This Sustainable House

Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

In another fabulous book by Michael Pollan (can you guess that I am something of a fan?), looks at four distinct families of domesticated plants asking the question… who domesticated who? The plants looked at are the Apple, Tulip, Marijuana and Potato.

In this very entertaining book, Michael shows that much of the success of these plants in our world is predicated on their ability to meet certain human desires and how, through judicious breeding, these plants have improved upon their ability to meet those needs.

For example, whilst considering the apple, Michael delves deeply into the history, and controversy, surrounding John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) who simultaneously preached to the frontier as well as bringing them applejack (a hard liquor made from cider). He demonstrates that by providing the settlers with apple seedlings he was meeting their needs for the familiar (each apple orchard ‘tamed’ the wilderness), stability (apples take many years to fruit), and social lubrication (let’s not forget the applejack!). This combined with their natural genetic variability, assisted them to acclimatise so rapidly to the new world.

When looking at the potato, he looks at the important role this tuber has played in the civilisation of the Inca’s, the growth of the potato as a crop in Ireland (and most of Europe), the tragic impact of the potato blight, and modern methods and refinements to this delicious crop. Central to this discussion is the “New Leaf” potato, a genetically engineered spud created by the Monsanto corporation to produce it’s own BT toxin.

I’d highly recommend this book to any gardener or farmer as it is not only an entertaining read, but also provides us with a different view on 4 very familiar species of plants. I know that I will no longer look at these plants in quite the same manner.

Note: If you are interested in purchasing The Botany of Desire, the please consider purchasing via this link from Amazon. In this way you will be supporting the This Sustainable House project. Mind you… if the local library has it then get it there!

In ‘You Can Farm’ Joel Salatin debunks the urban, or would it be rural, legend that there is no money to be made farming. That is is a dead-end job.

In order to support this, he outlines the principles and philosophies that he feels are integral to making a living on a farm, and should be considered by any aspiring farmer. He discusses the principal mistakes that new farmers make, as well as possible solutions to those mistakes.

All of this is done in a distinctly ‘no-nonsense’ style indicating that the author is most definitely a farmer, not just talking about farming. That’s not to say that what he says is simple, but rather he is ridiculously direct in his statements. Clearly cutting to the chase rather than prevaricating around the bushes.

The concept that struck me most audibly was the need for the new farmer to develop a clear purpose and value proposition for the farm. Of course this isn’t anything new, successful business has been doing this for quite a while, but in Joel’s experience (and mine if I am honest) it isn’t be widely practiced in agriculture. How then do we know if we are successful if we have had no plan against which to measure success?

I have to admit that this book was something of a wake up call for me as I had, along the way, lost something of the vision I had for TSH. Actually, I’d say that this vision hasn’t so much been lost as evolved into something else which I haven’t yet been able to pin down. As a result, I have often felt as though I have been immersed in ‘creative inertia’… lots of activity but no actual achievement.

Of course this is about to change as I re-work the original goals for TSH into a form that more closely matches the current focus. This should give me a better overall vision, and assist me to build TSH into all it can be.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone considering a farming life, or those who are there but don’t know quite where they are going. I am sure that with Joel’s hard-hitting advice you will be able to stimulate a few thoughts encouraging you to build your own vision of a glorious future in farming.

Beyond the Brink is Peter Andrews’s sequel to his best-seller ‘Back from the Brink.’ In this much-awaited sequel he sets out a radical, yet achievable, plan to bring our landscape back to life.

Never having read Back from the Brink I cannot comment on that book but I have to admit that I found Beyond the Brink… well underwhelming!

Don’t get me wrong, Peter outlines some very important (if not essential) philosophies concerning sustainable agriculture but mixed amongst these nuggets is a lot of unsupported rantings, and misinformation. This could obscure the main point if it wasn’t read critically.

The key point that Peter makes is that the basis of all fertility are plants, and that farmers (of whatever type) need to recognise this. He argues against laying paddocks bare to ‘fallow’, for the planting of tree on high points (so as to spread fertility below) and for the growth of any type of plant that will correct the imbalances in the soil. Especially if those are ‘weeds’.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to anyone involved, or interested, in sustainable agriculture. Just remember to separate the ‘wheat from the chaff.’