Becoming Native to This Place [Paperback]

Wes Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

In six compelling essays, Wes Jackson lays the foundation for a new farming economy grounded in natures principles. Exploding the tenets of industrial agriculture, Jackson, a respected advocate for sustainable practices and the founder of The Land Institute, seeks to integrate food production with nature in a way that sustains both.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ideas seem to advance in waves upon the modern mind, and one of the concepts cresting at present is the notion of place. This recent swell could be charted back to Daniel Kemmis's 1992 book Community and the Politics of Place as well as his more recent meditation on the inhabitation of cities (The Good City and the Good Life). Wendell Berry's A Place on Earth continued the theme, as has Alan Thein Durning's recent book This Place on Earth. Wes Jackson, a bioligist by training, applies the notion of place to a rethinking of ecological and agricultural policy. His hope is that the concept of place will seep deeply into our thoughts and affect the very way we inhabit the world. In effect, Jackson argues for inverting the slogan "think globally, act locally": when we think of the whole Earth on a local level as a group of loved places rather than territory or resource pools, then we will be headed in the right direction.

From Publishers Weekly

Environmentalist and former MacArthur fellow Jackson argues for a shift to economic and lifestyle paradigms based on ecology.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887178112
• ISBN-13: 978-1887178112
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alternative perspective on human interaction with the earth, June 19, 2000

By 

"jimgthr" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Native to This Place (Paperback)

Very easy reading, short book.

Wes Jackson describes a growing perspective that we need to interact symbiotically with the earth rather than considering the earth a "resource" at our disposal. He mixes philosophy with actual personal experiences to further illustrate the story.

The fact that he began the Land Use Institute in Kansas and is still and active participant lends credibility to his dialog.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't live up to the title., August 10, 2009

By 

Settler (Missouri) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Becoming Native to This Place (Paperback)

Wes Jackson is writing with the huge disadvantage of a great title, and I have to say I value all the thought and meditation the title provokes more than the content of the book, which starts with some promise but then wanders off into the woods. He tells you early on that he's going to get lost in the woods when he says that we need to have our "evolutionary/ecological worldview inform our decisions."

Part of the problem is that the title is hopeful, but the book reads like more of a wandering lament or critique of our situation for which the author ultimately has no compelling answers.

That said, the first chapters do provide some useful information on the history of agriculture in the US and the Soviet Union. Particularly interesting is his view that the failure of Soviet agriculture (because much of it was based upon Communist ideology, including ideas about plant heredity) produced in the West the contrary view that philosophy should have no bearing whatsoever on agriculture. Jackson does want philosophy and moral reflection to influence our thinking about agriculture, but he still leaves us ungrounded in any worldview that can provide moral compulsion for care of the earth.

Skip this book in favor of any of the following:

Living at Nature's Pace, Farming and the American Dream, by Gene Logsdon
The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, by Wendell Berry
The Omnivore's Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good, August 17, 2009

By 

Aydin Ayten - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Becoming Native to This Place (Paperback)

During this period of history, perhaps as had always been , the sense of belonging to a place is a kind of lost concept. In that regard this book gives some hints on how to become native to a place and get this concept right.