Customer Reviews

Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness

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From the first pages of the introduction in North Dakota I know I have hit the exact source of a deeply wounded beauty belonging to traditional agriculture and the author who will stitch it together for us and give us the voice that often gets stuck in our own throat and is not easily pieced together from broken up memory. These chapters immediately make us familiar to the survivors, and all of the history we need to make sense of them. How does a 1950s style dairy farmer live on his principles that stem from a traditional land consciousness? How does a New Mexican stockman navigate ancestral lands where two distinct systems of old and new world property ownership have clashed and left him some impossible dream? In a sea of bio engineered and chemically dependent conventional crop fields, how does one North Dakota farmer feed his family using only natural methods?

It is not by a matter of methods that these men survive, though the methods are important, it is their convictions and their character that lead them to independence. Harry Lewis understands that prosperity isn't something you create, prosperity is the form of our green earth; and true prosperity is received through shepherding our earth. Virgil Trujillo understands that "fitness" is "survival of the fittest" as he adapts to the cultural, political and economic forces that gash his land and his history. David Podoll has a deep spiritual sense of what is right and what is wrong, he knows that tilling massive acres of earth is a wasteful proposition if done in the conventional manner of which maximization for profit is the only god.

It's also a perfect travel narrative, with a painted scenic view and a conversational style that offers absorption into the mindset and the reality of remarkable individuals. It is details that quicken the heartbeat, like the art of Georgia O'Keefe's sun bleached bones and mountains of Abiquiu, New Mexico where a surviving ejido (a form of community land ownership granted by the Spanish Crown in the 18th century) still exists in a tenuous position of holding off the government Forest Service and paying taxes. It is preparing cattle for winter rangelands and weighing in the stock, and dealing with the holier than thou environmentalists that drip in the gates to "save" the land. - Take for example the cattle in the scrubby desert, we have too often heard that cattle rampage all the vegetation and create desiccation, but as Virgil Trujillo has proven, grazing cattle in imitation of the bison using a rotational manner, may actually improve the conditions for scrub growth rather than harm them permanently. To know the land you have to be there working it.

Perhaps the best vibes from this book is that we should all want to crave being as adventurous in our work and unstoppable for the truth as the embracing Lisa Hamilton has been introducing us to these unique men and women who live honorably. If we can't drive out to North Dakota, we can certainly do a little searching in our own hometowns. I may look no further than the nearest pumpkin patch run by the last farmer in the township, or the old cider mill that has pressed for nearly 140 years.

As a side bar here that is personally relevant to me - I thank the author for the small-minded quote taken from the Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee -Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) - This quote exposes the extent of his wisdom.
Sadly, Monsanto pays him for those kinds of opinions.

I tore through this book in just a couple days, and when I was done I only wanted more. I've been watching Lisa Hamilton's writing and photography in Orion and her book is even better: great characters brought to life before my eyes. What a treat. We can only hope that this is the first in a long line of books from her, and that she keeps going to places we don't usually go and bringing back characters like these farmers. Highly recommended, if you care about food, or farming, or just good stories from the heart of America.

Bonus: you can see some photos of the farmers in the book on her website, something I wish more non-fiction authors would do.

My only beef, small as it may be, is that the people at my local bookstore in LA didn't know about this book. Is Counterpoint hard to track down? I bought a second copy as a gift through Amazon, but I can't decide who to give it to.

I finished Lisa Hamilton's Deeply Rooted last night. It was a thought-provoking work. Ms. Hamilton singled out three unconventional farmers, farmers who bucked the trend of constantly increasing the size of their operation and spent quite a bit of time watching what they do and more importantly finding out why they do what they do. All three buck conventional wisdom and while they might not make as much money as the huge commercial farms they still retain their connection to the land and their community, something Ms. Hamilton argues and I largely agree has taken place in most of the agribusiness world.

I think Ms. Hamilton does a great job painting the picture of each of these farms for the reader. Her vivid imagery is sometimes raw but life on a farm is not all setting suns and green pastures. Life on a farm is dirty sometimes, sometimes ugly and unpleasant. When you eschew the methods of modern agribusiness, it can make life even harder. In a country where meat and milk come from the grocery store in sanitary foam packages and plastic jugs, Deeply Rooted is a welcome reminder of just how much has changed in the world of food.

The three farmers she selected are kind of characters, each with a pretty interesting personality. I am sure that is intentional, after all the book needs to be readable as well as educational. I don't think these three are typical of non-confirming farms but they do provide a great insight into the mindset of people who were raised to be farmers and ranchers but decided against getting on the economy of scale treadmill. It is one thing to woodenly detail the operations of a farm, which is only mildly interesting. Getting into the minds of these farmers is where the really interesting stuff happens.

It is indisputable that the agricultural world has changed dramatically over the last century and the pace of change shows no sign of letting up. Ms. Hamilton does a very good job of telling us about the downside of this revolution, farmers becoming producers, people disconnected from the land and from where their food comes from. On the other hand, feeding your family has become, at least for the majority of people in Western nations, something of an afterthought. I can get up from my computer and get to four grocery stores in less than ten minutes, each one chock full staple foods, dairy products and fruits and vegetables. The food is consistent, predictable and cheap. How healthy it is, well that is a different story but the market delivers what people demand. I am confident in saying that short of a major crisis, we are never going back to a world of gardens and small farms, of local produce. Perhaps Deeply Rooted will serve as an encouragement to others, as it has been for me, to think more about food and the choices we make. Food, water and shelter are the essentials of life and we really only pay attention to one of those. As bad as the mortgage crisis was, a food or water crisis is infinitely worse. Deeply Rooted is, pun intended, food for thought.

The book profiles three very different people who have chosen to try to make it as independent farmers in today's America. Despite the fact that they could have gone with the mega-farm flow, they have tried to remain true to themselves, their respective heritages, and their desires to produce true quality products, and have chosen the roads less travelled on. Their various paths to success are fascinating, and an inspiration to the farmers of the future, as well as to the consumers who want them to succeed. If you care about the food you eat, you will want to read this book!

I have soft hands, well-manicured nails and a small balcony that's too dark to grow anything. Yet, I read and enjoyed every word of this book. I'm fascinated with sustainable farming and the like, and pass information from this book and others from it genre to my high school students.

Again, it's an excellent read!

Our food system holds many problems, yet answers are commonly sought away from the growers and in the hands of government agencies and scientists. DEEPLY ROOTED: UNCONVENTIONAL FARMERS IN THE AGE OF AGRIBUSINESS uses the stories of three unconventional farmers to examine agricultural leaders and how these three make efforts to correct food issues. Any library catering to agriculture students will find this holds much material for debate and consideration.

I bought this book and let it set for awhile. When i started reading it was hard to put down. I am an organic farmer isolated in my community. Lisa done a wonderful job telling our story.

I know next to nothing about raising the food I eat. I have a distrust of rural America because I am told they are the real America, they vote red, and I do not often get to meet people from outside the city. So, all the more reason for me to have read this great book.

I am thankful to Lisa Hamilton for having written in such a way that I could enjoy reading about these three families. I have gained an appreciation for the natural resource and the insights of these people who manage it.

Here's to hoping the radicals and outsiders that Ms Hamilton writes about become the majority and soon.

I don't know anything about farming and I loved this book. Provides a very non judgemental and readable insight into the challenges to small farmers. Valuable to those of us who are not farmers to learn about practices that impact the food we eat. highly recommended. Npot something that I would have been likely to read and very glad I did.

No preaching here, just clear, simple observation.
It's poignant and hopeful at the same time.

All Americans should read this book - great job!