We face an unprecedented future. The scale and speed of the changes bearing down on us as a consequence of climate uncertainty has no analog in history. Fortunately, we have guides like Gary Paul Nabhan to lead us through the crazy labyrinth in which we find ourselves. By looking to age-old practices and taking lessons from nature, Dr. Nabhan builds a compelling case for a type of resilience that matters whether you are a food producer or eaterwhich is everyone!

Courtney White , founder and creative director, Quivira Coalition

All of Gary Nabhans books carry us on deep, enchanting journeys to the hearts of people, plants, and cultures across the world. Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land offers the rich stories and cultural insights weve come to expect, but now, when we badly need it, Gary also tells us explicitly how to use the dryland wisdom hes assembled over a lifetime. Heaped with practical principles, techniques, plant lists, parables, and more, his new book offers important tools for preserving our food and water security on a warmer, stormier planet. Im inspired and heartened by this timely and important offering from a true desert sage.

Toby Hemenway , author of Gaias Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

If the 20th century strove to insulate us from the harsh realities of nature (while exacerbating its extremes), Gary Nabhans latest book introduces us to the 21st centurys rude reminders that change is here, uncertainty commonplace. With little room for the hand-wringers, Nabhan provides everyone else, from novice gardener to deep ecologist, important food for thought and the practical know-how to address our modern problems with ancient desert wisdom. I couldnt put it down.

Richard McCarthy , executive director, Slow Food USA

Gary Nabhans books never fail to inspire and inform me. This book is no exception. After just one read through, Ive dog-eared, highlighted, and noted countless gems, facts, and stories to which I will return again and again. The pattern of the book makes this easy. Each section begins with a Warm-Up problem, followed by a Parable of people or natural systems addressing the problem. Principles and Premises distilled from the problem and parable, along with Planning and Practice tips, then help me work cooperatively with the life around me to formulate solutions unique to my sites conditions and changing climate.

Best of all, I feel Im part of an incredibly diverse, caring community as I do so, thanks to Gary sharing so many engaging examples of different people, cultures, and ecosystems doing likewise. Read this book!

Brad Lancaster , author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond

Copyright 2013 by Gary Paul Nabhan.
All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations copyright 2013 by Paul Mirocha.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Hillary Gregory
Developmental Editor: Benjamin Watson
Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad
Proofreader: Helen Walden
Indexer: Peggy Holloway
Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing May 2013.

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land was printed on FSC-certified paper supplied by CJK that contains at least 10% postconsumer recycled fiber.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nabhan, Gary Paul.

Growing food in a hotter, drier land : lessons from desert farmers on adapting to climate uncertainty / Gary Paul Nabhan ; foreword by Bill McKibben.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60358-453-1 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-60358-454-8 (ebook)

1. Arid regions agriculture. 2. Crops and climate. 3. Climatic changes. I. Title.

S613.N33 2013

631dc23

2013008070

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