sustainable agriculture 16
Fear and Hope in the Hay Field
We need to love smaller, more energy-efficient houses and cars in order to love people more. We need to give up much of our casual oil consumption for leisure. We…
James Rebanks in Conversation: Pastoral Song
James Rebanks and Grace Olmstead discuss his book, Wendell Berry, his vision for future farming methodologies, and the conversations surrounding agricultural reform in both the United States and the United…
Teaching (or Cultivating) Sustainability (or Inhabitance), Ten Years On
As utopian as "religious education" and "local food tours" may seem, that doesn't mean we can't approach them with a hope for real formation work in mind.
Bees’ Wings & Zerks
Supportive efforts can steer this ingenious workforce toward better stewardship and environmental integrity by reclaiming that awe that life on the land should inspire.
The Biggest Small Farmer
Bromfield, like many farmers interested in sustainability, did not desire mere primitivism in cultivation, but a more intelligent way of farming that did not degrade the resources the farm depends…
The Growing Pains of a Small Farm: Kristin Kimball’s Good Husbandry and “The Problem of Scale”
In some ways Good Husbandry stands as a kind of bildungsroman for Essex Farm and, by extension, the support-your-local-farmer movement.
When Home is No Home: On Becoming Native to a Changing Place
Anyone who seeks to live with integrity in a place ought to seek to know it deeply, yet such knowledge carries with it the risk of disillusionment. It is hard,…
John Deere and the Ox-Cart Man
How might we recognize and adopt a vision for the future of agriculture inspired by the beauty and goodness of the ox-cart man?
Brass Spittoon: Are Lab-Grown Foods a Good Idea?
Gracy Olmstead, Garth Brown, and Jason Peters on whether Solein can save the planet.
How Farms Differ From Factories
For farming to exist sustainably, even from an economic perspective, it must be re-imagined.
Tenacious T: One Man’s Odyssey to Help Rural People
Thompson illustrates how rural people’s hopes do not align with the interests of those who wield power, be that power political, social, or economic. He teaches us that truth, fact,…
I Am Not a Luddite
In my efforts to point people to various methodologies of eco-agriculture I often encounter those who dispute these approaches. One of the frequent refrains I hear is, “We can’t go…
Learning to Distinguish between Demonic and Redemptive Technologies
In a recent essay for Christianity Today, “Do All Plants Go to Heaven?,” Abigail Murrish speculates that GMOs might be present in the New Jerusalem. It’s certainly an interesting question.…
Cheese Should Be Dangerous
The cheese crafted here came about as a byproduct of a larger whole, the natural dividend of a complete way of life, and this is the foundation of the best…
Broody Hens and the Sustainable Farmstead
My farmstead poultry flock is sustained by a handful of broody hens—female fowl who have somehow retained their ancient instinct to nest and hatch offspring. Broody hens respond to their…
Agriculture vs. Agribusiness
A visit to a CAFO makes it clear that to have sustainable agriculture, you have to make sustainable the lives and livelihoods of the people who do the work.