Book review for The Call of the Land: An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century

by Woody Wodraska
Author, Deep Gardening

“This is a hopeful book.  It must have been a major temptation for Steven McFadden to detail the “ain’t it awful” aspects of agriculture as practiced and promoted by BigPharma and BigChem corporations intent on tampering with life processes and selling their anti-life products–but he has resisted all that in favor of presenting the good news, the innovative measures farmers and eaters have devised for nurturing soil and bringing healthy, local food to the table.  Family dinner tables, school lunch tables, upscale restaurant tables.

“The author has been a keen observer-participant of the agricultural scene for more than 30 years and has witnessed first hand this revolution: those who grow and consume food are speedily awakening to the perils of industrialization of food production and finding new ways to make today’s backyard Victory Garden a triumphant response to corporate despotism, to make ‘food with the farmer’s face on it’ the norm. With his research and interviews McFadden presents hundreds of new ideas and resources from citizen groups, individuals, government agencies, educational institutions and his own experience–all sound and all hopeful.”