A long held dream of stewardship. [Whole Farm Management: From Start-up to Sustainability (edited) by Garry Stephenson]
Many, many years ago two paths, seemingly, were available to me and of the two I decided not to follow the one that likely would have been a direct path to the agricultural world. Honestly, I don't regret it. At the time it was the right choice. But in the years that followed that fork and onwards I've often mulled over the dreamscape of that lifestyle.
I've put out the dream of being an allium farmer into the universe, because I like alliums. I've thought about other crops or even dealing with livestock. Maybe a dairy farm would be the right choice. I've taken Extension coursework online and done what I can to learn about plants and agriculture as it suits my capabilities and interest. I continue in those efforts (maybe not as frequently with the online certificate courses) but they've shifted to a cultivation of knowledge and loose application where I can. So it's not a stretch to say I'm interested in agriculture and place it may hold in my future. That being said I jumped on the NetGalley request button when I saw that this title, Whole Farm Management: From Start-up to Sustainability (WFM), was available.
I believe I've previously expressed this sentiment but NetGalley reads, or eBooks at large, that aren't straight text, that are interspersed with pictures are not the most pleasant experiences. There may be a lot of scrolling down and then back up to read and correlate a picture or infographic. I've mostly stuck to reading an approximate tenth of a book at a time, and that's made reading multiple books at once much more feasible and enjoyable. This book was an enjoyable read, let me get that out of the way. Whether for my dearth of knowledge or curiosity into a mentioned resource, I found it took me much longer than expected to get through my tenths with WFM. It seems like because the glossy, colorful pages are divided so coherently, because the text size is not microscopic, that there's not so much you have to read, but there is. There's a lot of information that's being presented at once that is probably best sat on for periods of time. So make no mistake, there's a lot to read, but that's a plus.
The eBook was over 300 pages but only about 260 pages were informational, the rest were appendices and resource listings. Interviews with farms of varying scales and outputs were interviewed throughout the book as case studies. By the end I felt personally connected and invested in their stories and their histories and ongoing struggles provided some much needed insight into what farming as a career option might look like. The risks and struggles that the highlighted farms outlined, in addition to the vast wealth of new information the book brings to light, really saw my hypothetical dream farm shift in size and production.
Thanks to the many resources available online to beginning and new farmers, I knew very loosely about possible frameworks and existing structures that might help make a dream of farming a reality. What keeps me second guessing the value of my farm dream is the history and ongoing implications of settler colonialism, my one nomadic family history, and what the future of any land I might own may look like. But that doesn't mean that there's no place for me in the global food system, that farming is inherently malignant. That this text focused mostly on small-scale farms and their roles in local communities has reshaped my dream and inspired new visions.
Maybe I don't have to find a completely rural setting to start working the land. Maybe crops and livestock aren't for me, maybe instead I focus on value-added products. At some point I'd like to own this book. I'm not in Oregon so I can't relate to the lens through which it was written, but online resources are many and having a physical resource to reference back to or as a starting point to find references seems like a good idea. Having an extensive early workbook like WFM would be a nice way to flesh out my agriculture or agriculture-adjacent dream and maybe start taking steps towards making it real. 5 out of 5 stars for me.
I've put out the dream of being an allium farmer into the universe, because I like alliums. I've thought about other crops or even dealing with livestock. Maybe a dairy farm would be the right choice. I've taken Extension coursework online and done what I can to learn about plants and agriculture as it suits my capabilities and interest. I continue in those efforts (maybe not as frequently with the online certificate courses) but they've shifted to a cultivation of knowledge and loose application where I can. So it's not a stretch to say I'm interested in agriculture and place it may hold in my future. That being said I jumped on the NetGalley request button when I saw that this title, Whole Farm Management: From Start-up to Sustainability (WFM), was available.I believe I've previously expressed this sentiment but NetGalley reads, or eBooks at large, that aren't straight text, that are interspersed with pictures are not the most pleasant experiences. There may be a lot of scrolling down and then back up to read and correlate a picture or infographic. I've mostly stuck to reading an approximate tenth of a book at a time, and that's made reading multiple books at once much more feasible and enjoyable. This book was an enjoyable read, let me get that out of the way. Whether for my dearth of knowledge or curiosity into a mentioned resource, I found it took me much longer than expected to get through my tenths with WFM. It seems like because the glossy, colorful pages are divided so coherently, because the text size is not microscopic, that there's not so much you have to read, but there is. There's a lot of information that's being presented at once that is probably best sat on for periods of time. So make no mistake, there's a lot to read, but that's a plus.
The eBook was over 300 pages but only about 260 pages were informational, the rest were appendices and resource listings. Interviews with farms of varying scales and outputs were interviewed throughout the book as case studies. By the end I felt personally connected and invested in their stories and their histories and ongoing struggles provided some much needed insight into what farming as a career option might look like. The risks and struggles that the highlighted farms outlined, in addition to the vast wealth of new information the book brings to light, really saw my hypothetical dream farm shift in size and production.
Thanks to the many resources available online to beginning and new farmers, I knew very loosely about possible frameworks and existing structures that might help make a dream of farming a reality. What keeps me second guessing the value of my farm dream is the history and ongoing implications of settler colonialism, my one nomadic family history, and what the future of any land I might own may look like. But that doesn't mean that there's no place for me in the global food system, that farming is inherently malignant. That this text focused mostly on small-scale farms and their roles in local communities has reshaped my dream and inspired new visions.
Maybe I don't have to find a completely rural setting to start working the land. Maybe crops and livestock aren't for me, maybe instead I focus on value-added products. At some point I'd like to own this book. I'm not in Oregon so I can't relate to the lens through which it was written, but online resources are many and having a physical resource to reference back to or as a starting point to find references seems like a good idea. Having an extensive early workbook like WFM would be a nice way to flesh out my agriculture or agriculture-adjacent dream and maybe start taking steps towards making it real. 5 out of 5 stars for me.
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