Eric Herm - Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth: A Path to Agricultures Higher Consciousness

What people are saying about Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth

Please put this book on your must read list. Eric Herms Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth puts it all together with all the backup facts, connected dots, and heartfelt prose. I can now recommend this one book to my students instead of the usual 20 or so that have been necessary to adequately describe the current state of our culture, governance, and environment. It is indeed impressive that a young farmer from West Texas has overcome his regional and occupational bias to write such a brilliant book and done so with such integrity and openness. Perhaps Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth will instill within its readers the courage to become the warriors of our uncertain future.

Scott Pittman
Director and Founder with Bill Mollison of the Permaculture Institute

The food we eat and the farms on which it is grown are taken for granted by the majority of our population. Eric Herm is qualified to tell the real story about farm life that today is dominated by a few gigantic, multinational corporations that have infiltrated our federal agencies and paid Congress to vote in their best interest. This book uncovers the deceptions of the elite group of agribusinesses that control agricultures seed, feed and fertilizer all the way to the dinner plate. This is an invaluable source for anyone wishing to learn the secrets of American agriculture and should be used as a textbook in our schools and colleges. Most Americans have little understanding of our agricultural heritage; Erics book is a must read for those wishing to understand our nations food system.

Derry Brownfield
Legendary rancher and national radio talk show host

With erudition, poetry, and a profound love for his parched West Texas landscape, Eric Herm reawakens the farmer in all of us, showing how we can free our food system from corporate control while recovering our deepest humanity. Herm offers a deeply engaging mix of personal insight, scientific knowledge, populist rage, and a quest to regain a true partnership with the rest of nature.

Brian Tokar
Author of Earth for Sale , The Green Alternative , and Toward Climate Justice: Getting to the Roots of the Climate Crisis

One way or another, a whole bunch more people will be taking up farming as a lifes work in the next few years. The challenges they will face will be the greatest since the first plows cut the Fertile Crescent because the speed of changing climate now is unprecedented. Our next generation of farmers will have to scratch a living and rebalance the carbon cycle. With good-natured humor and humility, Eric Herm shows the way forward.

Albert Bates
Director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology and author of The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate

About the Author

Eric Herm was raised on a cotton farm near Ackerly, Texas. He graduated from Abilene Christian University with a degree in broadcast journalism. After working in sports television broadcasting, he traveled extensively. Having broadened his mind, Herm eventually returned to Texas to work the land that has been in his family for almost 100 years. Startled by the changes he saw in the land, he began to change practices on his own farm and to speak out against the ravages caused by commercial agriculture. Eric lives on the farm with his wife, Alison, and their two sons.

Please visit Erics website, www.sonofafarmer.com, for more information.

A big thanks to my wife, Ali, for your calming smile, selflessness, and tolerating all my crazy tangents, ideas, and experimentsand for tolerating West Texas. You stand strong and graceful through the most difficult of times. Thank you for never giving up on our love.

This book was inspired mostly by the birth of my son, Wyatt. Your laughter and energy inspire me to do as much as I can each day to make the world a better place. May you direct your energy in future years to help create a better world. And to my child-to-bemay you grow up in a healthy, harmonious environment.

Mom and Dad, youve practiced unconditional love and patience throughout my lifetime. Thank you for keeping things in perspective for your children and grandchildren. Dad, thanks for being open-minded and keeping me grounded through all the wild ideas Ive thrown your way and for being the best farmer I know. Mom, thank you so much for always being there to lend a hand or your heart, no matter the situation or hour.

And, of course, my granddad, Donnie. Your sense of humor, friendship, and wisdom have helped me more than you will ever know throughout the years. Thanks for being a wonderful teacher.

Thanks to: Shirley and Richard, for your literary and editorial guidance; Jim, for your passion in organics; J., for your computer wizardry; Beverly, Kay, and Jill, for your healing abilities; and Lynn L., for making sure I kept writing.

Last, but not least, a big token of gratitude to so many brilliant mindspioneers of innovation and truth such as Philip Callahan, George Washington Carver, Rudolph Steiner, Nikola Tesla, William Albrecht, Charles Walters, Mike Ruppert, Joel Salatin, and many others who refused to let the lies of the system detour their desires, talents, and pursuit of the truth. Your work continues to inspire me.

And to countless other family members and friends who have helped open my mind and encouraged me to do, see, read, and say more than I ever would have on my own.

Think small. Planting tiny seeds in the small space given you can change the whole world or, at the very least, your view of it.
LINUS MUNDY

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.
JOHN HENRY CARDINAL

All Dreams Reach for the Sun

We are all children of the Earth. No matter where we are from, what we do or what we believe, each one of us is part of the soil, rivers, mountains, trees, plants, prairies, deserts, and oceans. Every particle is connected to the next, with each life-form depending upon the existence of so many other fascinating creatures.

As one of the most influential species, we have an obligation to the rest of the planet. Time and money represent the greatest barriers in fulfilling this obligation, and they are nothing more than illusions in this world. Our minds are more powerful than our bodies if we simply free our imaginations; free them from the boundaries and barriers of the expected. Right therewhere our minds break free and our unified spirit travels across the cosmic prairieis a new Life. It is where seedlings break through the surface, stretching for the sun, and dreams transform into the everlasting warmth of reality.

As farmers, we must accept our role as guardians of the Earth whole-heartedly, refusing to sell ourselves and the land into slavery. Until now weve tangled our minds into the wreckage of a corporation-led mentality, where Natures bounty is merely another tradable commodity. Our philosophies are financially motivated rather than spiritually, and our purpose is lost in meaningless goals. Following corporate agricultures persuasion, weve accepted a leading role as assassin, carrying out the morbid execution of Nature in exchange for a briefcase full of money. Until we accept Nature as part of our true being, we will change nothing.

I stare into this horizon of things to come. Not completely certain what the future might bring, I continue to gaze into the blaze that is the setting sun. My vision blurred, I stumble. My purpose confirmed, I continue in the direction in which I remember warmths embrace. From this prairie-like desert I witness a collage of mirages. In the blistering heat, distant images appear which make me question the legitimacy of our existence and meaning. The heat boils my brain. Sweat turns to blood. Thoughts melt into wild hallucinations. This requires meditation in the shielding shade for a spell. Rest will aid in gathering energy and information, but I must be careful how long I relax in the solace of shadows, for there is much work to be done.